After years of searching high and low and far and wide, a photo of the Swiss Hut has emerged from a cave in the jungles of outer Boirsbriand and peacefully surrendered to heavily-armed cowboy hat-clad Coolopolis interns.
The Swiss Hut was the jewel in the crown of a now totally disappeared bar strip on Sherbrooke Street east of McGill University to Park. The structures were razed for that godawful hotel that has sat on the property since the early 70s.
Other joints on the strip included the Spanish social club (that later grew up and became Casa Pedro on Crescent), the New Penelope music venu, the belly dancing place where Harry Ship got shot, the Country Palace (I have a great story about this place in my upcoming Want In? You're In. It was later named Alouette, as seen in this photo) ... but you knew all of that because it's explained in great detail in my Montreal encyclopedia known as Montreal 375 Tales.
Neil Cameron, who died a few years back, spun lots of yarnage about the Swiss Hut, including a story about a young Conrad Black debating with hippie beatniks on a scalding hot summer evening. Black was wearing a suit and tie and didn't sweat one bit, according to Cameron.
He also recounted how Nick Auf der Maur got banned from the place for a while after bringing a young separatist woman in who festooned the bathroom with hard-to-remove stickers with a separatist slogan on them.
The Swiss Hut was a meeting grounds of French and English schools as well as a lot of artists from nearby, so there were tons of intellectual diversity inside. Fistfights were averted because people had to sit in about 20 booths which made it difficult to leap out of your seat for a throw down.
Brian Nation shared a little story with me today about the Swiss Hut.
"On a Sunday afternoon in 66 or 67 I stopped by the Hut for a beer. The waitress brought me a Cinquante and placed a small plate beside it with a tiny piece of chicken, about an ounce of Coke, a single fry, and a bill for sixty cents.
What the hell is this?
New Quebec bylaw. Must have a meal to order alcohol on Sunday .
I’m not going to pay 60 cents for this.
Just leave it. We leave it there all day. That’s the meal. It’s our business if we don’t collect for it.
I think that bylaw was history by the following Sunday. "
(As a technicality, Nation, of course, was probably mistaken about the bylaw. The rubber sandwich rule was well known in Montreal for decades and probably is still in effect. It's used as a way for restaurants to serve booze without food. But whatever, you get it.)
I remember well the ruse to put a few crackers and cheese on the table in front of you when you ordered a beer on Sunday. I used to go to the Park Plaza on Park Avenue and Bernard all the time and they always put out this phony plate of food to ward off inspectors. The crackers and cheese must have turned to stone when they finally threw it out. Only in Montreal and I loved it. Ah..memories!
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