In the window of Juliette Plaza, a date is written: February 4, 2021. That day, chef Charles-Antoine Crête lost his mother.
However, Juliette Paquette Crête is almost everywhere in the new bright den that her son and his great accomplice Cheryl Johnson have just opened right next to their famous Montréal Plaza. His ashes will be on the paintings of Marc Séguin which will soon be affixed to the wall. But it is above all his art of welcoming that is felt.
“Going to my mother was like an ambush,” her son jokes. You thought you would stay 15 minutes, but you stayed 2 hours. »
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Cheryl Johnson rightly praises “the fun food easy to eat while chatting,” like here the Red Lobster made with fried scallops.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Cocktail sausages, an example of the desire “to be accessible to those aged 0 to 100”, as Charles-Antoine Crête puts it so well.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The little cones of salmon tartare: we want more!
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This is why Charles-Antoine Crête wanted to make Juliette Plaza “a place that is alive all the time”, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Cheryl Johnson, who for her part experienced the loss of her father, is delighted to embark on a “day project out of the box “. She is seduced by the decor with a “feminine touch” created by Charles-Antoine Crête (who is certainly out of the box!) with designer Andréanne Guillemette (close collaborator of their friend Zébulon Perron). “Charles-Antoine is the only person I know who has four different wallpapers and upside down Smurfs! ”, she laughs.
And why are there so many upside down objects? “When a situation is not going well, you have to turn it around,” philosophizes the main person concerned.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Customers seated at the Juliette Plaza bar
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
When we visited Juliette Plaza, on a spring Friday at 3 p.m., people were having a drink at the bar while, behind, a couple with a baby and their friends were having dinner.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The Charles-Antoine Crête and Cheryl Johnson tandem adds a fourth member to its family. The Montreal Plaza now has a little sister in the neighboring location, Juliette Plaza.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
A simple curtain separates Montreal from Juliette Plaza.
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Like Juliette, the decor is both “funky” and “classy”, underlines Cheryl Johnson, as is the menu. A deviled egg with Caesar mayonnaise, salpicon and a white anchovy fillet for $5? A dish called “Red Lobster” with three plump fried scallops with house cocktail sauce for $15? Cocktail sausages and sandwich bread are on the menu, as are beef cheeks, brains and lamb flank. You can even taste the coleslaw that Cheryl made when she was in an apartment with Charles-Antoine.
It’s an experience to come to Juliette Plaza, but there is a great concern to be accessible. “Small dishes that aren’t too small so that customers won’t be hungry when they leave here,” summarizes Cheryl.
Please note that Juliette Plaza will have a terrace for the summer season while the Montréal Plaza keeps its show only for the interior.
Charles-Antoine Crête praises his mother’s frenzied generosity and emphasizes how much she loved the world, including her Montreal Plaza brigade whom she loved to spoil. “My father often told me: “It’s expensive, but it has taste!” »
So the apple didn’t fall far from the tree? “She fell into the trunk,” replies Charles-Antoine Crête.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
6220, rue Saint-Hubert, Montreal