Louis Restaurant

In the early 1940s, a businessman from Saskatchewan, Louis Balawyder, moved to Sherbrooke to open a mobile lunch stand called Louis Mobile Luncheonette.

Starting with a horse-drawn cart, Louis transitioned to a motorized canteen before setting up a permanent location on Sherbrooke’s famous King Street. Initially, Louis Luncheonette was a mobile canteen that was frequently found near the bus terminal, but it eventually became permanently situated by the Aylmer Bridge. In the early 1949, a small snack bar, known as the "casse-croûte du pont," was opened. The Sherbrooke community quickly embraced the canteen, drawing in businesspeople, workers, students, and even tourists to enjoy its homemade fries, hot dogs, and hamburgers. In 1970, Yvon Ellyson acquired the canteen, and by 1977, his three sons, Pierre, Jean, and Jacques, took over the restaurant's operations. A first snack bar, Louis de l’est, opened in 1980, followed by a second, Louis de l’ouest, in 1982. After the closure of the Louis canteen near the Aylmer Bridge, another establishment opened downtown in 1989—Louis centre-ville.

In 2021, the owner of the Louis restaurants, Pierre Ellyson, announced his retirement and passed the reins to the Cassar brothers to ensure the continuity of the business. Well-known Sherbrooke businessmen Peter and Matthew Cassar acquired the Louis brand as well as the Taverne Alexandre.

Since then, Sherbrooke locals commonly refer to the business as Louis Luncheonette. Even today, many customers still talk about going to "Louis Luncheonette" rather than "Chez Louis!"