Twitter tells me that Romados, the Portuguese chicken place on Rachel, is on fire.
Updates from January, 2013 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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The woman noted as missing from Longueuil, Pamela Jean, seems to be the dead woman found in Montreal North Friday night.
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The city says 90% of the snow has been cleared from the storm on December 27, but more snow is expected late Saturday into Sunday.
City workers have been too focused on snow clearance to work on skating rink ice, apparently.
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Ephraim
Took them 9 hours to clear half my block. The two trucks came by about 7:30AM and then finally finished the street at 4:30PM.
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Although its features are not complete, the Village des Neiges over on St. Helen’s Island has had its first visitors. Last week’s storm must have provided plenty of raw material. (At $18.50 for an adult – all prices here – it’s a rather pricey little feature.)
La Presse has a brief squib saying actually the snowstorm held back the village’s construction.
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Ian
Wow, that IS pricy. What’s with Montreal attractions with vastly inflated prices anyhow?
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Doobish
What the hell happened with the skating on the Olympic Rowing Basin, anyway? One of the best outdoor Montreal activities, ever, cancelled for lack of any discernible reason whatsoever. The thing at the Basin Bonsecours is cute and all for the tourists, but nowhere near comparable in terms of outdoor riverside awesomeness. What the hell?
Maybe we’ll get lucky and have one of those winters where Lac St. Louis freezes over smooth, and the winds scour it of the usual crusty snow buildup. There’s nothing like a good skate out to Dowker Island on a sunny windless winter day.
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A visit to the secret disused cells under the old Palais de Justice, about which little is known – when it was built, who was kept there, when its use was discontinued. Kristian had a look at them in 2010 (although his link to the Gazette piece he wrote then has expired) and he shot some video.
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Two women are missing in the Montreal area: Pamela Jean from the south shore, who has been seen in the city, and Guylaine Marcheterre from the Plateau.
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People in Côte-des-Neiges—NDG are finding snow clearance going slowly but that borough has more kilometers of streets than most others.
I was delighted to see the snow removal vehicles coming down my street in ViSaMiPex late Friday and am pleased to note that although it felt like the sidewalk snow had totally settled in, a chenillette managed to clear up the mess in a couple of passes.
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Chris
Interest to contrast the coverage of NDG’s snow clearing this year, with the Plateau’s last year. I’m just not seeing the vitriol this time, for some reason…
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Kate
Someone snarked on Twitter that it’s surprising Projet Montreal hasn’t somehow been blamed for it.
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William
Sorry, but Visa Mi Pex is a particularly ugly abbreviation, and beyond that, it sounds like an invitation to target someone’s chest.
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Kate
Heh. I don’t mean it entirely seriously, but really, what kind of lasting entity has a name like Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension?
People sometimes use “HoMa” and more and more I’m seeing “RosePatrie”. The CLSC in this borough is called Cœur-de-l’Île and I don’t know why that name couldn’t be adopted by the borough as well.
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William
Coeur de l’Île is such a lovely name!
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William
Another solution… you don’t have to use the whole official name every time you want to talk about it. You could just say, e.g. “The borough for Rosemont.”
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Kate
That sounds a bit too much like “The member for Papineau”. And when you have portmanteau borough names like Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension you’re either talking about conditions or incidents specific to one of the areas (since all three are quite distinct, historically and demographically) or else you’re discussing the borough as an entity and have to mention all three.
I don’t recall how the borough naming came about. Some of the names are okay, some are too portmanteau-y, and then you get my favourite “we give up” borough name – Le Sud-Ouest.
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William
Well, I think if you’re going to be officious, then you should avoid ugly abbreviations ;) I disagree that it’s necessary to give the full official title, lest we start writing “The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.” every time we mention the head of state.
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Police are investigating the case of a dead woman found in a Montreal North apartment which, if declared a homicide, will be the first of the year. I was confused by the mention of Hotel de Ville as a street in some of the reports but of course Montreal North has one of those too.
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The STM has put up a nice set of photos of old buses and streetcars in the snow. It’s on Facebook but visible to all.
There’s also this feature about snow removal over the last century and a brief but interesting Rue Masson feature on snow clearance back in the day.
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Bar entrepreneur Peter Sergakis says that the NHL lockout has meant layoffs and possible closure of downtown bars. If the scuffle between millionaires and billionaires is not settled by January 11, the entire season is likely to be cancelled.
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denpanosekai
Great, so the Station des Sports will continue to plague Shaughnessy in its half-finished state until next year. Shoddiest construction practices I’ve ever seen, they’re probably building better shacks in Haiti than this abomination.
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The 1998 ice storm began 15 years ago today.
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Daisy
That was my first winter in Quebec/Montreal!
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Kate
A baptism of fire, so to speak. It was a pretty intense time.
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Michel
Strange, I always thought of it as starting on the 6th, Epiphany. Had a blood test that morning, and many of the phlebotomists hadn’t made it into work.
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Kate
CBC has a photo feature and video clips from the era.
As I recall, it started out in the evening. I went out with my camera and wandered around my Plateau neighbourhood, and even at that point I saw a car skid out of control on Rachel. Trees were iced up and glittery but at that point I assumed it would be all over by the time I woke up the next day, because ice storms rarely last more than a few hours.
It was a very odd time over the next couple of days as the power went out and things closed down and the city ceased to function. I’ve never seen a rumour fly faster than the one claiming the city was going to have to close its water treatment plant – I was at a friend’s and we rushed around filling buckets and pots with water in case of a shortage.
In the event, water kept running, and some power stayed on at various places throughout. It helped if you lived near a hospital or a police station, but there were also random areas with power. The Second Cup near me on Saint-Denis – closed now – dished out caffeine somehow, even though most of the streets around it were dark.
My power was out for three days, by far the longest power outage I’ve experienced. Friends in the suburbs lost power for almost two weeks, other friends in town never had their power go down at all.
A couple of years later when people were building panic over Y2K I remembered the ice storm and bought a tiny camp stove and a couple of candle lanterns – no sitting in the dark with caffeine withdrawal for me. I still have the little stove but have never had to use it.
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Doobish 20:33 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Could be worse, I suppose. If Coco Rico burnt down I’d probably have to kill myself. Their patates with the sauce and epices are that freaking awesome. Especially the smaller ones that tend to get accidentally overcooked into a state of extra-crispy sublime yuminess.
Crap. Now I’m hungry.
Taylor C. Noakes 20:39 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Doobish, this is hardly the time or the place.
A bit of respect SVP.
Comparing Romados with that pesant food you stuff down your gullet!?!
I’m sorry, this is really affecting me, I, I need a moment.
Ian 20:58 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
That sucks. People actually eat at Coco Rico? I always figured it was just a front.
Doobish 21:01 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
You people are strange. Very strange.
MB 21:21 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
It’s worst when you’re on the way there to get dinner, and your second thought, after an indescribable sense of devastation, is “Does this mean I have to go to Coco Rico? NOOOOOOOOO!!!” Hope nobody was hurt (and that they have insurance). *sigh* I ended up with pizza.
Frédéric 21:50 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
I was at café Névé, across the street from Romados, as fire started. Romados staff stayed there to get warm, watching the fire through the window. They seemed saddened about the loss of their workplace, but luckily, no one was injured. Not sure if something electrical was involved because half the electrical devices stopped working at Névé as fire started.
Susana Machado 22:05 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Romados used to be good, before you foreigners all discovered it and they had to scale up.Then it became tolerable at best. Now Portugalia is still the bestest chicken in town. Until it will become popular….
Still sad it’s burning though ….
walkerp 22:22 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
That is a serious bummer. They were my favourite. Their baked goods are good as well. I hope they are insured and can get back on their feet.
Taylor C. Noakes 22:24 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Foreigners?
It may be ‘imported’ in a sense, but I think Portuguese chicken is pretty iconic here.
Everyone seems to have their no.2 spots already lined up.
Kate 23:13 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Taylor has written about the incident and the Gazette has a brief piece saying the damage was fairly minor.
I was reminded looking at the photos that the rotisserie is in a handsome building, which I’m glad has not been lost. People must be living upstairs, too.
Susana Machado 23:39 on 2013/01/05 Permalink
Heh, I meant foreigner as non-Portuguese. Tongue in cheekily.
david m 02:49 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
“romados” was my email password for almost 2 years. that place figured on every page of every chapter of my life during the latter half of the aughts, when i lived in a couple addresses mere minutes away. it’s now 10 bones for the demi poulet frites salade, still well worth it, but far off the halcyon days when the much better and larger dish ran $5.50. i’ve had so many discussions with people about the place’s gradual decrease in quality that i feel like it’s basically common knowledge in montreal something like the following: romados used to be great food at amazing value, now it’s just pretty good food at a fair price. you can’t go home again. hopefully they get the fire cleaned up quickly, whatever our disagreements, winter montreal needs the place.
david m 02:57 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
also, coco rico isn’t that bad. the chicken is pretty mediocre and dry, obviously, but they do soak it in grease if you ask them to and sort of do the continuous hard gesture motion for them to keep it coming. same with their piri piri, which is pretty decent. i’d never take coco rico chicken over romados, even on coco’s best day against romados’ worst, but the côtes levées are really tasty and i like the potatoes (also possible to be drizzled in grease, though hardly necessary).
walkerp 10:00 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
Phew, sounds like the fire wasn’t that bad and that they will be back in business before long.
John 10:21 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
Portugalia down the street is way better,.. Especially ther ribs!
Kate 11:25 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
The news Sunday morning is not too bad – everyone living upstairs was able to go home, the damage is not too serious.
denpanosekai 12:42 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
Good news. Here’s hoping they’ll upgrade the interior — a couple more seats wouldn’t hurt them.
Robert J 14:01 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
Maybe they were trying to get some insurance money since the city made them all get ridiculously expensive vents for the wood-fire ovens
Kate 14:08 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
I wouldn’t throw around insinuations of that kind, Robert J.
Doobish 18:19 on 2013/01/06 Permalink
In this town? Robert’s not thinking outside the realm of possibility, Kate.
Also: COCO RICO ROCKS!
HR 00:37 on 2013/01/08 Permalink
It really sucks that this happened to Ramados but that’s no reason to knock Coco Rico. They’re not consistent but when you live across the street you learn what days to go there, haha. They’re potatoes are awesome, and for a student on a budget a whole chicken for $10 is about what I’d pay at the grocery store and for the electricity to cook it. You don’t get the same smoked flavor as you do at Ramados but I’ll take it over St-Hubert or New System BBQ any day of the week.
david m 13:23 on 2013/04/11 Permalink
construction update: http://mannymachado.com/site/blog/32-romados.html