Deborah Vance, the glamorous comedian played by Jean Smart in the TV show “Hacks,” describes Montréal as “Paris in the ears, but Hartford on the eyes.”
It’s a fair assessment. Beyond the cobblestone quaintness of Old Montréal, much of the city’s most iconic architecture was created during mayor Jean Drapeau’s three decades in office, from the late 1950s to the ’80s, and reflects his love of brutalist concrete.
Look past the arresting bulkheads of that history, however, to see a city with a jazzier, brassier, sophisticated vibe, where Ms. Vance would surely feel at home: A century ago, Montréal was at the forefront of art deco, and plenty of architectural evidence remains today.
“You could come to this restaurant and be transported to a different place.” Sandra Cohen-Rose
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the style, first presented at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris — a massive exposition intended to usher in a new era of modern art and design. Though the term came later, the aesthetic spread globally. Examples include the Chrysler Building in New York City, the main drag of Miami Beach and the Flynn theater in Burlington.
Montréal has recently seen an art deco gem restored: the restaurant at Eaton’s. The department store, in the heart of downtown, was a commercial mainstay for nearly a century. It’s where my grandmother took my mom to see Santa in the 1950s — and to buy her wedding dress in 1970. And, on the store’s ninth floor, it’s where generations of Canadians, especially women and their daughters, shared meals with a dash of luxury.
After its 1999 bankruptcy, the store’s lower floors became retail space in the adjoining Eaton Center mall, which opened in 1990. Last year, a group of investors reopened the 29,000-square-foot dining space, which had been mothballed for 25 years, as Restaurant Île-de-France Le 9e. That’s where I met Sandra Cohen-Rose, author of the book Northern Deco, which posits a uniquely Canadian approach to the style. “Art deco came earlier to Montréal than most cities in North America,” Cohen-Rose told me, “because most of our architects studied in Paris.”
When Montréal changed its building height restrictions back in 1927, Lady Flora Eaton hired French architect Jacques Carlu to design the restaurant as part of a three-story addition to the department store. She had recently taken a cruise on the luxury ocean liner SS Île de France, which Carlu had worked on, and decided that Montréalers would welcome the chance to dine in similar style. When the restaurant opened in 1931, visitors would have looked out its ample windows to see for miles across the St. Lawrence River, as though from the deck of a ship.
“People could imagine themselves on an ocean liner, and they couldn’t afford to be on an ocean liner,” Cohen-Rose said. “You could come to this restaurant and be transported to a different place.”
Entering from a bank of elevators, visitors encounter a French marble-clad display hallway whose porthole-like circular windows once showcased Eaton’s merchandise; today, they present deco objects from the nearby McCord Stewart Museum. A dramatic walnut-and-white-oak herringbone floor sweeps around the corner and into a long, bright dining area with a large, circular bar. Wide pink-and-gray horizontal stripes on the walls, pale pistachio drapes, and custom-made black-and-white leather chairs and banquettes contribute to an overall softness, contrasting with shiny, heavy metal doors.
Through them is the ninth floor’s crown jewel: a cathedral-like space with 35-foot ceilings and square marble columns. Glowing alabaster urns frame murals depicting women lolling about in a garden with gazelles; metal railings reinforce the nautical theme. This room was once the main dining room, back when Eaton’s was busy enough to support a 500-seat restaurant. It’s now an event space for weddings and concerts.
Between this grand space and today’s restaurant (formerly the “tearoom”) are two private, 20-seat dining rooms, one decked out floor-to-ceiling in gold leaf and the other in silver. Large, almost wall-size windows let parties see into the tearoom and out onto the city beyond. These rooms were once populated by businessmen hosting lunches and meetings — there are still cigar burns on the floors.
One of the hallmarks of art deco, Cohen-Rose said, is the juxtaposition of very modern materials with traditional ones, such as the Belgian black and pinkish Escalette marble finishes that run through the restaurant’s interior. The doors and stair railings are not chrome or stainless steel but softly glowing Monel metal — a copper-nickel alloy, now wildly expensive. The multicolored floor in the event space, still original on raised platforms that once held fashion shows, is made from something called “Ruboleum.” The fusion of futuristic tech with traditional craftsmanship came about because, according to Cohen-Rose, wealthy patrons such as Lady Eaton “could use the rarest and most wonderful material and the best workmanship” during the Great Depression, “because no one had a job.”
Soon after Eaton’s declared bankruptcy in 1999, the restaurant was declared a heritage site — a smart move, given past instances of Montréal’s historic architecture, most famously the Van Horne mansion, being destroyed without public input. But for years, no one was prepared to renovate because of the costs associated with preservation. Scott Mallory, a server at Le 9e, said, “They literally just closed the doors and left everything,” including a 10-foot Steinway grand piano, now used for concerts.
The restoration, which investor Jeff Baikowitz last year called his “love letter to Montréal,” has included those herringbone floors — re-created to extend a 20-square-foot original section — new Québec walnut tables and all-new soft furnishings based on photos of the originals. Some areas are new, such as the kitchen (with a corner-office view of the city) and an adorable cocktail lounge where visitors sit at the tearoom’s original café tables — they’re topped with thick glass, missing only a few chips.
The menu, too, is an upgrade: Rather than the stodgy Canadian comfort food of the 1930s or selections from the buffet installed across the dining room in the 1980s, diners choose from a combination of upscale, largely locally sourced dishes that nod to earlier times, such as the surprisingly elegant beer-battered cod with spring peas and housemade tartar sauce. The dishes offer a sense of continuity with the original plaster bas-reliefs in the grand dining room paying tribute to Canadian foods.
Nearly a century after it was built, Le 9e offers visitors a space that provokes nostalgia for an era that looked toward the future while celebrating Canadian identity. Many of the restaurant’s patrons, Mallory said, last came here as children, decades ago. “You sort of watch their memories wash over them,” he observed.
Part of what makes art deco special is the idea that it transports you to somewhere else — and though it may no longer be a respite for tired moms hunting for on-sale snowsuits, Le 9e has re-created a sense of luxuriant escape.
“We don’t realize what a jewel we have here,” Cohen-Rose said. “It’s probably the best-preserved art deco restaurant in the world.”
In the Area: Deco Landmarks
During my lunch with Sandra Cohen-Rose, she told me that what’s interesting about Montréal is that “the art deco is scattered about the whole city. In many cities, it’s in one place — here, it’s everywhere.” With that in mind, I hoofed it across the city to find a few examples:
Aldred Building (507 place d’Armes): When standing in Old Montréal’s Place d’Armes looking at the famed Notre-Dame Basilica, turn left to see the Aldred Building. Contrary to 1980s middle school rumors, it is not where Ghostbusters was filmed, but its stepped-back towers are reminiscent of a ziggurat. If any gods live atop the edifice, they are gods of electricity — inside the L-shaped lobby, copper-and-brass friezes depict flocks of birds on wires, apt for the 1929 home of Shawinigan Water & Power. The lobby also boasts stained glass, brass elevator doors and octagonal light fixtures. Bas-reliefs on the building’s exterior depict Canadian foliage such as pine needles and maple boughs.
Dominion Square Building (1010 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest): Just down the street from Eaton’s, the 1929 Dominion Square building is deco with an emphasis on the decorative. Carved columns and archways give the exterior a pseudo-Moroccan vibe; inside, painted wooden coffered ceilings and brass elevator doors with floral patterns add to that effect.
Simpson’s (977 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest): Across from Dominion Square, the former Simpson’s department store — now Simon’s — has elaborate grillwork on its windows, much of it in the common 1920s “fountain” motif.
Original Holt Renfrew Building (1300 rue Sherbrooke Ouest): Near the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the 1934 luxury department store’s original location is in disrepair, quite sad but still beautiful. Its curved corner windows and streamlined awning are classic deco. Its magnificent brass-and-copper entry doors, now deteriorating, feature reliefs of beavers, squirrels, stars, wolves and rams. Its windows advertise it as the future of post-pandemic retail.
Maison Cormier (1418 avenue des Pins): If you really want to get your steps in, take a brisk vertical walk up to Pine Avenue to this home designed in 1931 by famed deco architect Ernest Cormier and once owned by former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It’s built into the side of the mountain, with only one of its five levels visible from the road. Though it appears rather modest, squashed between the wall of an apartment building and a mansion-turned-condos, its gray façade boasts unmistakable deco proportions. A bas-relief muse over the entry holds a model of the University of Montréal’s tower, also a Cormier creation. Enjoy it from the sidewalk; there is no public entry to the Heritage site.
Montreal Botanical Gardens (4101 rue Sherbrooke Est): In Montréal’s east end, right across from the Olympic Stadium, this 1930s “make-work” project embraces Canadian iconography. It features a fountain with bas-relief beavers and murals celebrating plants such as corn, maple and birch. Its greenhouses, closed as part of a $450 million renovation, reopen at the end of April.
Atwater Market (138 avenue Atwater): A deco clocktower rises elegantly above the hustle and bustle of this busy market, which has permanent indoor vendors selling everything from fancy cheese to charcuterie to poutine gravy mix for expats. It’s an excellent stop on the nearby Lachine Canal bike trail for gelato and a sea of flowers in summer months.
A Rose-Colored Revival at Hôtel HONEYROSE
Is there an art deco revival happening in Montréal? One project points toward yes: the Hôtel HONEYROSE, located just off downtown’s Quartier des Spectacles. Visitors are greeted by an elegant lounge area in velvet grays and pinks, similar to the color palette at Le 9e. Brass fixtures and warm wood paneling abound, and there’s even a subtle jazz soundtrack. And yet this hotel is brand new, built in 2023.
The establishment solves a conundrum of restoration: The past can be uncomfortable, sometimes literally so. New construction allows for what marketing director Imene Besbes called “Gatsby vibes” without 1920s plumbing. That means some aspects of the boutique hotel are welcome but decidedly un-deco: floor-to-ceiling windows and enormous bathrooms, as well as amenities such as a sauna and pool with a view of the city.
Though this hotel falls under the umbrella of global chain Marriott, its owners have embraced a very important aspect of art deco: local craftsmanship. Atelier Zebulon designed the lobby and restaurant with centerpieces such as a carved-stone concierge desk and a bar with wooden buttresses sprouting toward the ceiling. Montréal artists and designers have pieces tucked in every corner, and there’s a shop of locally crafted products.
Hôtel HONEYROSE’s effect is much louder than most northern deco, which tends toward more subtle sophistication, but this is the new Montréal — one built around spectacle more than industry. Gimmick or no, it’s fun to embrace the glamour.
Restaurant Île-de-France Le 9e, 1500 Robert Bourassa, Suite 900, Montréal. le9montreal.com
Hôtel HONEYROSE, Montréal, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, 355 boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest.
This article is part of a travel series on Québec. The province’s destination marketing organization, Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec, under the Bonjour Québec brand, is a financial underwriter of the project but has no influence over story selection or content. Find the complete series plus travel tips at sevendaysvt.com/quebec.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Deco Delight | An art deco tour of Montréal, including the elegant rebirth of the restaurant at Eaton’s department store”
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2025.
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