Coco Disco Club wants to be your neighbourhood everything spot

Every time they'd walk past an empty storefront, Loïc Fortin and Manu Jonik would nudge each other and joke: "Let's open Coco Disco Club there."

"It's the one name we called everything," Fortin says, laughing about how their inside joke has since evolved into a 30-seat restaurant with a 30-seat terrasse on Duluth—the Plateau's newest social experiment serving deep-fried lasagna alongside clarified butter coffee.

Bringing everything to the table

What started as a café concept quickly spiralled into something much bigger when Fortin—known in Montreal's cocktail scene as Loyd Von Rose from his Tittle Tattle and La Gargamelle projects—assembled a Montreal restaurant all-star roster.

This forms what may be the most unusual aspect of Coco Disco Club, which is the kitchen structure—five chefs working collaboratively, including Fortin, without traditional hierarchy. "There's no position. We're all chefs. We all create the dishes together," he explains.

The roster includes Darren Rogers from Damas, Jerome Arsenault from Au Pied de Cochon, Aleksandre Marion from Gargamelle, and Jerome Couture from Cabane d'à côté. The bar team is similar yet smaller, including veterans Simon Lefebvre from Tittle Tattle, Shelby Martineau from Clandestino, and Luis Reyes from Gargamelle.

"Everyone has something to bring to the table," Fortin says about the democratic approach that extends beyond the kitchen. Front-of-house staff create their own cocktails and dishes for the menu. "What we want to do here is create restaurateurs and not employees."

The result is a menu that feels both nostalgic and inventive—Southern European comfort food filtered through Montreal sensibilities. There's cordon bleu and steak frites, but also things like Arancini alla Carbonara and a Scotch egg sandwich made with deep-fried Toulouse sausage. The cocktail program maintains Fortin's signature technical flair with forced carbonation, clarified milk punches, and fat-washed spirits, but the names ("Bee-geezzzzz," "Kool & Naked") keep things playful.

The coffee program might be the most ambitious detail—they worked with local roaster Zab to develop a custom espresso specifically for espresso martinis, then built an entire coffee cocktail menu around techniques like clarified butter coffee and carbonated cold brew.

"The team became very good, so we were like, yeah, let's do something very good," Fortin laughs. "The main goal here is to be top 50 in the first year."

With the third address comes the third place

Coco Disco Club is the third in line following the opening Tittle Tattle and its adjoining Gargamelle project, but beneath the ambition lies a simpler motivation.

Jonik, who handles the business and marketing side, explains they were trying to solve a problem they felt as Plateau residents: "We just were missing something without being able to put a word on exactly what was missing," she says.

Their answer was to create what they call a social club—somewhere Gen Z and millennials could find that elusive third place between work and home. "It's a place where people meet," Fortin says. "Whatever in the day, whatever you want to do, it's a place to be."

The concept shows in the details: They keep notes on every customer, offer everything from weekend brunch to late-night cocktails, and price most dishes under $30 so regulars can afford to actually be regular. A third of their cocktail menu is non-alcoholic. They have plans to offer picnic baskets for takeaway, turning the restaurant into a neighbourhood resource.

And the Duluth Street location isn't coincidental, either—it's where Fortin and Jonik had their first date, lived in their first apartment, and now run their first restaurant together.

"It's kind of a long love story with the street," Fortin explains.

Neighbourhood institution speedrun

Less than a week after opening, Coco Disco Club already feels like it's achieving its social club ambitions. The reservations filled immediately, but they're committed to taking walk-ins and maintaining the kind of casual accessibility that lets people stop by for just a coffee or a quick bite.

Mathilde Jonik, Manu's sister and the third partner, brings five-star service training from palace hotels in France to what remains a fundamentally neighbourhood-focused operation. The goal, they say, is giving exceptional service at accessible prices—the kind of place where you can eat and drink well for $50.

"We take care of people the way we like to be taken care of when we go out," Manu explains. They keep detailed notes on customers, want to know everyone's names, and aim to create genuine community rather than just serve food.

The space itself reinforces this—30 seats inside surrounded by family photos and vintage details, plus a 30-seat terrasse filled with herbs and flowers that guests can harvest. A disco ball hangs in the centre (what else would you put in a place called Coco Disco Club?).

The Plateau location feels intentional rather than opportunistic. "When I came to Montreal, the Plateau was pretty fucking fire," Fortin says, noting the recent energy from neighbours like Cabaret L'enfer. "I really feel like it's coming back."