Scott B.
Yelp
As we continue our visit to Montreal this week, we had our first sub-par experience. Friends who live in the area told us that L'Barouf was one of their favorite bars, with plenty of beer on tap, a good negroni, and free popcorn. Well, it may be a great place for locals, but not so much for tourists based on our experience.
We walked in the front door on a rainy mid-afternoon and the place was fairly empty (as one might expect at that time of day) with only a single person at two separate tables and two more people sitting at the bar. My wife and I took seats at the bar as well and the bartender walked over to us, perfunctorily handed us a couple of drinks menus, and hovered over us until we made a selection. She apparently was in a hurry to get back to her conversation with the two local women at the other end of the bar.
My wife ordered a glass of sauvignon ($8) and I ordered a Kilkenny cream ale ($9). The bartender returned with our drinks, placed them down in front of us without saying a word, and then went back to the other end of the bar. You could almost feel a shiver in the bar, our reception was so cold. It was if we were intruding on her life.
Our interaction with the bartender aside, I do have to say that our friends were right; there is an impressive number of beers on tap here. I thoroughly enjoyed my Kilkenny cream ale, which was absolutely delicious, and I would have ordered another one if I could have gotten the bartender's attention. My wife, on the other hand, just wanted to finish her wine and for us to leave and find a friendlier bar to hang out in. (Which we eventually did. Stay tuned for that review.)
I finally got the bartender's attention, signaled that I would like to pay, and she sort of sighed as if to say "okay let's get this over with so you can leave and I can go back to what I want to focus on instead of you..."
Believe me, at this point the feeling was mutual.