(Quebec) The traditional sugar shack, where Quebecers have enjoyed going to eat in the spring for decades, has been hit by a lack of replacements, rising food prices and a lack of staff.
Data obtained from the government shows that the number of cabins offering meals during the sugar season has fallen by 34% in 10 years. After a small post-pandemic recovery, they resumed their slide in 2023 and no one really knows when this decline will stop.
These cabins must be distinguished from the approximately 8,000 which produce syrup, but do not offer a catering service. These are doing quite well and their number is growing.
“We are getting older and we are having trouble finding staff, we have no replacements. Our time is up! », observes Denis Bédard on the line, who will celebrate his 80th birthday in two weeks.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The number of cabins offering meals during the sugar season has fallen by 34% in 10 years.
This year, the maple syrup producer chose to permanently close to the public the sugar shack opened by his father in 1952 in Saint-Stanislas-de-Champlain, in Mauricie. The Bédards had served meals there since 1962. Mr. Bédard explains that his sons did not want to take over the business. business meals. He therefore closed the door, with regret, but will still continue to boil his syrup as long as he has the strength.
We’re going to have fun, me and my friend, making syrup. But there are still people who call me to come and eat. They try: “Could we have a meal or two?” But if we start this, we’re not finished!
Denis Bedard
A few hundred kilometers away, in Beauce, Bertrand Giguère experienced a similar situation. The 86-year-old man operated a small cabin with his wife Géraldine, popular for its handmade “souflée crepes” and “crisse ears”.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Géraldine Gagné and Bertrand Giguère stopped serving meals in their sugar shack in 2023.
They closed the dining room during the pandemic, then reopened in 2022. Finally, in 2023, they decided enough was enough. They have joined the list of some 90 sugar shacks that have stopped serving meals over the past 10 years. They also cite the lack of succession.
“There is still a lot of customer demand. Cabins in Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, where we are, a few years ago, there were four. There, there are no more. Not one ! »
Customers at the meeting
Please note, no cabin owner to whom The Press spoke did cite weak demand. It’s even the opposite. Customers are there, more than ever.
Hugo Lévesque knows something about this. The man recently bought a maple grove with a dining room, the last “real sugar shack” offering meals in all of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, to his knowledge.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY HUGO LÉVESQUE
Hugo Lévesque took over one of the last, if not the last sugar shack serving meals in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
A priori, he only wanted to produce syrup. There was no question of serving meals.
“I entered the restaurant, there was nothing left, no more furniture, no decoration. I was alone in this big room and something happened,” he says.
I bought the maple grove from my neighbor and it’s as if his wife, who died but who took care of the dining room for years, was still there. I’m not spiritual, zero. But I had a strange feeling. Something had to be done with this.
Hugo Lévesque
The maple farmer therefore decided to leave the cabin, located in Laniel, in Témiscamingue. Result ? His reservation book is overflowing. “We’ve been open for four weekends and we have 600 people per weekend,” says Hugo Lévesque, owner of Tem-Sucre.
He says that he has customers who come from Amos or even La Sarre… three hours away by car. “There are people who drive six hours round trip, and they leave with a smile. So the craze is there! »
According to him, sugar shacks must face the same challenges as restaurants, hit hard by the pandemic, then by inflation. Restaurants Canada estimates that one in five restaurateurs in the country will have to close an establishment in the coming months.
Data from the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ), first revealed by The dutyshow that the number of restaurants is at its lowest in Quebec for 10 years.
But unlike restaurants, shacks had begun their decline before the pandemic, which accelerated it. No one can predict whether the number of cabins will stabilize.
“I was talking about it to my guy, who said: “this industry is going to fall,” relates Denis Bédard. But it won’t fall right away. People were coming back to us for years. And there he continues to call us. »
Hugo Lévesque thinks that Quebecers’ attachment to the cabin tradition is too visceral to die. “I think that in 2024, in the post-pandemic era, people want to return to their roots, to their traditions. I think the world is hanging on to that. And the cabins, like, don’t, bring us back to our roots. »