Last May, Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne announced they would open a restaurant serving the cuisine of the Chassagne family’s native Haiti in Montreal. The eatery, Agrikol, is a joint venture with successful restauranteur Jen Agg and her husband, artist Roland Jean. It finally opened for business last month, and thus far, reviews are mixed. Along with praise for its ambience and decor, Agrikol has racked up complaints for long waits and sold-out dishes.
“Try the plantains and the rice and beans as appetizers… Really delish. Music was exquisite. Kudos to the selector,” wrote Yelp user Reinaldo C., apparently unaware of the unique pedigree of house DJ Windows 98.
Meanwhile, reviewer Einrika S. was disappointed at a shortage of griot, a traditional Haitian dish of marinated and fried cubes of pork shoulder:
Very disappointing. Gorgeous place, and overall very nice staff. However It’s unimaginable to have a haitian restaurant not having griot at 9pm a saturday night….It took us 2h to get our food, one of the reason being that they ran out of rice…Again a haitian restaurant without rice or griot is like a sushi place only serving seaweed salad and tempura shimp.
Could this band restaurant be a victim of its own popularity? If you can’t make it to Quebec, Eater Montreal has a photo gallery of the space, which is admittedly gorgeous. Apparently David Byrne has been there, and he digs the wall art.
