Our original plans had to be changed due to the holiday, so we asked at the front desk of our hotel for a relaxing place with affordable drinks and good food. He mentioned Else's and gave us the history of the place and it sounded up our alley.
I noticed someone mentioned "coffee shop" in their review and it almost feels like a coffee shop where people realized the coffee just wasn't doing it for them anymore and they just evolved into drinking alcohol. Atmosphere is great and has a bit of a pub feel. Totally non-pretentious. The servers were delightful and tolerated our massacring of the French language. Drinking beer in Quebec is a treat. You don't need to know all of the breweries... just pick a style of beer you like and try it. I've never been disappointed (and I'm a bit of a beer snob). We tried the Fried Spinach & Mushroom Pierogis (the server recommended them fried) and they were fabulous! We were sharing so we did Fish & Chips as well, which was plenty good, but I was craving more Pierogis!
All in all, it was a nice evening. Service was great and the drinks and food were delicious. The bill wasn't too damaging (this is Montreal, after all) and we left happy. If we were locals, I could see us frequenting this place quite a bit.