Hochelaga was looking forward to his new bakery. From the first day, customers lined up. Two weeks later, Aube is already well integrated into the landscape, as if it had always been there. The tables are filled with teleworkers who have made themselves comfortable and friends chatting over coffee and a dense, fluffy financier.
“Unlike a more upscale restaurant, a bakery has its regulars. We quickly develop a relationship with them,” says co-owner and pastry chef Stéphanie Gagnon-Laberge, who cut her teeth in San Francisco. The large glass-fronted kitchen allows the staff to take a look at the happy tasters of their confections. And conversely, customers can observe the work being done live.
On a day-to-day basis, Stephanie works with her business partner Adrien Allard, who fell in love with baking while working at the late Les 400 Coups restaurant. He is the master of fermentations. The third owner of the project — but not the least! — is David Ollu. Aube is an extension of Hélico and by the same token its big brother Hélicoptère, two essentials in the neighborhood opened by this chef who has certainly proven himself for almost five years. We are also told to be on the lookout for another imminent birth, that of a cocktail and wine bar in the annex of Hélicoptère.
It all started at the Helico, about two years ago. By dint of providing cafes with pastries and restaurants with bread, space ran out in the small premises. Production has therefore partly moved to the space occupied by Aube, further east, rue Sainte-Catherine, even before the start of the renovations. “Our contractors, The Two Hammers, had to work around us! “says Adrian.
Aube lives up to its name and opens at 7 a.m. every morning, closing at 6 p.m. So the croissants are rolled and the bread prepared from 4 am. There is coffee from the Montreal coffee house Jungle to get out of the arms of Morpheus and a whole panoply of pastries, financiers and other scones well presented at the counter. Sandwiches and garnished focaccia satisfy lunchtime appetites.
Each composition has been carefully thought out and tested. The breakfast sandwich, for example, contains a square of frittata and a thick slice of “baloney” from the butcher shop Édouard et Léo. Its unique strong bread is made with croissant dough — the scraps, to avoid waste. Other creations are the spontaneous result of a delivery of fruits or vegetables of the moment.
To be discovered, tomorrow at dawn!
