Restaurant Plume: A French Table on Fairmount West

On Fairmount West, in a corner space that had housed a Greek pastry wholesaler since 1967, Brigitte Emond Serret and Raphaël Leclerc-Gileau opened Restaurant Plume in April 2026, their very first address, a French table at 122 Fairmount Avenue West in Montreal’s Mile End.

From Bouillon Bilk to a table of their own

The duo didn’t land here by chance. Brigitte and Raphaël met about ten years ago at Bouillon Bilk, she in the dining room, he in the kitchen. Their paths split for a while: Raphaël, trained in both cooking and pastry, passed through Bar George before moving into private service; Brigitte sharpened her sommellerie at Candide and then at Panacée, which she has just left. “We always wanted to open a restaurant together. We’re the classic front of house, back of house,” she says. Finding the space turned out to be the longest part of the adventure: the concept was waiting for its neighbourhood.

Why the Mile End

The Mile End felt like an obvious, if slightly offbeat, choice. Where the area leans heavily toward wine bars, the two wanted a table with a little more grounding, without slipping into the format of a grand institution. The à la carte menu lets regulars drop in for a glass and three bites, or settle in for the whole evening. The idea, in Brigitte’s words, is that “people can come and go with whatever budget they have.”

A French base, always reworked

On the plate, the foundation is French but never left alone. House sourdough and oysters, served raw or with a granité and dressed up like a small, prettily garnished tableau, are the menu’s fixed points. From there come cold and hot starters, skewers cooked over a Japanese grill, plenty of fish (Raphaël has a soft spot for the less common species), and, lower on the menu, dishes like duck, alternating between meat and fish as the seasons turn. Local sourcing comes first whenever the season allows, and the menu shifts to that same rhythm.

On the wine side, Brigitte has built a list that is entirely private import, organic, and tilted toward small producers, from France to Eastern Europe by way of Quebec. “What interests me is the people behind the project,” she says. The cocktails follow the same philosophy: simple, Italian-leaning aperitifs built around a good vermouth and a few amari.

Where the name comes from

The name Plume (French for “feather”) was chosen first for the way it sounds. Then coincidence stepped in: a family of pigeons nesting in the awning, feathers to sweep up out front every morning, and a whole cabinet of taxidermied birds discovered in the basement, left behind by the previous owner, a hunter in his spare time. “There were feathers everywhere, every day,” Brigitte says, laughing. The name had come first; the space confirmed it.

The verdict

The mood tracks the neighbourhood: a touch more festive on Fridays and Saturdays, though Restaurant Plume still earns a spot on our list of Montreal restaurants where you can actually hear yourself talk. A small table run by two, betting on the à la carte format, the seasons, and the producers behind every bottle. A lovely arrival for the Mile End.

Written by Jean-Philippe Tastet
Photography by Alison Slattery

Updated on May 29, 2026

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