As much as Ben’s was a landmark, a two storey building does not belong on prime real estate. It would have been perfect for some parts of the Main. It would have been an important element of various urban neighbourhoods like the Plateau, Mile End or Pointe-Saint-Charles. However having this in the downtown core was embarrassing. It’s too small, and its surrounded by parking.
Not to mention the fact that their food quality has deteriorated considerably in the last 30 years.
Pourquoi est-il partiellement démoli?
Parce que la démolition ne fait que commencer !
Good Riddance!
There’s nothing “embarrassing” about a low-rise historic eatery in a big city. New York has plenty of examples.
The problem — and this is where I do agree with you — was the lousy food.
I just can’t believe it’s gone, and some people would contest the food was lousy.
It wouldn’t have become such a landmark if that were the case.
Secondly, there’s nothing wrong with a two story building still existing in the downtown core. It’s called variety and spice, and that’s what makes a city so fascinating. If everything was blandly the same, what would be the point. Where would the highlights be, or those secret hideaways where you would hook up with friends?
Don’t shed a tear ! Their food was lousy and the building was an eyesoar in Downtown Montreal !
Chris, I’m 50 and used to eat there when I was a kid: the food wasn’t ALWAYS bad.
If they had started out with the kind of food ad service they finished with, I don’t believe it would have lasted a year, let alone become a landmark.
… I agree with you about the need for wonderful secret nooks and crannies in the city, though. They’re so special.
I think that’s why I was bemoaning the loss of that lunch counter place in Chinatown a while back, where the dragon beard candy stand now stands.
Of course, there are new little delights springing up from time to time to (hopefully) make up for what we’ve lost.
I’m thinking of little newer spots like Patati Patata, livening up that corner, or in the downtown core, the wonderfully anachronistic Mr. Steerburger.
Maybe Spacing could do a series on downtown hideaway spots?
Oh, and by the way, while I’m hogging disk space here, you know what’s ALSO sad to see?
I was walking with my nephew to Central Station though Dominion Square last night and was dismayed to see how seedy the west side of Peel Street now is, between Saint Catherine and Le Windsor.
It’s just that block, right in the midst of some of the most expensive and toniest real estate. It’s just, well, sad.
Cet immeuble était de plus le seul survivant de ce secteur. Voici une comparaison de la rue en 1964 et en 2007.
BYE BYE
bon débarras
Plus de gratte ciels SVP!
Oh… some things don’t change. The unfortunate timing of this is that Bens will get torn down and NOTHING will go up in its place. Hmmm… brings to mind, Overdale, The Queens Hotel, and pretty much every other surface parking in the downtown core.
I certainly think there are small buildings well worth saving in the downtown core – there is a particularly beautiful brick building that was a gentlemen’s club just south of Sherbrooke on Mansfield or Metcalfe with wonderful grotesque heads. Not to mention some charming, and not particularly large churches with their adjacent manse.
But I don’t think Ben’s is a particularly interesting example of late art-déco style. It is no more distinguished than the former factory on rue de Castelnau east from St-Laurent was (though I think the condo construction – Monsanto apartments – should have been more respectful of the original design when renovating the structure). There are far better buildings of that style on the outskirts of Old Montréal.
As for it being surrounded by parking, parking lots where buildings had once stood are a far more egregious eyesore than a mediocre building.
It is annoying when a building is demolished and what is built is no improvement. On St-Dominique, just south of Jean-Talon, Zinmann poultry made the logical decision to pull down the ground-floor-only building they were housed in and build a larger facility with bigger retail premises, and apartments above, so close to Jean-Talon market and two métro lines. But the new building is rather sad looking, wiht arbitrary use of aluminium panels on a red-brick building that would have fit into the neighbourhood better without them. It looks as if they had run out of brick.
Shawn, the city announced over the summer that they plan on sprucing up the park over the next couple years. I don’t have the newspaper article off hand but I remember reading it.
Shawn,
Ben’s has great kitsch value but doesn’t have much historic value, unfortunately. However, I agree 100% about the demise of the neighbourhood between Peel and Atwater.. from what I understand it’s been gradually bought up by Claridge, a company purportedly owned by Stephen Bronfman, who supposedly plans to rebuild the entire area but has been sitting on development plans for about 10 years now.
Who knows when Claridge will finally get their butts in gear and do something about the area. *MAYBE* they’re waiting for a bunch of bright, creative folks to come up with a financially viable plan to put into action, which may very well be the case.
That said, the first thing I would do to revitalize the neighbourhood is tear down the unsightly waste-of-space known as the AMC Forum, and re-design Cabot Square. But hey, that’s just me.
I took my own photos of the site about a week and a half ago while I was in Montreal for Con*Cept.
I’d heard about this place via CBC Radio One – particularly Shelagh Rogers’ Sounds Like Canada show – and remembered some of the stories told. To see it in this condition, knowing that I was simply too damned late in getting around to visiting in person and seeing and tasting the truth of those tales directly?
I was almost in tears. And I’ll make no apologies to the worlds for admitting to that.
Apologies for not including the link to Con*Cept above.
My opinion of Ben’s stands regardless.
My name’s Philip and I’m from Vancouver! I visited Ben’s in Montreal when i backpacked/travelled across Canada in 1993! I cannot recall much about the food or the interior..I recall eating a pastrami sandwich i think..and the interior being very spartan and plain..just like most lunch counter cafeterias. It’s a sad day when the neighborhood deli closes and the building faces the wrecking ball.
However, i understand the building must’ve sat on prime real estate, and the deli
probably would have closed anyways, due to rising rents had it not been for the family business just wanting to close it down after so many years..Having said that, I guess there’s newer (and just as good) places to eat if you’re looking for a quality deli in town!
Can anyone comment on the progress of the new tower planned for the site, is the tearing down of Ben’s a sign that things will soon get under way? Hines, the developper, seems rooted in the American real estate market espescially california and the south; does this spell trouble, or is the flip side that Montreal might for once seem like the more promising market to dive into? The same company is also taking on the viger station, the two projects making a fair slice of the new construction slated for the city.
21 comments
As much as Ben’s was a landmark, a two storey building does not belong on prime real estate. It would have been perfect for some parts of the Main. It would have been an important element of various urban neighbourhoods like the Plateau, Mile End or Pointe-Saint-Charles. However having this in the downtown core was embarrassing. It’s too small, and its surrounded by parking.
Not to mention the fact that their food quality has deteriorated considerably in the last 30 years.
Pourquoi est-il partiellement démoli?
Parce que la démolition ne fait que commencer !
Good Riddance!
There’s nothing “embarrassing” about a low-rise historic eatery in a big city. New York has plenty of examples.
The problem — and this is where I do agree with you — was the lousy food.
I just can’t believe it’s gone, and some people would contest the food was lousy.
It wouldn’t have become such a landmark if that were the case.
Secondly, there’s nothing wrong with a two story building still existing in the downtown core. It’s called variety and spice, and that’s what makes a city so fascinating. If everything was blandly the same, what would be the point. Where would the highlights be, or those secret hideaways where you would hook up with friends?
Don’t shed a tear ! Their food was lousy and the building was an eyesoar in Downtown Montreal !
Chris, I’m 50 and used to eat there when I was a kid: the food wasn’t ALWAYS bad.
If they had started out with the kind of food ad service they finished with, I don’t believe it would have lasted a year, let alone become a landmark.
… I agree with you about the need for wonderful secret nooks and crannies in the city, though. They’re so special.
I think that’s why I was bemoaning the loss of that lunch counter place in Chinatown a while back, where the dragon beard candy stand now stands.
Of course, there are new little delights springing up from time to time to (hopefully) make up for what we’ve lost.
I’m thinking of little newer spots like Patati Patata, livening up that corner, or in the downtown core, the wonderfully anachronistic Mr. Steerburger.
Maybe Spacing could do a series on downtown hideaway spots?
Oh, and by the way, while I’m hogging disk space here, you know what’s ALSO sad to see?
I was walking with my nephew to Central Station though Dominion Square last night and was dismayed to see how seedy the west side of Peel Street now is, between Saint Catherine and Le Windsor.
It’s just that block, right in the midst of some of the most expensive and toniest real estate. It’s just, well, sad.
Cet immeuble était de plus le seul survivant de ce secteur. Voici une comparaison de la rue en 1964 et en 2007.
BYE BYE
bon débarras
Plus de gratte ciels SVP!
Oh… some things don’t change. The unfortunate timing of this is that Bens will get torn down and NOTHING will go up in its place. Hmmm… brings to mind, Overdale, The Queens Hotel, and pretty much every other surface parking in the downtown core.
I certainly think there are small buildings well worth saving in the downtown core – there is a particularly beautiful brick building that was a gentlemen’s club just south of Sherbrooke on Mansfield or Metcalfe with wonderful grotesque heads. Not to mention some charming, and not particularly large churches with their adjacent manse.
But I don’t think Ben’s is a particularly interesting example of late art-déco style. It is no more distinguished than the former factory on rue de Castelnau east from St-Laurent was (though I think the condo construction – Monsanto apartments – should have been more respectful of the original design when renovating the structure). There are far better buildings of that style on the outskirts of Old Montréal.
As for it being surrounded by parking, parking lots where buildings had once stood are a far more egregious eyesore than a mediocre building.
It is annoying when a building is demolished and what is built is no improvement. On St-Dominique, just south of Jean-Talon, Zinmann poultry made the logical decision to pull down the ground-floor-only building they were housed in and build a larger facility with bigger retail premises, and apartments above, so close to Jean-Talon market and two métro lines. But the new building is rather sad looking, wiht arbitrary use of aluminium panels on a red-brick building that would have fit into the neighbourhood better without them. It looks as if they had run out of brick.
Shawn, the city announced over the summer that they plan on sprucing up the park over the next couple years. I don’t have the newspaper article off hand but I remember reading it.
Shawn,
Ben’s has great kitsch value but doesn’t have much historic value, unfortunately. However, I agree 100% about the demise of the neighbourhood between Peel and Atwater.. from what I understand it’s been gradually bought up by Claridge, a company purportedly owned by Stephen Bronfman, who supposedly plans to rebuild the entire area but has been sitting on development plans for about 10 years now.
Who knows when Claridge will finally get their butts in gear and do something about the area. *MAYBE* they’re waiting for a bunch of bright, creative folks to come up with a financially viable plan to put into action, which may very well be the case.
That said, the first thing I would do to revitalize the neighbourhood is tear down the unsightly waste-of-space known as the AMC Forum, and re-design Cabot Square. But hey, that’s just me.
I took my own photos of the site about a week and a half ago while I was in Montreal for Con*Cept.
I’d heard about this place via CBC Radio One – particularly Shelagh Rogers’ Sounds Like Canada show – and remembered some of the stories told. To see it in this condition, knowing that I was simply too damned late in getting around to visiting in person and seeing and tasting the truth of those tales directly?
I was almost in tears. And I’ll make no apologies to the worlds for admitting to that.
Apologies for not including the link to Con*Cept above.
My opinion of Ben’s stands regardless.
My name’s Philip and I’m from Vancouver! I visited Ben’s in Montreal when i backpacked/travelled across Canada in 1993! I cannot recall much about the food or the interior..I recall eating a pastrami sandwich i think..and the interior being very spartan and plain..just like most lunch counter cafeterias. It’s a sad day when the neighborhood deli closes and the building faces the wrecking ball.
However, i understand the building must’ve sat on prime real estate, and the deli
probably would have closed anyways, due to rising rents had it not been for the family business just wanting to close it down after so many years..Having said that, I guess there’s newer (and just as good) places to eat if you’re looking for a quality deli in town!
Can anyone comment on the progress of the new tower planned for the site, is the tearing down of Ben’s a sign that things will soon get under way? Hines, the developper, seems rooted in the American real estate market espescially california and the south; does this spell trouble, or is the flip side that Montreal might for once seem like the more promising market to dive into? The same company is also taking on the viger station, the two projects making a fair slice of the new construction slated for the city.