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| - I found out about this through Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and had to check it out. Hilarious, I thought, what a gimmick! A gun AND kitchen supply store. Boy, was I wrong.
The storefront is 100% bright and cheery KitchenAid colors of kitchen supplies. Take 10 steps and suddenly you're surrounded by camouflage and gun supplies. A few more steps and you're standing in front of a wall of shotguns and rifles. I found the sudden transformation so funny I must've walked it 10 times. 'Anthony Bourdain stood right where I'm standing.' I whispered to my hubby. 'Yes he did,' answered who I learned a few minutes later was the owner.
I immediately engaged in conversation with this thick-Italian-accented guy, the very proud son of the man that opened shop. I asked for the story behind the shop. 'It's simple,' he's said, and told me when his family immigrated after WWII, their need for work coincided with other European immigrants needs to set up their lives and thus they opened a hardware shop. Pretty quickly, his father, and avid hunter, added guns to the mix when he realized Montreal had an unseeded demand for that, too. He showed me a fantastic photo from 1962 of his father with friends and their guns in the store. This man was so proud to carry on his father's legacy. It was beautiful.
This is no gimmick. This the product of deep familial ties and history essential to Montreal. Come in, buy something, support Dante, support history, support Montreal.
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