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Montreal Gazette
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
At just $5, gnocchi spot Drogheria Fine may be Montreal's most affordable takeout counter
There aren't many places you can still get a $5 meal in Montreal, let alone a tasty one. Which is just part of the appeal of the $5 gnocchi at Drogheria Fine on Fairmount Ave. 'It's affordable for the portion and it's very filling,' said Maxime Sauriol, who lives nearby, picking up an order on a recent weekday lunch hour. There's also the location: nestled between the iconic Fairmount Bagel, beloved ice cream shop Kem Coba and legendary 'light lunch' spot Wilensky, it benefits from the steady stream of tourists hitting all the Mile End landmarks. Sauriol works in social media for the tourism industry and sees posts about Drogheria Fine's gnocchi pass through his feed multiple times a day. Which brings us to another aspect of its popularity: the sales model. There is no seating, only a window counter through which patrons can place their order and peek into the kitchen at the three or four large pots simmering. There's only one thing on the menu: gnocchi bathed in Drogheria Fine's famous La Salsa Della Nonna tomato sauce (with Romano cheese for $6, and with cheese and spices for $6.50). And it's served in cute little takeout cartons, the kind usually reserved for rice in Chinese restaurants. The whole experience is Instagram-ready. 'I'm all over social media,' marveled Victoria Gattuso, between serving up containers of gnocchi. 'My friends send me videos of myself every day. Sometimes people don't ask, they just film because it's pretty: the box is pretty, people like taking photos and posting them. 'My dad doesn't understand TikTok; I'm like, 'Dad, we're all over the internet.'' Her father is Franco Gattuso, who has owned multiple restaurants around Mile End and the Plateau over the past 28 years, including various incarnations of dearly departed Italian eatery Il Piatto Della Nonna. The nonna is Gattuso's mother Caterina, who turns 90 on Oct. 31 and has been the resident chef at her son's various eateries, including Drogheria Fine, which opened in 2010 as a tribute to Italian specialty grocers of old and sold his tomato sauce along with olive oil and other select items. La nonna is now retired but her tomato sauce recipe is still used by Gattuso and is key to the appeal of his restaurant's only dish, which it began selling in 2015 as a way to promote the sauce. Tellingly painted below the service window are the words 'Gnocchi Della Nonna.' 'Mmm, that's good,' said Q Gallant, 19, visiting from New York with Simrin Mehra. 'Something's working; that is delicious — it's the sauce, wow. That's awesome.' The two had heard about Drogheria Fine from a friend who goes to McGill. 'She said this gnocchi place is really good,' Gallant said. 'That sometimes there's a line, but for $5 it's hard to beat.' Franco Gattuso arrives by 7 a.m. each day to begin making the sauce. Between 350 to 400 litres of it are produced daily in Drogheria Fine's tiny kitchen. Approximately 150 litres go towards the gnocchi served up through the window. The rest is pasteurized on the premises, bottled and either sold directly to customers for $10 or driven in cases by Gattuso to various grocers and restaurants around town. 'We distribute to many places on the north shore,' said Victoria Gattuso. 'We ship to Laval and an IGA in Saint-Lambert. Costco approached us recently, but we're so busy we can't supply them.' Regular Olivier Hébert, 37, stopped by on his lunch break from Médicus, around the corner on St-Laurent Blvd. Asked by Victoria Gattuso if he would be eating his gnocchi right away, he answered yes, knowing that she would then fill his container to the brim. 'I'm very gourmand,' he said. 'I like being full. It's crazy how this fills you up. I like eating it to the end; I bought bread from (nearby bakery) Guillaume to soak up the extra sauce.' He loves everything about Drogheria Fine. 'It's a family spot, a little shack,' Hébert said. 'It's homemade. You can feel the nonna feeding you. It's comforting. And it's not expensive, despite inflation.' Sylvain Trempe and two coworkers from the Commission de la construction du Québec each ordered an all-dressed gnocchi. They drive down with colleagues for lunch once a week from their offices at the corner of Christophe-Colomb Ave. and Crémazie Blvd. — 'for this and Wilenski,' he said, 'because it's charming, it's unique and it's good.' McGill student Mahiro Tsukada and British friends Jess Austin and Anna Millions, who were visiting from Leeds, each had in hand a bagel and lox from Fairmount Bagel next door. They ordered a single gnocchi to share. 'We thought we would try a bit of everything,' said Tsukada, who was told about Drogheria Fine by fellow students but had never tried it. 'It's $5 gnocchi,' she explained. 'You hear about it.'
USA Today
01-08-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Guitars, bagels and booze: How Canadians became reluctant warriors in Trump tariff fight
Canadian businesses are feeling the impact of President Trump's tariffs on Canadian products. The duties are testing the limits of Canadian cordiality. MONTREAL – Alain Ejeil is a restaurant owner, not someone looking to stir up trouble. He'd much rather serve up dishes like poulet à la Basquaise, braised chicken with puréed potatoes in olive oil, or tartare de boeuf, beef with an emulsion of lime, capers and chives. But if you buy either of those specialties at his restaurant, Bidon Taverne Culinaire, just outside of Montreal, the chicken or the beef won't come from the United States. Nor can you pair those dishes with a California chardonnay or an Oregon pinot noir. Ejeil stopped buying American food items and pulled U.S.-made wines and spirits from his shelves back in February after President Donald Trump started to taunt Canada with the threat of tariffs and American statehood. It wasn't an easy decision, he said, but as a Canadian, it was the right thing to do. 'I love America,' he said. But he also feels a duty to his country and his kitchen. For those reasons, he has become a reluctant warrior in Canada's tariff war with the United States. Canadians are known for their easy-going attitude, friendliness and hospitality. But Trump is testing the limits of their cordiality. The U.S. president slapped a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian imports back in February, then suspended them on many products. A new 35% duty on many Canadian goods takes effect Aug. 1, raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to inflict even more pain on Canadians and further poison relations between the neighboring countries. Even before the upcoming round of tariffs, Canadians have been feeling the impact of Trump's policies. Many in the food and beverage industry, like Ejeil, have yanked American products from their shelves while a 'Buy Canadian' movement has taken hold across much of the country. A small business owner who makes custom-designed guitars from the basement of his Montreal home reported that some of his U.S. customers are getting hit with $1,000 tariff fees on top of the cost of their instruments. Others are affected in different ways. A surge in Canadian patriotism has driven up sales of red-and-white Canadian flags, patches and lapel pins and spawned a demand for hats and T-shirts with slogans like 'Canada Is Not For Sale.' Even business owners like bagel maker Rhonda Shlafman have been swept up in the tide. Shlafman said she wasn't trying to make a political statement when she came up with a red-and-white creation that she called the Canada Bagel. She just wanted to do something to lift the spirits of her fellow Canadians, who she said seemed depressed by all of the recent negativity. But Canadians are hungry for anything that promotes Canadian patriotism, even in the form of dough and yeast, so the Canada Bagel has been flying off the shelves of Shlafman's shop, Fairmount Bagel. 'Standing with Canada' On a quiet street corner in the mostly residential city of Saint-Lambert, across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal, Bidon Taverne Culinaire seems far removed from the tariff tensions roiling Canada and the United States. Open since 2010, the cozy bistro serves up classic French fare like l'onglet de boeuf (steak) alongside other flavors from around the world and simple but popular dishes like fish and chips. Chalkboards mounted on the wall announce the menu and cocktail selections in large, loopy cursive handwriting. The restaurant's clientele are mostly locals. And they are loyal. Some dine there three or four times a week. It's not uncommon for someone to swing by for lunch and return later that evening for dinner, said Ejeil, who has owned the eatery since 2018 with his wife, Joyce Takla. The customer loyalty has extended to Ejeil's decision to boycott American foods and alcohol. He removed them from his menu back in February after consulting with his wife and the restaurant's manager. He announced the decision on social media and then watched as the post went viral. A few weeks later, Quebec's liquor board announced that it would cease importing all American booze. Gone from Ejeil's menu are Kentucky bourbons and wines from California and Oregon. The beverage selection is now heavy on Canadian ryes and wines from France, Italy, Spain, Africa and, of course, Canada. 'A big bully': Canada Day turns into grande fête and rebuke of Trump's call for becoming 51st state Ejeil buys locally grown products whenever possible. Most of the chicken, duck and steak on his menu now comes from Canada, as do the vegetables. He tries to stick to Mediterranean fish or those found locally. Replacing fruits, like oranges and bananas, has been more difficult because of Canada's colder climate. Thus, some of his fruits come from South America and, when they're not available anywhere else, the United States. Ejeil, whose family left Lebanon during the country's civil war and came to Canada in 1984 when his mother was pregnant with him, personally has nothing against Trump, whose entrepreneurial instincts he has admired for years. An entrepreneur himself, Ejeil hopes to one day expand his business into the United States, possibly Florida. Canada and the United States have been allies and neighbors for so long that they should be standing together and growing together, not fighting over tariffs and statehood, he said. But as long as there is a fight, he knows which side he's on. "We're standing with Canada," he said. "We're standing against the tariff war." $1,000 'just to cross the border' From the basement of his Montreal home, Florian Bouyou builds custom-made electric guitars. What was once just a hobby is now a full-time job. One wall of his workshop is covered with wooden templates of guitar bodies, necks and pick guards. A grinder, screwdrivers, cutting tools and other gizmos are scattered around the cluttered room. A guitar-in-progress rests on a workbench. Bouyou carefully runs a string down the unfinished instrument's long neck and threads it through a small hole in the tuning post. He pulls the string tight and snips off the excess with pliers. He twists the tuner, strums the string, adjusts the tuner again and then lays the instrument back on the table. Timeline: A look at key moments in Trump's feud with Canada Bouyou was working as a cabinet maker a few years ago and tinkering with guitars on the side when a friend asked him to design and build him one of the instruments. A new career was born – one he fears could be wrecked by the tariff tensions between Canada and the United States. Bouyou produces 18 to 25 custom-made guitars every year under the brand name Millimetric Instruments and ships them to musicians and other customers mostly in the United States and in Europe, Australia and Asia. This year, at least four of his U.S. customers received an unwelcome surprise along with their guitars: A duty of around $1,000 on top of each instrument's $4,500 to $5,000 price tag. Trump imposed a 25% tariff on nearly all imports from Canada and Mexico in February, then later suspended them on products that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal signed during his first term in office. The trade agreement is supposed to cover Canadian-made guitars. But the shipping company Bouyou hired to send his instruments to the United States listed them on paperwork as wooden products. Unlike guitars, wooden products are subject to the tariffs. 'It's ridiculous – like paying $1,000 just to cross the border,' Bouyou said. 'It's stupid.' It's also bad for business. Some customers hit with the tariffs said they wouldn't have ordered his guitars if they'd known about the hefty fees. Bouyou, who started playing drums when he was 12 and later taught himself to play guitar, understands their hesitance. He has switched shipping companies and hopes that will fix the paperwork snafu. But he's not sure it will, given the state of confusion surrounding the on-again, off-again tariffs. 'You can't get the certainty of having your guitar shipped and not tariffed,' he said. Bouyou, a native of Brittany, France, who came to Canada nearly two decades ago, said he typically has a year's worth of back orders for his guitars. After that, he's not sure what will happen. He wonders how much of a future there is for him as a guitar maker. He is teaching himself how to repair electronic devices like vintage amplifiers and has started to think about shifting his business in that direction so the majority of his customers will be Canadian. He already has made one business decision because of Trump's tariffs. He has stopped buying tuners and other guitar parts from U.S. distributors. 'I'm giving my money to Canadian companies,' he said. 'The right time' for the Canadian flag The shelves of Marc-André Bazergui's small shop in Montreal's Côte-Saint-Paul neighborhood are stocked with the official flags of dozens of nations all over the world. Flags from Haiti, Italy and Ukraine. Big flags. Small flags. Flags for a boat or car. You can get all of them here. But the flag that people are asking for most often is the one from home. Talk of tariffs and Canadian statehood have made Canada's red-and-white Maple Leaf a big seller, especially among first-time flag buyers. 'People are saying, 'I've been thinking abut it, and now I think it's the right time to do it,' said Bazergui, owner of the specialty store called simply Le Flag Shop. Canadian cold shoulder: Trump's antics anger our otherwise polite neighbor Even in Quebec, where the French language and the francophile culture make the province feel like a country within a country, the Canadian colors are flying high. People in Quebec are sometimes hesitant to raise the Canadian flag out of fear it will be seen as a show of support for remaining a part of Canada, which could be a bit awkward if your next-door neighbor backs Quebec independence. Quebec has voted twice – in 1980 and 1995 – against becoming an independent country. But the Fleurdelisé – Quebec's official flag, a white cross on a blue background decorated with four fleurs-de-lis – is still often flown in place of the Canadian Maple Leaf. Now, many Quebecois are flying both, a political message intended not for the neighbors next door, but for those to the south, Bazergui said. Bazergui said his store recently got a request from an 80-year-old woman who had been debating for years whether to fly the Canadian flag. The current state of affairs pushed her to a decision. 'I need my flag on my balcony,' she said. 'Help me set one up.' Other popular sellers in Bazergui's shop are Canadian lapel pins and patches often used to decorate backpacks. Canadians are coming into the store and buying them before they travel abroad. They don't want foreigners to confuse them with Americans, he said. Items that aren't going over particularly well: Those stamped 'Made in the USA.' Bazergui said he has had customers refuse to buy flags once they see the U.S. manufacturing marker. 'A flag made in China almost passes better than a flag made in the U.S.,' he said. Lucky for him, his Canadian flags are all made in Canada. A bagel and Canadian pride Shlafman, the bagel shop owner, doesn't want to talk politics. She just wants to make bagels. It's what her family has done for more than a century. The cramped work area in the back of Fairmount Bagel, founded by her grandfather in 1919, smells of freshly baked bread. The overpowering heat from the ovens is made tolerable by a stream of cool air blown through the room by an air conditioner. At a table, a worker in an apron kneads a huge ball of dough, slices off a strip and shapes it into a familiar disc with a hole in the middle. Across from him, another worker uses a long piece of plywood to scoop up bagels and pull them out of the oven. With impressive precision, he gives the plywood a flip, and the bagels sail through the air and land in a basket nearby. He never misses. Shlafman, who owns the bakery with her brother Irwin Shlafman, came up with the idea for the Canada Bagel when she was driving to work one cold, rainy day in February, back when the tariff talk was heating up. As she listened to the news and watched people on the street, she couldn't help but notice: Everyone seemed depressed. 'Why don't I make something that's fun, something's that colorful, that will make people smile,' she remembers thinking. Et voilà! The Canada Bagel was born. The chewy creation is made from two strands of dough – one red, one white – braided together to symbolize the Canadian flag. Food coloring gives the bagel its patriotic hue but doesn't change the taste. Political fallout: Trump is the 'X factor' as Canada elects a prime minister The Canada Bagel was a hit. 'People started telling me and writing emails and giving a thumbs up – 'Oh, we're proud of you. You made a Canada Bagel to stand up for Canada,'' she said. That was never her intention, she said. Nor is she looking to get into a bagel war with the United States. Montreal and New York City have long had a friendly rivalry over who makes the best bagel. But as far as Shlafman is concerned, there is no contest. 'Every day, you can come in here and buy a bagel, and you're going to get the same bagel you would have bought from my grandfather in 1919 – the recipe hasn't changed, the technique hasn't changed,' she said. While other people may have viewed the Canada Bagel as a declaration of nationalist pride, 'I saw people looking happy and having fun – and that was really the goal,' Shlafman said. Even with the tensions over tariffs and statehood, that's a position Americans and Canadians can get behind. Michael Collins is a national correspondent who writes about the intersection of politics and culture. A veteran journalist, he has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From bagels to 'Canadianos,' Trump tariff threat inspires symbolic acts of patriotism
U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to impose across-the-board tariffs on Canada — not to mention his musings about making the country the 51st American state — have unleashed an uncharacteristic wave of patriotism across the country, marked by acts big and small. From flag-inspired Montreal bagels to Super Bowl boycotts, here are some of the ways Canadians are expressing their displeasure with U.S. actions and showing home-country pride. Canada Bagels Fairmount Bagel, which has been baking the Montreal staple since 1919, is rolling out a red-and-white twist on a classic in response to the tariff news. Co-owner Rhonda Shlafman said she got the idea while driving home, listening to the news on the radio and looking at the people in cars around her. "Everybody just looked really sad," she said in an interview. "So I thought to myself, why don't I make a Canada bagel? Why don't I make something that shows everyone here in Montreal and in Canada that we are strong, we are independent, we have our own products, we have our own produce, we have our own lives here." She said the bagels are made by taking white and red dough, and intertwining them in a colourful, wood-oven-baked treat that she says is a fitting metaphor for Montreal, Quebec and Canada — with a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top. Maple skies Canadian pilot Michael Jones made news headlines after he flew his small two-seater Grob G 115 for two hours near the U.S. border, taking a meticulous path to draw a Maple Leaf in the southwestern Ontario sky. 'I'm proud to be a Canadian,' he said. 'So, I thought that was just one way of, you know, kind of showing it there.' Jones, who has been a pilot and a flight instructor for over four decades, said while Trump uses the 51th comment as negotiating tactic, "it is still not nice things to hear.' His real fear is the tariff threats which could hurt Canada's economy, he said. 'With everything that's going on between Canada and the U.S., you know, it's a little upsetting and sad,' he said in a phone interview. Flightradar24 posted the Maple Leaf shape on Facebook on Wednesday, attracting thousands of comments. The image showed Jones's patriotic two-hour long flight departed from London, Ont., and traced a Maple Leaf path in a large area between Lake Erie and Lake Huron — two of the Great Lakes shared between Canada and the United States — before landing back in London. 'I Am Canadian! And what's not to love about a Maple Leaf in the sky? Kudos to … this Canadian who found a unique way to express his love for Canada,' wrote a user on X. Americanos no more A B.C.-based coffee company is inviting coffee shops across the country to show their displeasure at the U.S. actions by dropping the term Americano, and serving "Canadianos" instead. Kicking Horse Coffee is offering cafés a "Proudly serving Canadianos" window display as a symbol of their participation in the patriotic movement. Chief marketing officer Lori Hatcher-Hillier says now, more than ever, Canadians need to stick together and demonstrate pride in their country. The brand says it has been calling its own Americanos "Canadianos" for 16 years and now it wants others to join in. Oranges to apples Carol Ann McDevitt served her first glass of apple cider to her guests Thursday morning at the Roaring '20s B&B, in Lower Queensbury, N.B. McDevitt, who has owned the bed and breakfast about 40 kilometres west of Fredericton since 2019, said until recently her guests always got a glass of orange juice with their breakfast. But going forward, they'll be served local cider instead. The gesture is McDevitt's way of supporting Canadian-made products and taking a stand against Trump's proposed tariffs. "It just seemed very unfair. It was unprovoked, and we should do what we can to support our local communities," she said. She said the vast majority of oranges come from Florida, and labelling on bottles isn't always clear. Early reviews of the cider have been good, with some clients saying they preferred it, she said. So long, Super Bowl Quebec-based brew pub Dieu du Ciel announced this week on social media that it would no longer be broadcasting Sunday's Super Bowl at its two locations, in Montreal and St-Jérôme. "We have indeed been chilled by recent events and we didn't have the heart, this year at least, to participate in this great American celebration," the company wrote on social media. "The current situation is a reminder of the importance of further highlighting our local culture, by promoting programming that reflects our values and our commitment to our community in our pubs." The social media posts on Facebook and Instagram drew a torrent of comments, both supportive and critical. The power of the moose Graphic artist Eric Goggin was at his cottage in Washademoak Lake, N.B., last weekend when he hatched a plan to express his Canadian pride. With a frozen lake as his canvas and his footprints as a brush, he spent more than three hours drawing a striking, 12-metre-high moose in the snow. He was aided by a drone hovering above to help him visualize his work. "Let's just say I got my steps in and then some," he said with a laugh. Goggin said Trump's talk about tariffs and Canada becoming the 51st state are no laughing matter, and it was what inspired his gesture. "I firmly disagree with everything (Trump) stands for, and to imply that we would even accept as ridiculous an arrangement as becoming another state is just, in my mind, completely treasonous. It's terrible," he said. Goggin said he wanted to do something unique to showcase his homeland. "And there's nothing more Canadian than a moose in the snow." (A video of the moose's creation can be seen at this link: This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2025. — With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal, Hina Alam in Fredericton, Sharif Hassan in Toronto and Nono Shen in Vancouver. The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
