Le P’tit Stop | Poutine & Boeuf Burgers in a Quebec Snack Bar

A Special Casse-Croûte

If your appetite growls while you travel the Trans-Canada Highway south of Mont-Tremblant National Park, find Le P’tit Stop. This colorful Quebec snack bar (casse-croûte) offers amenities that most of the province’s casse-croûtes do not. Staff actually brings food to you from the kitchen. (But you order it standing up at the counter.) Tablecloths adorn the tables. Charming little wood-slat chairs provide homespun comfort. Walls look like pine logs in a rustic cabin.

The Flavors of Quebec

Here you can get a terrific “hot dog Michigan.” It does resemble the Michigan hot dog emblematic of snack bars around Lake Champlain in New York State. It differs in its sauce. New York vendors top theirs with chili. In this part of the world, they use something more like Bolognese. Le P’tit Stop presents the dog and sauce in a split-top bun, grilled so its outsides get nice and crisp.

Of course poutine is on the menu. In this case the balance of crisp fries, squeaky cheese curds, and elegant gravy do the signature dish of every Quebec snack bar proud.

A large sign on the roof guarantees that half-pound hamburgers are “100% Boeuf.” They’re formidable. But I must say that no burger I have eaten in Quebec delivers the booming beef flavor of those commonly found out west in Alberta.

Fried Dough & Sweet Pie

The most impressive thing at Le P’tit Stop is dessert. Galettes of sweet, crisp fried dough are spread with chocolate, cinnamon sugar, or maple cream. Better yet, get a slice of sugar cream pie (tarte au sucre). Proprietor Robert Forget said that he uses his mother’s recipe to make this creamy caramel creation in a flaky crust. He was only too happy to share that recipe: “Sucre brun et crème,” he said. Nothing more. What’s better than a wedge of brown sugar and cream, warm and melty?