Arcade Fire Opening Restauraunt In Montreal: Agrikol To Be A Haitian-Themed Eatery Opening This Summer

Fans of the indie-rock group Arcade Fire and denizens of the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec, should be happy to hear that this summer, two of the band’s members, husband and wife team Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, will be opening a restaurant in Canada’s Sin City.

The soon-to-be-opening restaurant will be a collaboration between Butler, Chassagne, and fellow husband and wife duo Roland Jean and Jen Agg, who own restaurants in Toronto, Ontario, that include The Rhum Corner, which happens to be the restaurant that Arcade Fire was dining at when the idea of opening a restaurant hit them.

Win asked Roland if he could play what he called “rara” — Haitian Creole festival music — while they were eating at Roland’s restaurant, and he obliged. Unfortunately, not long after, the restaurant’s speakers blew. Without missing a beat, Chassagne, as well as some percussionists from the band, filled in for the missing music with glasses and other objects found on nearby tables.

“It was magic,” Agg said of the impromptu show at her restaurant.

As the night wore on, the couples, who both have Haitian roots — Régine’s parents emigrated to Montreal from Haiti before she was born; Roland was born there — began discussing their mutual dreams of opening a Haitian restaurant, which they called a “cultural space,” in Montreal, much like The Rhum Corner is for Toronto’s Caribbean community.

“It’s more of an art project. The idea is that it’s a cultural space,” Butler said. “The thing that we were really impressed with at Rhum Corner is that it’s this space for Haitian and Caribbean culture and it’s really cool and contemporary.”

Agrikol, which they hope to be opening by the end of the summer, will be more than just a restaurant. Haitian-themed art will capture the eyes of patrons while the culture’s music will fill their souls as they dine on cuisine prepared by Jesse Gasso, Rhum Corner’s current head chef. Gasso travelled to Haiti to learn the cuisine and also worked with Roland’s sister.

“[H]e is such a talented chef, and he upgraded her Haitian food,” he said.

With a Haitian community topping nearly 200,000 people, Montreal seems the perfect place to open their dream restaurant.

“The really nice thing about Montreal is that we have access to all these things, like djon djon mushrooms. It’s going to be fun because there is just a much larger community, so we have access to ingredients that we don’t have in Toronto,” Agg said, “it’s crazy that there hasn’t been a place like this yet. We’re going to build here and we’re going to move here. It’s a big life change – and I’m going to learn French. It will be great.”

No word yet on exactly when the restaurant will be opening, but the group said they are shooting for this summer.

Are you excited for the opening of Arcade Fire’s restaurant in Montreal?

[Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images]