Saint-Henri favourite Grumman '78 restaurant and taco truck closes for good
After 10 years serving up tacos, the beloved local spot was hit hard financially by the pandemic
Popular Saint-Henri taco spot Grumman '78 is the latest business to fall victim to the financial strain caused by months of forced closures and pandemic uncertainty.
On Friday, the owners announced that the restaurant on de Courcelle Street and the bright yellow food truck that's become a mainstay at festivals and events would cease operations for good this weekend.
"It's a huge loss," said restaurant co-owner Hilary McGown. "I'm very sad but I also know that it's the right thing to do. It's just not sustainable anymore."
When the Grumman '78 taco truck first hit the streets of Montreal a decade ago, it was the first of its kind.
The owners went on to lobby the city to relax its famously tight rules around food trucks and helped pave the way for other restaurateurs hoping to expand into mobile food service.
McGown told CBC that because the food at Grumman was relatively affordable, they needed a certain volume of customers to stay afloat.
With restrictions that forced dining rooms across the province to close and a dwindling interest in takeout orders, McGown said there was no choice but to close.
Expansion projects, including a new location in Pointe-Saint-Charles and a stall at the Time Out Market in Montreal's Eaton Centre, are also dead in the water.
"This summer was really difficult," said co-owner Gaëlle Cerf in an interview with Radio-Canada. "We lost $30,000 a month this summer, even with the patio."
Cerf said that the restaurant was not able to qualify for the government rent relief program because it only lost 65 per cent of its business during the first wave, not 70.
"This new closure of dining rooms is the last nail in the coffin," said Cerf.
With files from Kwabena Oduro, Radio-Canada's Thomas Gerbet and Joëlle Girard