When the team behind Le Club Chasse et Pêche, Le Filet, and Le Serpent decided to open a bar in Mile End, they didn't try to recreate the white-tablecloth refinement that made their names. Instead, they went the other direction entirely.

La Taverne du Pélican landed on Laurier Ouest in late 2017 as deliberate unpretension: panelled wood walls, navy banquettes, a mounted shark presiding over the room, and a wine list assembled by CCeP sommelier Ray Manus (priced like it belongs in a tavern, of course).

The space has history behind it too; in the 1940s and '50s, poets and separatist politicians drank here when it was La Taverne de la Veuve Wilson. The Pélican keeps that neighbourhood-institution energy alive, with screens for the game, back-to-basics bar food, and hours that make it the obvious call after a show at Rialto or a late shift anywhere nearby.