In support of the reopening of the Montreal EATON'S 9th Floor Restaurant

EATON’S 9th Floor restaurant, created at the instigation of Flora McRea (Lady Eaton, 1880-1970) daughter-in-law of founder Timothy EATON) and designed by the famous French architect and First Grand Prix of Rome, Jacques CARLU (1890-1976) and his wife, muralist painter Anne PECKER CARLU (1895-1972), was inaugurated in Montreal on  January 23rd 1931.

The famous restaurant, a rendez-vous for the regulars of downtown Montreal, closed on October 19, 1999, after 69 years of service following the bankruptcy of Canada’s EATON department stores. Owners promised the Montreal public and staff that the closure would be short-lived. In the year 2000 it was classified as a heritage building by the Ministère de la culture et des communications du Québec including its furniture, lobby, elevator halls, works of art, dishes and kitchens. That same year, the prestigious EATON Building was acquired by IVANHOE CAMBRIDGE INC a subsidiary company of the CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET DE PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC, who developed LES AILES DE LA MODE.

20 years later, the restaurant protected by its classification, is still closed to the public in a vacant state, depriving Montrealers and Quebeckers from access to a well-remembered and popular place. EATON’s 9th Floor restaurant was shared and appreciated by both English and French clienteles. The art deco restaurant was also a must-see Montreal institution for tourists.

There is a concern that in their communiqués, the executives of IVANHOE CAMBRIDGE INC. no longer use the term 'restaurant' in relation to the EATON’s 9th Floor, but rather 'salle événementielle’ (event room), which makes one fear that it will solely be used for private and corporate purposes, a diversion that is no doubt lucrative but that would compromise the popular use of a restaurant open to the general public. This was unfortunately the case for the other famous restaurant of the EATON’s store chain, the Toronto ROUND ROOM also designed and built by Jacques and Anne CARLU, closed around 1970 and restored in 2003 under the name 'THE CARLU', a luxury venue, which is now only used for corporate and private events. Montreal is not Toronto.

In our opinion, Montrealers and Quebeckers, French and English, have the persistent desire to renew with the use of this mythical place as a friendly, affordable and chic restaurant open to the general public as it has been throughout its history and we are convinced that such a popular venue is not only desirable but entirely appropriate to the European and convivial character of Montreal. This can be achieved by bringing together the required multidisciplinary skills that exist in Montreal. All we have to do is give it back what it has lost over the last 20 years of abandonment and put it back in the operational state of 1999.

http://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consultr&id=93268&type=bien#. Xxjpci5kihs

The 400-seat restaurant has been a huge success since it opened in 1931. It was originally dedicated to the female clientele of the EATON department store in Montreal, in search of a change of scenery and to downtown businessmen who frequented it at lunch for its chic, practical, tasteful, rapid and priceless qualities. It was a place of freedom and sociability for women who could enjoy it on their own in complete safety. It was also a place where women met with their mothers, sisters and friends for lunch or tea and where they occasionally invited their children and grandchildren. In December, it was transformed into Santa’s palace. The children once grown up became loyal customers and passed on this tradition to their own children and friends.

In terms of its architecture, the 9th was a spectacular creation of Decorative Art and one of the first works built by the architect who would create with his colleagues Azéma and Boileau, the Palais de Chaillot for the Paris World Fair of 1937. Jacques Carlu also directed the American academy of Fontainebleau where Anne PECKER CARLU taught. He also taught from 1924 to 1933 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where the colourful drawings he had brought back from his 4 years Grand Prix journey in ROME amazed American students and influenced American modern architecture.

The design concept of CARLU for the EATON’S 9th Floor restaurant meets the principle of 'total design', meaning that the designer and his team had to plan everything from architecture to decoration, from furniture design to cutlery design, from waitresses and waiter dress code to the editing of menus, communications, decorum and courtesy and even the musical ambiance and air conditioning. The restaurant adhered to the EATON department store philosophy: the best quality at the lowest possible cost. Lady Eaton set up the menus and the recipes based on the dishes she offered her family. These dishes were served at an affordable price with the style, decorum and comfort of a transatlantic luxury liner of the nineties-thirties.

There is still a place in downtown Montreal for such a marvel. EATON’S 9th Floor must once again become a popular Montreal venue and allow its clientele to create new memories for generations to come.

We need your support in signing this petition to show that the public wants to rediscover their favorite restaurant.

Photo credit: Ministère de la culture et des communications du Québec, Répertoire du patrimoine culturel québécois (October 19, 1999)