It took me several years to identify where the titular bar salon of André Forcier's 1974 film was. I always wanted to take a photo of it, reproducing the same view, and in the same wintery season, but I never got around to it.
5301 St-Laurent is on the north-east corner of Maguire Street. It was built circa 1900 and originally listed at address 2101. In 1927, St-Lawrence boulevard addresses were renumbered and it became 5301.
In the beginning, it was possibly residential, or at least, there are only names listed, no obvious business name. In 1932, there are some want ads published in La Presse looking for salesmen to sell bleach, with or without their own truck, to work for Comfort Javel at this address.
Briefly it was Tobacco Co. in 1933, a grocery store in 1934, then the Beaucage Tavern in 1935-36, then again listed under people's names.
In 1939 it was listed as St-Michel Tavern / Taverne St-Michel, which became Bar Salon St-Michel in the 70s, and disappeared by 1977. This was the address' longest-running business.
While it was Tavern St-Michel, there were a couple of robbery and attempted robbery incidents. On August 26th, 1940, a policeman interrupted a break-in of the place around 3:30 AM and fired 4 shots in the air. The three suspects had broken in and tried to get into the safe. Here, the tavern is named Justras (sic) instead of St-Michel... perhaps Jutras was the owner. Here is the report published in La Patrie:
Another robbery, on September 2nd, 1949, this time successful to the tune of $180 (equivalent to about $2320 in 2023) or $800 (equivalent to about $10315), depending on which newspaper article you read. The following article published in La Patrie describes the incident wherein two men fired some shots at the floor and the ricochet hit one of the tavern's employees, wounding his legs. Not happy with their take, they vandalized the place, breaking bottles and glasses, then took off in a car with Ontario plates. A couple of weeks later, the pair were arrested and convicted for a string of robberies of several taverns and a jewelry store (totalling about $26000 in 2023 money).
From at least 1957 and into the 70s, the tavern had a ballon sur glace A.K.A. ballon-balai (broomball) team in a league that pitted them against other taverns and businesses. (Unless Taverne St Michel refers to a different tavern with the same name – it's already a bit strange that the tavern is nowhere near St-Michel boulevard, some fourty blocks east, but who knows why it was named so). Here's a report published in Montréal-matin in February 1962:
In November & December of 1972, André Forcier filmed several scenes in & outside of the bar for his feature film Bar Salon which was released in the Spring of 1974 and starring the great Guy L'Ecuyer as the place's owner. Here is an image comparing a frame from the film from 1972 versus a Google street view from 2020...
Looking up The Main...
Based on the interior scenes in the film, it appears that the layout changed quite a bit... the bar was along the opposite wall and the toilets were downstairs...
In the mid 80s it became Bar Salon Le Set, which hosted live music. It seems to have disappeared around 2004.
It was the bar Chez Serge from about 2009 until 2019. Around 2018, the corner entrance gained a barrel-shaped addition (to help cut down cold air drafts in the winter), which also fit with the wagon-wheel decorations on the exterior wall.
One notes that the sign outside Chez Serge (until the "barrel" was installed) is diamond-shaped, echoing the one of Bar Salon St-Michel at the time the film was shot. I wonder if that was intentional on somebody's part...
In 2019, it became the Lucky Hồ bar (named after its owner) with a cool asian-themed decor and featuring a few pinball machines and other arcade games at the back. Alas, it became another victim of COVID-19, and permanently closed. Here's a photo of the interior, found on yelp.ca:
Researched and written by James Schidlowsky, Sept. 2019. Additions in Nov. 2023.
References:Click here to return to the Montreal Historical Bits home page.