Le Saint-Sulpice bar, a veritable institution on Saint-Denis Street in Montreal, will close its doors for good at the end of February. The news quickly spawned many testimonials from former regulars nostalgic for their outings at the bar.
“I was almost a piece of furniture,” underlines Frédéric Forget to The Press. It was my second home. The former regular, who visited – up to four times a week – Le Saint-Sulpice during the 1990s, remembers a friendly place where he always met an acquaintance.
“The Saint-Sulpice is an emblem of the Latin Quarter, and represented the strong social side of the time,” recalls Frédéric Forget. At a time when cell phones and social networks did not yet exist, bar patrons chatted among themselves, “we came to socialize,” he says. And the bar was well located, “it was really a central point” in the neighborhood.
Open for 43 years, Le Saint-Sulpice (or Le Saint-Su for insiders) has welcomed many generations of students, the bar being close to the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Cégep du Vieux Montreal. The announcement of the closure was made Sunday evening on Facebook.
“Our 20 years from 1999 to 2010 will have made us dance, drink, exchange, share incredible moments. A mark of history is still turning in Montreal and you will have been present, ”wrote Isabelle Leduc, in reaction to the publication of the establishment on the social network.
” Not possible ! This bar marked my 20th birthday. I spent a good part of the 90s there. Memorable evenings and parties of all kinds. I will never be able to forget this place, ”responded Serge Vallée, also on Facebook.
The establishment, particularly famous for its huge terrace at the back – which many were impatiently awaiting the opening in the spring – also hosted many artistic events.
Declining popularity
“It was an institution,” says Benoît Malric, in an interview with The Press, who worked at Saint-Sulpice from 2008 to 2015, including two full-time years. He remembers a “very demanding” job, but where he developed a real sense of belonging.
During the high season, more than a hundred employees served customers, he recalls. There were “a lot of students”, regulars, tourists and festival-goers, “especially when the Just for Laughs festival was taking place on rue Saint-Denis”.
The Saint-Sulpice, founded in 1980 by doctor of psychology Maurice Bourassa and his spouse, diplomat Pierre-Luc d’Orsonnens, had already temporarily closed its doors during the pandemic. Since then, the bar no longer welcomed customers, but film shoots, some of which were planned for this spring. Le Saint-Sulpice was also put up for sale in January 2022.
“The popularity of the bar had begun to decline [avant la pandémie] “says Benoît Malric, who believes that the diversification of the supply of terraces in the neighborhood and the increase in consumer prices had something to do with it.