Cafe Gentile (Chabanel)

Café Gentile on Chabanel is where a large part of Montreal’s Italian café culture quietly took root. Opened in 1959 by Ignazio Gentile as a modest espresso bar, it grew into a neighbourhood institution built on routine, generosity, and an unshowy kind of hospitality. The menu reflects that continuity: strong coffee, Italian comfort, and house specialties—most famously the chicken cutlet—that have earned loyalty over decades rather than trends. Still family-run, the room carries the easy rhythm of a place shaped by daily regulars, weekday lunches, and long-standing relationships. Nothing here feels engineered for reinvention. Chabanel endures by doing the same things well, year after year, offering a sense of constancy you love to see.