Little did I know that a restaurant-scouting, sunset-savoring drive down Granby’s main street would involve time travel. An hour east of Montréal and less than two hours from Burlington, this hub of Eastern Townships agriculture unexpectedly offers a mid-20th-century design retrospective.
The four-mile stretch of Granby’s rue Principale is exuberant with fab 1950s neon signage and Sputnik-era architecture. This legacy is a local rallying point: In 2024, the town made headlines in Canada with its crusade to restore a decrepit, 30-foot-tall statue of a jolly waiter at the roadside restaurant la Cantine Chez Ben, famous for its poutine.
Chez Ben’s cheese curds and fries aside, dining is serious business in Granby, which beckons travelers with a remarkable array of restaurants and recreational thrills. I think of it as a mini Montréal but with reasonable tabs, free parking, no traffic and a relaxed pace. The logistics of a visit are limited to buying advance tickets for the Granby Zoo and making dinner reservations in one of the town’s eateries.
“You name the cuisine, it’s here,” said Granby-raised chef Brian Proulx of the Michelin-recommended Maison Boire. “We’re adventurous eaters who expect good food.”
There’s plenty of that in Granby — for a range of budgets.
All prices are in Canadian dollars.
Breakfast: Waffles and Tintin
C’est Belge, 246 rue Robinson Sud, 450-777-7676; 102 rue Principale, 450-994-7676
C’est Belge is a labor of love. Cofounder Philippe Payen, now 66, relocated from Belgium’s Francophone region to Montréal 30 years ago to start a new life. Meeting Granby native Dany Fredette changed everything. The couple moved to Marseille, France; opened a restaurant; and then returned to Canada and Granby so Fredette could co-parent his young son and daughter with a former partner.
Naturally, a restaurant concept took shape “with fresh-farm food, which was happening here,” Payen said. “But no one was using the local terroir to make breakfast.”
Nor was anyone cooking hearty Belgian breakfasts. “We could not find one gaufre de Liège in the entire Townships,” Payen huffed, referring to Belgian waffles. To right this wrong, C’est Belge (It’s Belgian) opened in 2007, showcasing the recipes of Payen’s mother and grandmother for bountiful, waffle-based breakfasts emphasizing local ingredients.
C’est Belge opened in a neighborhood converting its red-brick factories into apartments, boutiques and cafés. A downtown offshoot followed in 2014 with a much-requested front patio. The two restaurants share genial service, good coffee and a killer mimosa ($11) elevated by Belgian orange liqueur.
The voluminous breakfast-through-lunch menu features eight varieties of eggs Benedict alone. My delectable, waffle-bottomed, Hollandaise-topped duck Benedict ($25.25) piled a pair of jumbo poached eggs atop pulled duck, meaty bacon, caramelized onions and smoked Gouda. Like all breakfast platters, it also boasted sides: a supple Belgian crêpe, griddled potatoes and tropical fruit. My companion’s Mi J’Prin Toute (I’ll Take Everything, $23.75) lived up to its name with eggs, sausages, ham, bacon, French toast and crusty bread, plus the sides. Quantity did not sacrifice quality.
The family’s newest addition is C’est Belge Boutique, next door to the original restaurant. The store stocks Leonidas chocolate truffles, house waffles and crêpes, as well as items that salute Belgian icons, such as the cartoon hero Tintin and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
Fredette’s son Markalin, a chef, now runs C’est Belge with three partners. “Our five grandchildren are already part of it,” Payen said proudly.
Lunch: Where Granby Gathers
La Café de la Brûlerie, 4 rue de la Gare, 450-372-2200
Like all of Granby, it seemed, I wanted to savor lunch on Café de la Brûlerie’s shaded deck overlooking the Yamaska River. Wish granted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served here, and the menu is as thick as a faux-leather wine list. Improbably, almost everything my companion and I tasted inspired love at first bite: It was all dynamically flavorful, texturally complex and precisely prepared. I wondered what kind of kitchen alchemy was at play.
“It’s all about Granby. We love life here. It’s healthy. It’s friendly. It’s relaxing,” owner-manager Lisa Auclair said. “Our kitchen secret is: We do our best for our neighbors.”
I’ll add to the equation: fresh, local ingredients; cooking skill; and a laser focus on what diners want. What Auclair calls her “rock-star menu” is a compendium of customizable craveables: poutines (served in mini skillets), eggs, omelettes, Benedicts, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, salads and yogurt bowls. Most are served in medium or large portions.
My companion’s Meat Lover (medium, $18.50) placed a sunny-side-up egg over Hollandaise-sauced bacon, ham and sausage. Poutine fries and cheddar curds nestled below, with more potatoes and whole-grain toast on the side. Poutine des Expos, an homage to Montréal, highlighted just-fatty-enough smoked meat, garlic pickles and deli mustard (one size, $23.50).
My lighter choice, the Délice d’Anais salad ($21.95), proved an edible treasure hunt. Among the baby lettuce leaves, I rooted out beets, berries, goat cheese, avocado, candied pecans, roasted almonds and apple. Notably, my sliced chicken breast add-on ($7) was not overcooked, as the lean meat often is.
Our satisfying meal-ender was a Mokaccino ($7.95): house-roasted coffee and Swiss chocolate presented in an oversize café au lait bowl crowned with whipped cream. Fully caffeinated and pleasantly stuffed, we were ready for Granby’s renowned bike paths.
Dinner: Primal Pleasure
Maison Boire, 13 rue Court, 579-365-3232
Many restaurants boast of using local ingredients, but few serve diners food that was grown above their heads. Maison Boire celebrates all that is seasonal, sustainable and local — some ingredients even come from the restaurant’s rooftop, home to chicken coops, beehives, vegetable and herb beds, and benches on which patrons can enjoy predinner cocktails, sometimes embellished with those herbs.
“The restaurant is the farm,” founder and chef Brian Proulx, 34, said with a laugh.
Just three years after Maison Boire’s 2017 opening, Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice, Canada’s arbiter of food service eco-friendliness, awarded the restaurant its highest certification. Last year, Michelin’s first Québec guide declared Maison Boire one of its “Selected” restaurants, a category separate from the Michelin stars. The guide praised the chefs for their “cooking, mostly over an open flame, [which] brings the best out of the vegetables, fish, and meat.”
Like its emphasis on live-fire cookery, Maison Boire’s setting is elegant yet elemental: an 1893 home with burnished wood and salvaged industrial lights. The former front parlor offers tranquil seating around the corner from a convivial bar. Beyond, overlooking the kitchen, is a six-seat counter, “our version of how our human ancestors ate, the clan gathered around the fire,” Proulx said.
The restaurant name translates to Drinking House; the versatile Proulx curates an eclectic wine list that leans toward small producers. Our fun kicked off with an amuse-bouche of fire-smoked salmon tartare. The small gift from the kitchen featured palate-teasing add-ins including crisp beech mushrooms, sweet Québec blueberries and salty sunchoke chips that mingled with and countered the silken fish. My companion ordered the equally alluring elk tartare starter ($26); I had to beg for a bite. My appetizer, a prosaic-sounding Burnt Onion Cream ($17), seamlessly integrated charred leeks, a wild rice crisp, prized local Louis d’Or cheese and sour cream laced with citrusy sumac.
From our chef’s table perch, I watched Proulx coddle my fire-roasted boar ribs ($68): two massive, bone-in chops from an acorn-scarfing boar-pig hybrid. The lean meat emerged with a toothsome char and seductive hint of smoke. My companion’s snowy, creamy risotto with fire-grilled scallops and clams ($64) made a luxurious contrast to my cave-dweller cookout.
Maison Boire is pricey but well worth the outlay. Our anniversary date in March is already planned.
Dinner Option No. 2: Eastern Townships Meet Eastern Europe
Bistro Kapzak, 108 rue Principale, 579-365-3008
For a more frugal, less special-occasion dinner that’s no less special, consider Bistro Kapzak. The spirited downtown spot is a rustic warren of butcher-block tables, with blackboard menus and a popular Tuesday half-price wine deal.
The menu is as varied as the clientele, spanning caviar and lobster as well as the chef’s homespun Polish recipes, supercharged with robust touches such as foraged mushrooms and lovage pesto.
Chef-owner Jason Kacprzak grew up on his Polish-born grandparents’ farm in nearby Bromont and learned to cook from his mother and grandmother. “Polish recipes, Township ingredients,” he said.
Kacprzak, now 43, earned a college degree but soon surrendered to his inner chef, climbing the kitchen ladder and eventually opening a bistro in Sherbrooke, the region’s biggest city. In 2016, he packed his knives for Granby, where “people are more open to new tastes,” Kacprzak said.
His bistro uses a simplified rendering of his family name; it’s the food that’s the mouthful. Diners can graze contentedly and economically on a bountiful Plyta Polonaise (Polish Plate, $47 for two) — velvety house-smoked salmon, plump potato-cheddar pierogi, housemade sausages and local cheese — which comes with a Zubrowka vodka tasting. Our meat plate for two (Assiette de Viande, $85), laden with pastrami, pork ribs, duck legs and sausages, could have fed four.
Like every place we checked out in town, Bistro Kapzak made us feel more than welcome. Granby is a feisty little city that overdelivers on food, fun and friendliness. ➆
More to Eat and Do in Granby
Chez Bivic (181 rue Principale, 450-330-2645): A Congolese chef’s copious central and West African dishes have hooked Granby on cassava, palm fruit and Senegal’s succulent braised yassa chicken.
Kuto (239 rue Principale, 450-915-0213): The welcoming little bistro’s tatakis and tartares — pescatarian, carnivorous and vegetarian — make for an ideal light dinner.
Royal Tandoori (1 boulevard Mountain, 450-574-1122): The fragrant, deeply spiced curries at this hospitable BYOB restaurant outshine past meals I’ve had at Indian hot spots in Toronto and New York City.
Absintherie des Cantons (800 rue Moeller, 450-776-1811): This family-run microdistillery’s intimate tastings spotlight splendid artisanal liquors such as once-scandalous overproof absinthe and — party trick! — naturally blue gin that turns pink when touched by tonic.
L’Estriade and Artria: Pack wheels or rent in Granby to savor its scenic, mostly paved and car-free bike paths. The 28-mile L’Estriade rail trail incorporates Artria, a ride-through sculpture park.
Granby Zoo (1050 boulevard David-Bouchard, 450-372-9113): What’s new since your school-bus class trip? An animatronic Dinozoo, immersive aquarium, virtual-reality jungle encounters, a cutting-edge waterpark, an amusement park with rides galore and overnight lodging. Prebooking encouraged.
Magasin la Remise (328 rue Principale, 450-956-3088): Thrifting, a Granby sport, supports several warehouse repositories. This tasteful downtown shop is gracious, spacious and dirt cheap: New yoga pants were $2.
Midcentury signage The breadth of rue Principale flaunts vintage masterpieces such as Cantine Chez Ben’s 30-foot waiter, KFC’s giant rotating bucket and Palace Theatre’s art-deco neon marquee. Aim for sunset.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Granby Gastronomique | In Québec’s Eastern Townships, a commercial hub known for its zoo also serves up inventive world-class dining”.
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.
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