Fringale: A month-long exploration of Saint-Léonard through food

The first edition of the SDC Jean-Talon Est's new food festival Fringale explores the migratory cultures that make up 70% of Saint-Léonard's communities over five weekends.

J.P. Karwacki

July 31, 2024- Read time: 5 min

Photograph: Rue Jean-Talon Est / Facebook

As a small, younger neighbourhood of the city, 70% of the 15,000 families that call Saint-Léonard home are immigrants coming from Algeria, Haiti, Morocco, and Vietnam. It’s a significant gathering ground for the city’s Italian community which form the majority of the area’s migrants.

“Part of the beauty of Saint-Léonard is its diversity and multiculturalism, and how they find ways to work together. Over time, it’s become a rich mix found over only 10 or 15 minutes of walking in the city,” says Isabelle Chung, head of Communications for the area’s local thoroughfare’s Société de développement commercial, SDC Jean-Talon Est that dates back to 2008.

In creating a new home, many residents have created a wide variety of businesses serving one another—more than 270 businesses and professionals overall across six city blocks—but may remain unknown to Montrealers focused on central or more popular parts of the island.

Photograph: Rue Jean-Talon Est / Facebook

Fringale: Discovering the undiscovered

“We’ve found that our restaurants are really great, but they’re small. Sometimes on TikTok, small and random places like ours could go viral, but they don’t get that kind of exposure despite being secret and hidden gems. So we wanted to put them in the spotlight,” Isabelle adds.

“They’re not always on social media because they may not know how to use or don’t want to, but most of all, they prioritize having a human touch to what they do—to have a relationship with the people they meet.”

That’s led the SDC Jean-Talon Est to gather them under the banner of Fringale: Over five weekends, 21 of their restaurants, bakeries, and cafés on the outer fringes of the city will embark on the first edition of a month-long celebration of diversity.

Themed after the countries and regions of Italy, Asia, Maghreb & the Middle East, and the Caribbean and Latin America—culminating in one final ‘World Tour’ weekend where all but one location will participate—each address will serve two specialties for $8 or less.

“There’s so much culture on Jean-Talon Est that we wanted to spread it out over five weekends to explore the essence of the street, and not bombard customers with options,” Isabelle says.

With each location visited, visitors can get a card stamped; once full, it can be submitted for a weekly prize draw that awards everything from gift certificates to a Nintendo Switch OLED.

A fringe into the fold

With the eventual expansion of the metro into the area, the SDC’s team is seeing Fringale as an opportunity for Montreal to explore the area before it becomes easier than ever to reach.

“Working at the SDC with my colleague Marie Boulay, we’ve developed an almost familial relationship with businesses in the area, especially the restaurants. We see them as more than friends, and visit them at least twice a week,” Isabelle says. “That’s something everyone can experience.”

“It’s not only to promote the restaurants but an opportunity to explore the neighbourhood,” says Marie Boulay, part of the SDC’s team.

“It’s a true community that’s calling it home, but it’s home for everyone in Montreal as well. If locals can come and explore it, they’ll find it’s not perhaps the residential area they may see it as.”