When Bistro Larivière in Sainte-Marie closed during the pandemic, nothing replaced it. That left the Grover Building across the street, packed with residents and artists, without an immediate neighbourhood option for a coffee or nosh. So when MJ Déziel bought 540 square feet of former gym on the strip, the choice was another apartment or the first reason to stop on the block. Now, Éléphantine has been open as a café since early summer, and its three-nights-a-week buvette component is kicking into gear.
"When we walked around the neighbourhood, we were like, there's nothing, nothing around," Déziel says. What they wanted was a third space, and the shape of it followed from there. "You can come for a coffee in the morning, you can work a bit, you can run into someone from the neighbourhood, and you can come back for a glass of wine later."
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