The walls are one hundred and thirty-eight years older than the restaurant: 1847 for the stone, 1985 for the family that still keeps it.
One street from the lake, the stone house on Sainte-Anne Avenue dates to 1847 — Québec records know it as the Maison Pierre-Demers. The family that runs Le Gourmand acquired it in 1985. First a village bakery-café, the address became, over the decades, Pointe-Claire's fine-dining table; in 2020, the Journal Métro reported that it was about to celebrate 25 years as a restaurant in the village.
Two brothers lead it: Michael Oliphant at the stoves — head chef and co-owner — and Kenny Oliphant in the dining room. The house has kept its original stone walls and wooden beams, gained an atrium bar and a 75-seat back terrace that columnist Larry Waters counts among the most intimate in the Montréal area. Total capacity: about 150 covers, over two levels, white tablecloths.
The menu plays two registers, and owns it: beef ribs in Thai BBQ sauce, Asian-style organic salmon tartare, scallops and shrimp in Cajun sauce, blanquette de veau — but also pâté chinois and fish and chips, because the house serves its neighbourhood first. Waters notes that the floor staff have been in place a long time and treat the habitués with just the right dose of irreverence; newcomers get the white-glove treatment — until they become habitués in their turn.
The village is part of the recipe. «Tout près, il y a trois clubs de yacht, un terrain de golf, un club de curling et plusieurs magasins. On en profite et on amène du monde dans le village aussi», Kenny Oliphant explained to the Métro during the 2020 lockdown — at the very moment the two brothers were champing at the bit, dining room shuttered, preparing stews and braised dishes for takeout.