"$56"-*5 4r/&84 A FAMILY BUSINESS CELEBRATING A MAJOR MILESTONE NEXT YEAR
ANDREW COPPOLINO andrewcoppolino@gmail.com
very busy casual upscale pubs where you are armed with a similar pager but not a chip stand. There’s some parking space and a few picnic tables with umbrellas on the property. On the menu, you’ll find hamburgers (inclu- ding one that mimicks The Big Mac), whistle dogs, chili dogs and pogos, in addition to a hot chicken sandwich. 5IJT JT OPU B /BTIWJMMFTUZMF CSFBEFE cayenne-spicy hot chicken sandwich made famous at joints like the OG venue Prince’s Hot Chicken (and one of the late Anthony Bourdain’s favourites) but rather something that seems like a U.S. lunch-counter deli throwback along with its hefty cousin the hot hamburg sandwich. It is creation that I, frankly, adore: chicken slices chopped and shredded onto a slice of humble white sandwich bread and bathed generously in hot gravy. However, in terms of its origin story, none other than David MacMillan and Frederic Morin of Montreal Joe Beef fame assert that it is in fact a part of Quebec cuisine. I will place my bet on that. Patati Patata’s version is prepared sans peas and tucks ample bits of shredded and sliced chicken, moist and tender, beneath the top slice of bread. The accompanying fries, double-cooked, are quite good. Both the hot chicken and hot hamburger dishes Lapensee would perhaps describe as comfort food. i8IFO*FBUUIBU JUCSJOHTNFCBDLUPXIFO I was in high school eating in the cafeteria,” she says with a laugh. Those fries are served solo in five sizes as well as acting as the foundation for the snack shack’s poutine selection. 8IJMF*TDBSGFENPTUPGBQVMMFEQPSLQPV - tine – I fail to see how any one person could finish off such a generous mountain of the rich dish – I can’t even imagine their “Toute Garnie” laden with sausage, bacon, onions and green peppers. A recent addition is their popcorn chicken
Standing resolutely on a Plantagenet hilltop at the corner of Old Highway 17 and Du Comte (the fact that it is “old” #17 just seems to make things all the more resolute), Patati Patata et Bar Laitier will celebrate its 35th anniversary in spring 2026. The stand is closing soon, but you still have some perfect fall weather left to check it out in 2025, if you haven’t done so. More than a third of a century is a very long time for a food operation, so kudos to owner Chantal Lapensée and family for weathering the vagaries of the economy, pandemics, winter closures, evolving customer tastes and the general see-saw that is running any sort of business. Lapensée, a teacher and school principal by training, and her husband Alain Chartrand, a former Air Canada employee, bought the chip stand in 1991. For a variety of reasons, they sold the business a year later only to buy it back again after a period of time. “It’s my baby!” Lapensée says, of the family business. “It’s me and my husband and two daughters, also teachers, who work nights and weekends during the summer along with ten other employees.” The stand itself had been moved to a couple of different locations by a previous owner over the years, but the variety of goods on the menu – “this, that and the other” you might say to which the phrase “et patati et patata” alludes – has been a longstanding one too. Hot chicken and gravy and wireless pagers You file up the stairs – there are often cars lining the street and people queued to order at the window – pay for your food and take a small wireless pager that buzzes and lights up to inform you that your order is coming out the side door for you to pick up. I’ve been to several
Alain Chartrand et Chantal Lapensée. (Photo fournie)
poutine. Besides a dozen or so sandwiches, inclu- ding a smoked meat on rye, the menu includes sub sandwiches, the popular club sandwich and a host of salads and wraps. i8FEPBMPUPGXSBQT B$BFTBSTBMBE and Greek salad, but the taco salad is the most popular one. There’s always one or two people in the kitchen that make only them,” says Lapensée, who along with her family also owns La Binerie Plantagenet, which was started by her father. A shake to welcome autumn and sign-off for the year Bubble teas – a perhaps interesting devia- tion on the menu that might seem out of place, are very popular according to Lapensée. “They are popular on the Quebec side. I met a guy who imports from Asia and we started doing them. The first year, it wasn’t popular. But when I promoted it, we started selling a MPUEVSJOHUIFZFBS8FIBWFBCPVUUP kinds of slushies and bubble teas.” Summer is a busy one for a variety of ice creams: three kinds of soft ice cream, “Tor- nadoes” (like a McFlurry), and hard ice cream that also serves as the base for milk shakes. The autumn season at the popular venue now
features a fall pumpkin pie-spiced milkshake which will essentially be tip of the cap to the 2025 season as Patati Patata takes a break JO/PWFNCFS The popular dishes may seem fairly basic to prepare, but like any restaurant there are a lot of hours of prep that are put in before the window opens each day. On a busy Saturday, they might serve up to 400 customers – a break over the winter is no doubt well-deserved. The day is non-stop and the staff work very hard, says Lapensee. “My hours are about 100 hours per week,” TIFFTUJNBUFTi"MBJOBOE*BSFVQBUJO UIFNPSOJOHBOEBUUIFTUBOECZBNUP prepare things. The employees arrive around 10 o’clock, and we’re there until 7 p.m. Then I have paperwork to do.” That’s a further indication of the resolute nature of a popular, longstanding chip stand. 7JTJUOPXVOUJMUIFJSMBTUEBZ /PWBEKVTUFE GBMMIPVSTBSF.POEBZUP8FEOFTEBZVOUJM p.m. and Thursday to Sunday until 7 p.m. Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.
CENTRE D’AIDE DE CLARENCE-ROCKLAND HELP CENTRE
AVIS DE CONVOCATION Par la présente, vous êtes convoqué à l’assemblée annuelle du Conseil d’administration du Centre d’Aide de Clarence-Rockland, qui se tiendra Le mardi 23 Septembre, à 14h à la Bibliothèque publique de Clarence-Rockland Public Library, 2-1525 ave du Parc, Rockland, ON NOTICE OF MEETING You are hereby invited to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Clarence-Rockland Help Centre, which will be held on Tuesday, September 23, at 2:00 PM at the Clarence-Rockland Public Library, 2-1525 Park Avenue, Rockland, ON. André Perras, Président Centre d'Aide de Clarence-Rockland
Patati Patata and Bar Laitier fêteront leur 35e anniversaire en 2026. (Andrew Coppolino)
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