Le Pavillon

Tons has been written already about Mont-​Royal park, Montréal’s answer to New York’s Central Park or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park (all three parks were designed by the same landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, incidentally), but not nearly any attention has been given to Le Pavillion chalet.
While Central Park has Tavern on the Green and Golden Gate Park has The Beach Chalet and The Park Chalet, we have Le Pavillion, historical buildings, located within historical parks, whose use has changed with the times and now serve as great places to stop by for a drink or a bite to eat.
What I love about this building is that it still retains it’s 1950s-​1960s faux-​Nordic-​après-​ski chalet look. I remember coming here as a kid in the 70s and 80s, and it was the place to rent out skates for the ice rink, lock your boots and things and change into your skates. It underwent a huge renovation in 2007 and now houses a bistro and cafeteria-​style café up on the first floor.
I have not eaten at the bistro but I have heard that the food is pretty darn good. I can only speak about the cafeteria. You can get tea, coffee, great hot chocolate, soups and sandwiches and similar items here, carry them to your table and enjoy the amazing view of Beaver Lake, the tobogganing hill in the winter of the gentle hills making their way to the lookout in the summer, all of it laid out in front of you to be enjoyed. I’m quite surprised this place isn’t fuller in the summer time. It’s a mere 10 minute walk from downtown or if you catch the bus along Guy/​Cote Des Neiges and just walk up from one of the park’s west entrances. There are worse places to spend your lunch hour at the height of summer, that’s for sure.