Downtown Montreal restaurant told to close packed terrasse on Grand Prix Friday night

On the busiest Friday night of the year, in the centre of the F1 Grand Prix action in downtown Montreal, a restaurant was told to kick customers off its terrasse and close it down.

In a tear-filled post on Instagram, Groupe Ferreira director of operations Sandra Ferreira explained how members of the Service de securite incendie de Montreal (SIM) told her that the Ferreira Café terrasse on Peel Street was not up to code and had to be emptied and closed or the whole restaurant would be shut down.

“They wait until Friday at 9 p.m. of the Grand Prix to come, while we have a full restaurant and, in front of everyone, they ask us to make everyone leave the terrasse,” said Ferreira. “Like we’re 9 p.m. and jam-packed.”

She said she was able to find and produce permits for her ventilation system and emails saying the terrasse was authorized but that the officials told her she had to either close the terrasse or the restaurant.

She said in her video that the cafe and other restaurants and bars have been working for months to have a Grand Prix event on Peel Street, but that with construction on Ste. Catherine Street and Peel, “it too months to get special permission to get our terrasses on Peel.”

“Eventually, after speaking with many officials, the city told us we are ok,” she said. “I find this so cruel to have waited two or three weeks to have come to tell me this while the restaurant is full.”

Montreal opposition party Ensemble Montreal councillor Abdelhaq Sari was quick to criticize Mayor Valerie Plante’s leadership in her own borough – Ville-Marie.

“Where is the consultation with all the stakeholders that the mayor is talking about?” he wrote on X.

Not Montreal firefighters

The Montreal firefighters union (Association des Pompiers de Montreal) said on Saturday that it was “irritated and deeply disappointed to see its members erroneously and intensely taken to task by various restaurant owners who were forced to close their terrasses.”

The association said its members had nothing to do with the SIM interventions.

“The confusion stems from the fact that this spectacular operation, called Sentinelle, was carried out by prevention officers, civilian employees, who, unfortunately, wear a uniform similar to that of firefighters,” said Firefighters Association president Chris Ross.

While the union said its members were not involved with closing terrasses downtown, “firefighters cannot remain insensitive to the presence of significant infractions.”

“In the past, Montreal has experienced tragic events attributable to this type of offence,” the union’s news release reads. “In the Association’s view, society cannot afford to be lax, especially during periods of heavy human activity, at the risk of causing disastrous events, even tragedies.”

More to come.