Beyt: Lebanese-Mediterranean Wine Bar on Boulevard Saint-Laurent

On boulevard Saint-Laurent, a short walk from the mountain, Beyt Cave à Manger settled in around mid-May 2026 and already feels like it has always been there. Anthony Gebrayel and Angélique Custeau built it on a simple idea: a cave à manger in the spirit of the ones you’re lucky enough to stumble on in Europe, where you can drop in for nothing more than a coffee, a glass of wine, a plate to share, a long apéro, or a bottle to take home.

The name sets the tone. Beyt, pronounced “bait,” means house in Arabic. For Anthony, who is of Lebanese origin, it was the natural way to name a place built around welcome, comfort and the pleasure of being well received. “It just means home, plain and simple,” sums up Angélique, who describes the project with the words that keep resurfacing in conversation: convivial, accessible, social, alive. And that’s exactly how it feels when you walk in.

Anthony studied sommellerie at the ITHQ before spending a decade or so in restaurants, moving between wine service, management, bar and stages in Europe. He then veered toward design and cabinetmaking, a detour that makes complete sense in this room he imagined and built with the help of several friends and collaborators from the industry. In 2023, he launched Dépanneur Comptoir on Duluth, a corner shop that puts small local producers front and centre.

It was in that same world that he became friends with Angélique, whose path took shape across several Montreal addresses, Fleurs et Cadeaux, Hélicoptère and Bonheur d’Occasion among them. Also trained in sommellerie, she found there a way to connect the things that move her: the product, the people, the producers and the stories behind each cuvée.

Out of that friendship, long conversations and a shared craving, Beyt was born: a place less of a commitment than a big restaurant dinner, but more grounded than a simple neighbourhood bar. “We shared the same ideas about what Montreal was missing,” Angélique confides. A cave à manger you come to for a coffee just as readily as a business lunch, an afternoon apéro or a supper that stretches on, with nothing to plan in advance.

Artisan wines as a meeting point

In the glass, Angélique writes a living list, built around private imports and the small arrivals of artisan wines she wants people to discover. “I want a living space, I want living wines,” she says. The point isn’t to “buy wine for the sake of buying wine,” but to create a link between the grower and the guest. That same impulse toward sharing will carry into tasting events, with Beyt planning to welcome certain winemakers on site, in the same spirit of encounter and exchange. The by-the-glass selection, what they also call “à la verse,” follows the same appetite for discovery: cuvées made with as few inputs as possible, some poured straight from the keg, at relatively accessible prices. The list is in constant motion, the stories circulate, and the bottle-shop side lets you leave with a few bottles at gentle prices, provided, the law being the law, you add a small dish to take away. The handful of cocktails on offer stay deliberately in the background: martini, negroni, hard lemonade. Here, wine is unmistakably the star.

A nod to Lebanese culture

In the kitchen, Beyt works in a register of Mediterranean sharing, with an openly claimed wink to Anthony’s Lebanese roots. The plates are simple but precise and full of flavour: samurai-mayo eggs, hummus with olive tapenade, leeks vinaigrette done fattouche-style, lamb skewers with za’atar yogurt, and stuffed eggplant on labneh with a gentle kick, our favourite (!!). Like any self-respecting wine bar, boards of Quebec cheeses and charcuterie also share top billing. The desserts, signed by local outfit Patachon, round out the offering, including a chocolate mousse served with olive oil and fleur de sel that’s already convincing enough to bring you back.

A space with a story

The décor tells its own part of the story. During demolition, the team uncovered stone and brick walls, raw materials they chose to let speak for themselves. Behind the bar, the weathered wall gives the room a soul, a visible trace of everything the space went through before becoming Beyt. Glass blocks dress the bar, the true centrepiece, while high ceilings and a mezzanine give the space room to breathe. The arches, a nod to classic Lebanese architecture, set a mood somewhere between southern Europe and the Middle East, with no forced staging. “We literally fell in love the moment we walked into this little space that’s truly on a human scale,” says Anthony, who adds that here, you’re always “a glass of wine away from talking to your neighbour.”

Beyt arrives as a neighbourhood address in the truest sense of the term: small, lived-in, accessible, designed to build habits. With 34 seats inside and a terrace set to nearly double its capacity, the wine bar aims to run from noon to midnight, five days a week. A place to come for a glass, to understand what you’re drinking, to let small sharing plates guide you, to make good encounters and, why not, to leave with a few bottles. You can feel that this address was dreamed up by people who truly understand what hospitality means. For that reason, Beyt already ranks among the loveliest openings of 2026: a neighbourhood house you’ll want to adopt.

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Alison Slattery

Updated on June 01, 2026

Make a suggestion