Habs playoff run hurting Montreal restaurants without TVs

Montreal sports bars are packed on game night and many are even having to turn people away, but that’s not the case for restaurants without TVs.

Fifty per cent of reservations at Parapluie were cancelled during game nights in the first round.

“It’s crazy — the team and the hockey vibe of the city, but for small restaurants like us it’s a bit hard," said chef-owner Robin Filteau Boucher.

Parapluie still doesn’t have a TV, but Filteau Boucher bought one for his no-reservations restaurant next door, La Cave du Parapluie, on Beaubien Street.

“We have so [many] cancellations that if I didn’t put a TV here, I think we’re gonna be empty every day of the match,” he told CTV News.

Hours to go before puck drop in Game 2, Tuck Shop was making the final preparations on its back terrasse.

The Saint-Henri restaurant experienced a similar phenomenon in the first round, so it has installed three TVs and is holding a reservation-only watch party.

“We are going to do kind of a table d’hôte menu that features some dry aged rib-eye, snow crab, and fresh-shucked oysters. We’re also going to have some homemade pasta. The chicken wings tossed in there,” co-owner Jonathan Metcalfe explained.

The 20-seat terrasse adorned with blue, white and red streamers is sold out for the night — a welcome sign for the restaurant on a game night.

“We’re really seeing a drop in covers definitely on weekends and, yeah, even on earlier in the week,” said Metcalfe.

The lifelong fan and business owner says it was no question after the first round that they would have to do something, especially on a Friday night.

“It hurts the bottom line. But as a Montrealer, it fills my heart.”