Avenue Laurier is fast becoming what St Laurent once was: lively, trendy, and charmant. Restaurants, bars and well-edited stores keep cropping up like designer weeds, while the area is alive with dog-walking Mile-Enders and their PA Nature shopping bags, converse sneakers & rolled-up skinny jeans.
One noteworthy new/old locale is l’autre bar. As understated as it is cool (notice the all lower-case name), this bar dates all the way back to 1936 when it first opened its doors in Outrement. Then a ‘dry’ neighbourhood, La Taverne de La Veuve Wilson (Widow Wilson’s Tavern), as it was originally named, quickly became the go-to for students and local patrons alike. I learned all of this thanks to a printed blurb on the wall near our patio-adjacent table, while we spoke to one of the partners who explained how they had recently refurbished this historic landmark after it had become run-down over the last few decades under the previous ownership. (I love it when people help me write my blog posts).
The bar features more than 40 varieties of beer with a dozen or so local micro-breweries from Quebec, as well as a serious wine list and a selection of what they call ‘amuse-gueules’ to help you soak up all of that alcohol.
l‘autre bar
