The submarine restaurant Le Marinier, whose hasty closure disappointed many people in Limoilou last year, could be reborn under a slightly different name at the beginning of 2025, elsewhere in the district.
At least that’s what a former employee, Annabel Morasse, who has been working on this project for several months, wishes.
“I found my premises, so at the moment I am mainly working on finalizing my menus, contacting my suppliers, creating a loyalty card for customers,” explains the 25-year-old young woman, saying she has always cherished the dream of open a restaurant.
The restaurant Le Marinier, which specialized in submarines, was located in the building with a blue facade before being closed for reasons of public safety caused by the state of disrepair of the building located at his right. The problematic building was demolished by the city in March, but the restaurant never reopened.
Photo Dominique Lelièvre
The new restaurant would use “substantially the same concept”, but would change its name to “La Marinière”.
She specifies that this is her initiative and that she is not in contact with the former owner of the establishment, of whom she says she has not heard.
“Big hole”
The young entrepreneur says she worked for four years at Le Marinier, where she fell in love with “the people” and “the product”.
The surprise closure of the business left, according to her, a “big hole” in the neighborhood.
Moreover, a publication on Facebook where she announced her desire to relaunch the restaurant generated hundreds of comments and shares.
This is what helped her find a new location on Chemin de la Canardière, near the Enfant-Jésus hospital. However, the lease still remains to be signed, she points out.
“There is a lot of enthusiasm for the project. That’s why I think it’s the ideal time, precisely, to start again businessbecause we know very well that it will probably not reopen [dans l’ancien local de la 1re Avenue]. The installations are finished, it is no longer adequate,” explains the young entrepreneur.
Reminder of the facts
The sign of the 1re Avenue had to close its doors a few days before last Christmas by court order because the neighboring building had become a threat to public safety.
At the time, the City of Quebec deplored the lack of maintenance by its owner. However, the latter, Yves Dorval, also owns the building which housed Le Marinier.
Annabel Morasse and other employees made more than 500 submarines in the hours following the Marinier’s closure in December 2023 in order to distribute them to local organizations and avoid wasting food.
Photo provided by Annabel Morasse
“We found out on December 23 at 1 a.m. that we had to close the restaurant at 4 a.m.,” remembers Mme Morasse. With her team, she had distributed more than 500 submarines to Lauberivière and other organizations so as not to waste food.
Since then, the restaurant has never resumed its activities, even though the neighboring building, which was problematic, ended up being demolished.
The City of Quebec is now preparing to auction off the former Marinier building and the adjacent vacant land for unpaid taxes and demolition fees, - recently reported.
It was not possible to contact Yves Dorval for this report.
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