A (mostly) spoken history of Clarke Café, Montreal’s home of the sangwich

Growing up today, you may not know the Mile End institution Boulangerie Clarke, but you’d likely know Clarke Café in Pointe-Saint-Charles: Home of the sangwich, a simple yet reliable purveyor of Italian imports, goods, and coffee, it’s the reincarnation of the OG landmark, originally opened by Clarke Café’s owner Frank Servedio’s grandfather, Salvatore Servedio, in the Mile End in 1980.

My grandfather was a hard-working guy... My grandmother, meanwhile, would work at the cash with my aunt in her arms as a baby.

Baked in history

“When Boulangerie Clarke started, they’d do bread for restaurants and cakes— they used to do so many cakes in the 80s and 90s—for the Italian community, but the big box stores killed that a bit.”