Restaurant Alep

199 rue Jean-Talon Est, Montréal

Restaurant Alep has run from the same corner of Jean-Talon Est and avenue de Gaspé since June 15, 1976, when Georges Frangié — an immigrant from Aleppo — opened it as a four- or five-table room across from the Jean-Talon Market. Nearly fifty years later the Frangié family still runs it, serving the Syrian-Armenian classics the room was built on: kibbe naye, tabouli, and mezza-style sharing plates. Georges's daughters Chahla and Tania later opened a bistro sibling, Le Petit Alep, a few doors down in 1995 — same family, two distinct rooms, not a repeated banner.