Le Maçon Pub
61 Rue Principale, Gatineau (Aylmer sector), 819-557-1661, lemaconpub.com
Open: Tuesday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday to Monday 5 to 11:30 p.m.
Prices: dishes $9 to $18
Access: steps to front door
No offence to humble Québécois casse-croûtes, but hot chicken sandwiches have never ranked very high on my list.
As much as I like chicken and french fries, maybe it was a bad encounter with some too-salty, sludgy gravy, soggy white bread or flavourless, light green peas from a can that turned me off.
Happily, the hot chicken sandwich ($14) at Le Maçon Pub, which opened last fall on Aylmer’s main drag, is another bird entirely. When I tried it just before Christmas, the dish wasn’t quite haute cuisine hot chicken, but it was pretty close.
Its flavourful meat was from Gatineau’s Ferme Aux Saveurs des Monts, the bread was grilled sourdough, the gravy tasted true and chicken-y, the fries were massive but properly textured inside and out, the peas were bright green and, for good measure, there were crisp chips of chicken skin as garnish.
Score one for the pub and its 31-year-old chef, Kyle Mortimer-Proulx.
Formerly the chef at the meat-forward, high-volume Lowertown Brewery and, before that, the discerning vegan destination ZenKitchen, Mortimer-Proulx now helms the kitchens for Le Maçon and the restaurant upstairs from it, the fancier and even newer La Maison Conroy.
The two eateries replace Le Bostaurus, an upscale steakhouse that opened in late 2012 in the handsome stone building built circa 1855. Le Maçon retains the trappings of a casual pub — TV screens galore tuned to sports, a selection of video lottery terminals — but it’s also a renovated, comfy-seated, stone-walled place. At the bar, 16 beers, most of which brewed in Quebec, are on draft.
Fish and chips at Le Macon Pub
Beef stroganoff ($15) was portioned on the smaller side but still heartily flavoured, featuring chunks of braised brisket, the frequently tough cut properly tamed, in a bowl of well-seasoned spaetzle.
Beef brisket stroganoff at Le Maçon Pub
Creamy seafood chowder ($9) comforted with mussels, salt cod and bacon as well as potato and celery. The slice of grilled sourdough on the side was a nice touch.
Seafood chowder at Le Maçon Pub
Duck wings at Le Maçon Pub
Charcuterie at Le Macon Pub
We skipped the terrine of the day, which included not only pork and lamb but also duck hearts, thereby hinting at the edgier interests of Mortimer-Proulx’s cooking. (This is the same young chef whose Gold Medal Plates entry a few years ago featured duck testicles.)
Surprisingly, there was just one dessert on offer when I twice visited Le Maçon — a square of pecan-studded bread pudding with bourbon caramel and crème anglaise ($7). It was good, even if it didn’t pull out all the stops.
Bread pudding with bourbon caramel at Le Maçon Pub
Perhaps the most more lavish meal-enders are at La Maison Conroy. I’ll have to find out. Happily, the downstairs pub’s satisfying dishes make me optimistic about Mortimer-Proulx’s elevated offerings upstairs.
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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews
