Bouffe Dave Plant Food, Montreal

Bouffe Dave Plant Food is Montreal’s new part-catering, part-breakfast, part-lunch spot in the Gay Village.
Founded by chef Dave Plant, the quaint shop serves vegetable-based bites.
Always dependable are the lunch counter’s baked goods, all as plentiful and sophisticated as one could hope.
Each is one a colourful and artfully-crafted concoction of the produce the kitchen has in stock that week.
Dishes are made of organic ingredients sourced from local farms across Quebec and the surrounding area.
Bouffe Dave Plant Food effectively upped the ante on what urbanites should expect from lunch on the go.

Changing the lunch game.

Writer Audrey Carleton

Versality is the defining trait of Bouffe Dave Plant Food, Montreal’s new part-catering, part-breakfast, part-lunch spot in the Gay Village. Founded by chef Dave Plant last summer on Boulevard de Maisonneuve and Rue Montcalm, the quaint shop serves vegetable-based bites from behind a lunch counter and has effectively upped the ante on what urbanites should expect from lunch on the go.

The dishes on Bouffe Dave Plant Food’s menu are made of organic ingredients sourced from local farms across Quebec and the surrounding area. Each is one a colourful and artfully-crafted concoction of the produce the kitchen has in stock that week. Sometimes, that means Thai pumpkin soup, a salad of fresh green and yellow beans with tarragon, vegetable quiche, or focaccia pizza. Always dependable are the lunch counter’s baked goods—an array of scones, meringue-topped lemon bars, gooey cinnamon brioche buns, cookies, muffins, and brownies, all as plentiful and sophisticated as one could hope.

“Keep it clean and simple, that’s just kind of how we roll,” Plant says. “You don’t have a lot of things, but you have nice things, and you try to highlight that.”

Adding to the atmosphere of Bouffe Dave Plant Food is the restaurant’s open kitchen, clearly visible to patrons. “I knew that having an open kitchen is ideal for me, but it’s great for the front of house too, because you get this energy and this vibe, this connection that you can see it,” Plant says. “It’s a clean place, it’s not this hidden thing.”

Despite operating largely as a catering business, Dave’s restaurant maintains a communal environment, ideal for a quick lunch time bite with friends. Three long wooden cafeteria-style tables receive an abundance of natural light through floor-to-ceiling windows. Eggshell walls are lined with hanging plant baskets and the restaurant’s oft-changing menu written on chalkboard behind the counter. “Keep it clean and simple, that’s just kind of how we roll,” Plant says. “You don’t have a lot of things, but you have nice things, and you try to highlight that.”

Bouffe Dave Plant Food, 1206 Boulevard de Maisonneuve E, Montreal, QC H2L 1Z9.

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