Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Vice-president of sales and strategic partnership at Libro, a Quebec reservation management platform, Stuart Lachovsky confirms that the 18-hectare time slot has also been the wind in the sails in Quebec since the pandemic. “Between 2019 and 2022, in Quebec, the number of reservations at 6 p.m. is up 56%,” says Mr. Lachovsky.
The number of reservations has also increased for other time slots, because people are more likely to book than before (“during COVID, it was an obligation and we still do”), but the increase is less marked (about 30%) at other times, says Stuart Lachovsky. “Looks like 6:30 p.m. is the prime time in restaurants in Montreal,” he says.
Mr. Lachovsky attributes this to habits formed during the pandemic…but also to labor shortages. Because of the lack of staff, restaurants are forced to close their kitchens earlier, sometimes as early as 8 or 9 p.m., he says. Other restaurants have changed their formula and now offer two services: one around 6 p.m., the other around 8:30 p.m.
At the Express, rue Saint-Denis, the crowd is more constant today than it was before the pandemic, notes co-owner Mario Brossoit. The lull the team observed between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. is a thing of the past, he said. “The afternoons never end… and the evenings begin in the afternoon,” illustrates Mr. Brossoit, who also sees it as a consequence of telecommuting and self-employment.
At Tapeo, in Villeray, the owners observe a slowdown for the last service, at 9 p.m., and perhaps a greater enthusiasm for the very first, at 5:30 p.m.-6 p.m. On the way from The Press, at 5:30 p.m., Paul Farrington and Rose Villano had just ordered their tapas. “We always ate early,” says Paul, who sees this as a very Quebec habit. “I appreciate that there are fewer people around us, too,” Rose says.
Why would people have supper earlier today? Perhaps, since the pandemic, they “prioritize sleep and give their bodies a few hours to digest before bed, do intermittent fasting, or swap cocktails for low or no alcohol aperitifs”, wrote the journalist. Culinary Rachel Sugar in the New York Times.
The pandemic – a great social upheaval – has changed many of our behaviors, and it would not be surprising if it also had an influence on our habits in the restaurant, estimates Roxane de la Sablonnière, professor in the psychology department of the University. from Montreal. “We worked a lot more from home, and maybe we want to have dinner earlier, to have time to relax afterwards,” she says. The question is: will it stay? »
At the Vin mon Lapin restaurant in Little Italy, after a pandemic lull, the night owls are back in force, assures co-owner Vanya Filipovic. “Last night at 9:45-10 p.m. the restaurant was full,” she said.
In Quebec, we eat early
When we look at the history of Quebec, in working-class families, we “ate early”, summarizes Myriam Wojcik, chief historian of the series. Kebec, at Tele-Quebec. The rush hour obviously varies according to the type of restaurant, but this habit of going out to eat at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. in more gourmet restaurants seems recent to him.
The habit of having dinner at 5 p.m. comes to us from the British, she says. “While, for the French, the midday meal is very important, for the British, it is the evening meal which is,” says Ms.me Wojcik. As the English are “sorteux”, it is also under their influence that the taverns multiplied, in the 19th century.e century. It was also during this century that the first good restaurants appeared in hotels.
And in the first decades of the XXe century, it was of course the snacks that were popular. They were springing up like mushrooms in working-class neighborhoods.
“Great gastronomy was not part of the traditions in Quebec,” says Myriam Wojcik, whose father, Henry Wojcik, is also a pioneer of Quebec gastronomy. In 1967, he opened Fado, which would later become Fadeau, one of the biggest restaurants in the province. Her father and his contemporaries worked hard, she says, to convince customers that it was worth spending on this “ephemeral pleasure”.
“It becomes an experience to be in a restaurant, to eat well, in a pleasant setting with people you love. And that is recent in our culture,” concludes Myriam Wojcik.