Perched on the ninth floor of Centre Eaton, Le French Line is the cocktail bar of the **Le 9e** complex, one of the most substantial Art Deco interiors left on the continent, essentially mummified for twenty-five years after Eaton's 1999 bankruptcy and painstakingly restored by EVOQ Architecture before reopening in May 2024.
Its lineage reaches back to 1931. Lady Flora Eaton, a passenger on the maiden voyage of the S.S. Île-de-France in 1927, commissioned French architect **Jacques Carlu**, later the designer of the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, to recreate the liner's first-class dining room atop the Montreal flagship store. Le French Line occupies the long foyer adjoining the Grande Salle: the original herringbone floor restored to pattern, polished marble, vertical frescoes by Natacha Carlu, and period fixtures and furniture listed under Quebec's Cultural Heritage Act since 2000.
The drinks list is the work of **Andrew Whibley** (Cloakroom, Dominion), who draws on 1930s recipe books to pair pineapple, plum, eaux-de-vie and French spirits: a restrained, historically informed program that ignores current trends.
Open Wednesday through Friday nights, it is a short but rare stop: a drink inside a classified time capsule, with window views onto Sainte-Catherine from the foyer's tall bays, under the stewardship of an entrepreneur group that includes Jeff Baikowitz (Joe Beef), Marco Gucciardi (Bar George, Milos) and Andy Nulman (Just for Laughs).
