Where's the Beef?

     Charles McKiernan was a Quartermaster in the British Army during the Crimean War.  He earned the sobriquet "Joe Beef" due to his uncanny knack of procuring meat and provisions just when supplies for the soldiers were running low.


     In 1864 he arrived in Montreal with an artillery regiment and was put in charge of the main military canteen.  Four years later he was honorably discharged and opened Joe Beef's Tavern in Vieux Montreal.  His clientele was composed primarily of blue collar workers from the neighborhood and every day at noon hundreds of longshoremen, beggars, odd-job men and outcasts came to be fed.  The tavern became more than merely a place to get a meal, it also was the center of social activity and support.  Joe Beef provided food, employment and housing for the down trodden and poor and became a champion of the rights of the common man and an advocate for the working class.

     During the Lachine Canal workers strike of 1877 McKiernan provided strikers with 3,000 loaves of bread and over 500 gallons of stew.  He even paid the travel expenses for the leadership of the union to Ottawa to present their cause to the parliament.

     In honor of the legendary folk hero of Montreal a partnership opened a restaurant on Notre Dame Street in the Little Burgundy section of town in 2005 and appropriately named it, what else?  Joe Beef!  And while I didn't have a meal there I did walk past and took a look at the menu.  One of the featured items was Horse Steak.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Canada does permit the consumption of horse meat.  Still not sure if I will return to give it a try.  But I'm sure Joe Beef would approve.