Sans Instagram countdown, soft launch announcement or carefully timed press push, Bistrot Boisselet opened its doors in Little Italy around the corner from Jean-Talon Market, and simply got to work.

"A good friend of ours that's worked in the industry for a long time always told us: if the food's good, people will come," says Taylor D'Ottavi, who runs the front of house alongside partners John Hale and Antoine Denis of Le Plongeoir. "So we rolled with that."

For a team with a combined résumé that includes the likes of Liverpool House, Salle Climatisée, and Maison Publique, opting out of the restaurant industry's implicit hype machine was deliberate, but it makes more sense the longer you sit with it because Boisselet, at its core, is a restaurant built on the premise that the work speaks for itself. And the work, in this case, belongs largely to chef Darcy Gervais-Wood.

Sans Instagram countdown, soft launch announcement or carefully timed press push, Bistrot Boisselet opened its doors in Little Italy around the corner from Jean-Talon Market, and simply got to work.

"A good friend of ours that's worked in the industry for a long time always told us: if the food's good, people will come," says Taylor D'Ottavi, who runs the front of house alongside partners John Hale and Antoine Denis of Le Plongeoir. "So we rolled with that."

For a team with a combined résumé that includes the likes of Liverpool House, Salle Climatisée, and Maison Publique, opting out of the restaurant industry's implicit hype machine was deliberate, but it makes more sense the longer you sit with it because Boisselet, at its core, is a restaurant built on the premise that the work speaks for itself. And the work, in this case, belongs largely to chef Darcy Gervais-Wood.