History in the making
The building housing the Pilsen has known various vocations, long before becoming the favorite place for people who like to eat and drink well, in an enchanting setting.
Built at the end of the 19th century, our structure housed within its walls a horse-drawn carriage factory. When the automobile made its appearance and gradually replaced the horse, Clifford Reed, mayor of North Hatley at the time, transformed this workshop into a hardware store. After being prosperous for many years, the hardware store in the village of North Hatley had to close its doors in 1982.
Vacant for three years, our structure would experience a new destiny. One hundred years after Labatt and Molson's brewing permits were issued, two North Hatley residents, Peter Provencher and Don Fleicher, obtained the third license issued in Quebec, thereby creating what was to become the province's first micro-brewery. Its founders chose to name their company PILSEN, after the city of the former Czechoslovakia (PIzen), from where the origin of the first beer originated, in the early 1600s.
The brewery, eventually moved in 1986 and the building was to experience change again. The Péloquin family bought it and they transformed it into a restaurant and a pub and chose to keep the name Pilsen.
At the dawn of its twentieth anniversary, the Pilsen was to know new owners. In April 2006, four epicureans, Messrs Giard, Lajoie, Landry and Toussin acquired it with the mission of perpetuating the excellence of its table by pairing it with high-level wines and beers, all served in an atmosphere conviviality imbued with cordiality and good humour.
