Tears flowed Sunday at a famous Montreal tavern usually known as a place for good times and cold flowing beer.
Magnan’s, at the corner of Charlevoix and St. Patrick, served its last customer Sunday after 82 years as a mainstay for hot meals and well-chilled beer.
Many longtime customers showed up for the sad send off.
“I've been coming here for so long, it's been a big part of my life," said longtime customer Andre Laberge. "I want to remember being here one last time." Laberge noted that his father-in-law outdid him for loyalty, coming during his lunch break every working day for 42 years.
This fall the time-honoured establishment stunned the city by announcing that it would be closing for good.
“It was very hard to see if it was possible to reverse the situation and at the end we have to conclude that it was impossible,” said Alain Gauthier, who has run the operation for 15 years since marrying into the Magnan family.
Management has cited the high price of beef, the loss of jobs in the area and the flight of its clientele towards the suburbs.
Many of the 62 unionized staffers fought back tears while working Sunday, including one manager who saw the overflow crowd as a bittersweet contrast to the usual proliferation of empty seats.
“It's hard to see that so many people want to come now, whereas the past couple of years we've been forgotten about,” said Manager Casandra Viviers.
The Magnan's name will live on at a couple of South Shore butcher shops, one at the Dix30 complex in Brossard and another opening soon in Boucherville.
