A few steps from the Graziella restaurant in Old Montreal, the owner of the same name and her two accomplices have opened a place designed for epicureans.
A café, grocery store and wine bar all rolled into one, the Mercato Comunale – led by Graziella Battista, Pierre Jullien and Alexandre Gagnon – is a meeting place for people who work in the neighborhood and those who live there.
You can get there from 7:30 a.m. to enjoy coffee, fresh orange juice and pastries, on site or to take away; then, at lunchtime, the counter is filled with sandwiches, pizzas, arancini, all homemade. A fridge full of ready-to-eat dishes also sits on site: lasagna, cannelloni, duck, porchetta. There’s also pasta, which people can easily cook themselves and serve with one of the sauces offered, says Graziella.
The grocery side offers several products, some of which bear the house brand and which are simmered with local products, including tomato sauce, coffee, olive oil, jams, not to mention the wine, made with a winemaker in Sicily.
For the moment, the owners are concentrating on the market, but the wine bar will resume service with the arrival of the summer, especially since the building is surrounded by a pretty terrace.
Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
701 William Street, Montreal