La Marelle: Don’t even think of boxing this Mile-Ex restaurant in

With its chef's El Salvadorean roots and Eurocentric tutelage, as many fine wines as there are cold pints of 50, and versatile vibes, La Marelle is a sense of play incarnate.

J.P. Karwacki

February 23, 2024- Read time: 8 min

Brendan Lavery-Breier and chef Carlos Melgar behind the line, who co-own the Mile-Ex restaurant La Marelle with Taylor D’Ottavi. | Photograph: Sarah-Jane Patry

Riding the slow but sure rolling waves of arrivals in Mile-Ex like Taverne Atlantic and Bar Wills, La Marelle’s like a candlelit lifeboat on its stretch of Beaubien Ouest.

An unassuming exterior leads you right into a long wooden bar facing an open kitchen running the length of a main room—an inheritance from the space's previous tenant, Le Diplomate—and passage to a spacious casual dining room in the back, skylit by day and candlelit by night.

A new project from Maison Publique and Salle Climatisée alumni Brendan Lavery-Breier, chef Carlos Melgar, and Taylor D’Ottavi, La Marelle is what you'd call the modern definition of a 'Montreal restaurant' through and through.

...All three of our experiences show how the city can bring people together, most importantly through hospitality. I think that’s a beautiful facet of our story.

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