The midst of a pandemic that shuts eateries and drinking establishments is hardly the best time to open a bar and microbrewery, but it didn’t prevent Dominic Guay, Eric Cardinal, and François Forcier from launching L’Ardoise, Coopérative Brassicole on the corner of Main and Adam Streets in Richmond.
“We are currently open for take outs only,” says François Forcier, “Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. We opened our doors in October before we had to close again in late December, and during that period we found business quite brisk. We were open Thursdays to Sundays, and we were drawing upwards of 100 clients per week. About 90 per cent of those people were from Richmond, so we were very pleased, all things considered.”
The idea of launching a microbrewery dates to a few years ago when François moved back to the area from Montreal.
“We’ve known each other practically since we were toddlers,” explains Eric Cardinal. “We all grew up in the same neighbourhood in Drummondville and we’ve been close friends since high school. Our studies and later our professions took us in different directions, but we were always in touch. Once we were all geographically close again, we thought that embarking on a project would provide a good excuse for us to spend time together.”
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