(New York) It was Huey Lewis who, in the 1980s, was the first – perhaps – to raise there existential question about New York: what other city has “half a million things to do at a quarter to three”?
The good Hugh Anthony Cregg III probably did not have a game of pétanque in mind, but it is now within the realm of possibilities.
Here we are, on a cold and windy Tuesday evening, in Industry City, a former abandoned industrial sector of Brooklyn that has become a veritable playground for adults. There are indeed a ton of restaurants, boutiques, a branch of a chain of Brooklyn microbreweries that smelled a good deal, a comic book store and a Japanese grocery store as big as the end zone in the CFL (c that’s big).
All this along the Gowanus Expressway, an elevated highway. A bit as if the swingers club and the U-Haul storage site on Crémazie Est gave way to trendy businesses and made this sector of Saint-Michel the place to be seen.
The Carreau Club is one of those places that attracts cool people. It was entirely by chance, while testing the local shops, that The Press hung out in this pétanque club, doubled as a bar, open to the public, but which also hosts leagues.
PHOTO GUILLAUME LEFRANÇOIS, THE PRESS
The Carreau Club tournament table
In our defense, the tournament picture that evening was inviting for any lover of French, from Michael Rousseau to Emmanuella Lambropoulos. The Canniboules are indeed facing the Big Lebouleskis, but the Crèmes boulées and the Huguenots also attract our attention.
A Frenchman, Olivier, quickly directs us towards a Quebecer, Hugue, who we guess is captain of the Huguenots, because these are the kinds of deductions that the greatest investigators make.
Hugue is actually Hugue Dufour, the chef behind the famous Mr. Wells of Long Island City, the Mr. Wells Dinette before that. The Carreau Club is owned by Aaron Weeks, one of its former employees.
PHOTO GUILLAUME LEFRANÇOIS, THE PRESS
Hugue Dufour and Aaron Weeks
“We started playing together at the Dinette,” Aaron Weeks explains. One of the employees knew pétanque and had bought some boules. The Dinette was located in a museum [le PS1, une annexe du MoMA], and in the yard, there was a small gravel area. Every Sunday, a pig was roasted and a pétanque tournament was organized. Everyone was killing us, of course, so we started playing more often, drinking wine after the restaurant was closed. It was a good way to relax. »
The Carreau Club was created three years ago. It was entirely Weeks’ project, but “I helped them put together the menu,” Dufour says. As an example, he cites grilled cheese with onion soup, which also nourished The Press that night.
His description of the clientele resembles what we observed: gender parity, people “in their early twenties, but also people in their seventies,” describes Weeks. Pétanque also attracts a certain French-speaking population, “Quebecers, French people who live here and North Africans”, as well as people from the neighborhood.
PHOTO GUILLAUME LEFRANÇOIS, THE PRESS
The Carreau Club is one of those places that attracts cool people.
He himself has French-speaking roots. His mother, a Rivet, has Quebec origins. “From Joliette and Trois-Rivières,” he said, forcing himself to pronounce his “r”s with his throat.
For now, a Quebecer missing pétanque in the middle of winter can jump in his car and drive six hours to shoot or score. But our man informs us that a similar project is in preparation in Montreal and should open its doors during the next year.
But even without playing pétanque, there is a way to have fun at the Carreau Club, if only for the giant poster of The Rock in the corner.
PHOTO GUILLAUME LEFRANÇOIS, THE PRESS
The Rock poster
What do you mean, Brooklyn?
This postcard to Brooklyn was written during a Canadian match in Newark. Some 30 kilometers separate the two towns. But the beauty of it is that Manhattan is halfway there, and PATH trains connect New York to its unloved neighbor in about 25 minutes, for $2.75. So there is a way to add a Devils game to a New York trip. Or, in a professional context, to add a New York trip to a Devils game.