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Everyone to Parliament!

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The Present-Day Place D'Youville

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Place Royale

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Place d’Armes

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Notre-Dame Street

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Champ-de-Mars

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After the Debates, a Place to Unwind!

Detail from a 19th-century lithograph of the Compain restaurant, on a street corner. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of a two-storey building. Pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages pass in front of the building.

Cornelius Krieghoff, "Place d’Armes, Montreal" (detail), 1848, Andreas Borum lithograph, McCord Stewart Museum, M11910.

With the arrival of hundreds of politicians, civil servants and their families, all these people had to be housed and fed! The result: Montréal saw new lodging and service establishments spring up. But that wasn’t all—social and cultural life boomed, and the city of debate and learning also became a city of pleasures.

Compain Restaurant: Paris and New York in Montréal

19th-century lithograph of the Compain restaurant on Place d’Armes. In the background, on the left, the restaurant occupies the ground floor of a two-storey building. Pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages move through the foreground.

Cornelius Krieghoff, "Place d’Armes, Montreal", 1848, Andreas Borum lithograph, McCord Stewart Museum, M11910.

In 1847, Place d’Armes gained an establishment that made Montréal’s mouth water: the Compain restaurant. In the newspaper L’Avenir, it was praised for a menu worthy of Paris and New York—as rich in variety as it was in quality.

The 19th century marked the rise of dining out in Montréal. Three influences dominated: American, English and French. Something to satisfy every palate!

A Mouth-Watering Menu

19th-century advertisement for Compain’s restaurant. The restaurant is shown opposite the Bank of Montreal. The title reads “Compain’s Restaurant.” Beneath the illustration, “Montreal” appears, along with a description of the restaurant’s offerings in ornate lettering.

"Compain’s Restaurant", Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2732692.

Here is an advertisement for Compain’s restaurant. Surprised to see turtle listed alongside oysters and lobsters? That’s only natural: in the 19th century, turtle soup was a dish much enjoyed by diners.