A Montreal restaurant packed with customers on one of the busiest weekends of the year was ordered to close its terrace Friday night – and send those diners packing – by about a dozen firefighters who said it was not up to code.
That was the scene around 9 p.m. at Ferreira Café, a Portuguese restaurant on Peel Street, according to an emotional social media video by Groupe Ferreira director of operations Sandra Ferreira.
It all happened on the Friday of the Canadian Grand Prix, historically one of the most profitable weekends for restaurateurs in Montreal.
In a more than seven-minute-long, tear-filled Instagram video, Ferreira questions the timing of the decision, calling it “disgusting” and “cruel.”
“I’m ashamed for my city, I’m ashamed it’s happening in front of our customers,” she says in the video.
“There were 12 firefighters, if not more, who surrounded me, who surrounded the terrace. It’s disgusting, I’m so ashamed. I look at the tourists, people I know, who are looking at this.
“It doesn’t make sense. I’m outraged.”
Firefighters with the Montreal fire department (SIM) fined Ferreira because of the non-compliance and allegedly “dangerous conditions” of the terrace. They told her she needed to close either the terrace or the entire restaurant – despite the restaurateur having produced permits and emails showing the terrace was authorized by the city.
Getting permission to put up a terrace on Peel Street in the first place this summer was already a challenge, according to Ferreira, due to construction work on the street and nearby Sainte-Catherine. She says it took “months of relentlessness, tireless work” for the project to be accepted.
Ferreira’s terrace was initially non-compliant because it was six inches too far into the street. “That’s a bit our fault,” the director of operations explained. Ferreira says that issue was rectified.
“Then two or three weeks ago, a Thursday, the firefighters arrived and told us the tent portion needed to be removed because they were not three metres from the building,” Ferreira recounted. “We tried to explain that we had a permit, special permission from the City of Montreal. He didn’t want to hear about.”
Ferreira explains additional discussions happened with City of Montreal officials at that point, and “ultimately everything was OK.”
“And now they wait until Friday of the Grand Prix to show up, when we have a packed restaurant, and ask everyone to leave the terrace.
“I find it so cruel they waited two or three weeks, I can’t remember, to come close us down, when the restaurant is full, a scene in front of everyone. I just burst into tears.”
Ferreira’s Instagram post drew the ire of several well-known Montrealers.
“The gestion of mtl is a catastrophe,” wrote renowned chef David McMillan.
“You gotta be kidding me…so so sorry you had to go through that @missferreira,” chef Stefano Faita commented.
“It’s become so embarrassing living here,” wrote entrepreneur Olivier Primeau.
“This is terrible!” said Nadia Saputo.
The Opposition in Montreal jumped on the opportunity to criticize Mayor Valérie Plante.
“In addition to the question of bad timing, I question the lack of leadership of the Ville-Marie district led by the @Val_Plante,” Ensemble Montréal Coun. Abdelhaq Sari wrote on X. “Where is the consultation with all the stakeholders that the mayor is talking about?”
More coming.