Verdun BYOB Bistro Wellington Calls it Quits After Close to 10 Years

Verdun neighbourhood staple and leading BYOB Wellington has closed its doors for good. A statement announcing the establishment’s permanent closure, which appeared on its website and social media accounts yesterday, says that Sunday, December 19, was its last day in business.

The statement, signed off by owner Sophie Bergeron, explains that several converging factors prompted the decision, including the end of a 10-year lease, the current restaurant environment, and personal reasons. Bergeron explains feeling that she could no longer continue to split her time between her two establishments — the other being popular wood-fired pizza and fresh pasta spot Rita, which she opened nearby, also on Wellington Street, in 2018.

“It is with this desire to find a balance in my life that I decided to take action and concentrate my time on one establishment, Rita,” Bergeron writes, originally in French but translated here.

Bergeron opened Wellington with partners Marc-André Paradis and Frédéric Leblond — both also co-owners at Rita — in September 2012, and in the time since, has cemented the restaurant’s reputation as a much-loved bring-your-own-wine bistro serving seasonal French fare in the Sud-Ouest. In the closure statement, Bergeron thanks diners for their patronage over the years, noting that the restaurant has been even more well-attended since reemerging from the province’s second coronavirus lockdown in June.

“It’s at the height of this success, with a packed house night after night, that we bring down the curtain,” Bergeron writes.

• Here’s Rita, Verdun’s Pizza and Pasta-Driven New Neighbourhood Spot [EMTL]