Poutine Hipster

March 5, 2015 10:28 PM

Recently poutine came up in a convo I had with a foreigner. After they told me they visited Canada and while here made sure to try poutine, I explained to them that I was familiar with poutine before most Canadians knew what the hell it was and that in the not-too-distant past poutine wasn't well-known outside of Quebec. I estimated that it only started becoming popular outside of Quebec in maybe the late 90s. Am I off in this estimate, MeFi?

When I was a kid living in Quebec few people outside of the province were familiar with poutine, virtually no restaurants outside of the province served it, and, to my knowledge, you couldn't even buy St-Hubert poutine gravy mix outside of Quebec; now all Canadians are familiar with it, it's served at many well-known chain restaurants and you can buy St-Hubert poutine gravy mix outside of Quebec.

As stated above, recently poutine came up in a convo I had with a foreigner. After they told me they went to Canada and while here made sure to try poutine, I explained to them that in the not-too-distant past poutine wasn't well-known outside of Quebec and I estimated that it only started becoming popular outside of Quebec in maybe the late 90s—perhaps '99.

Would you guys say I'm off in this estimate?

posted by GlassHeart to Food & Drink (33 answers total)

From 1992 to 1995, I had poutine for lunch at least once a week at the Harvey's by my school in southern Ontario. The cheese was just squeaky enough to qualify.

But I'd say 90s, for sure.
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:49 PM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I grew up in Alberta and left for school in the US in 1987. I didn't know what poutine was. So yes, I think your timeline is correct.
posted by gingerest at 11:00 PM on March 5, 2015

My first distinct memory of poutine is "international day" at my high school (boarding school in Michigan) in the very early 90s. But it was my friend from Windsor repping the poutine. To be fair, she went to a French immersion school in her younger days and I think her father's family was maybe Quebecois.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:11 PM on March 5, 2015

As a lifelong Calgarian, yeah, to me that's about right for a timeline.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 11:13 PM on March 5, 2015

It was available in Banff AB in the mid-90s - I remember seeing it on holiday. Banff is a tourist place though, so maybe they have a wider range of foods than average.

Edit: I'm vegetarian, thought yay here's some food I can eat, and then found out it was meat gravy :( So still never tried it.
posted by tinkletown at 12:30 AM on March 6, 2015

Poutine has been huge in parts of Maine (Acadian) as long as it has in Quebec. Its popularity in Southern and Coastal Maine has been around since the 80s, in my memory, but it wasn't as strong as it was in the Acadian region, until the last decade or so, when it is huge in restaurants down here (Portland area).
posted by miss tea at 3:28 AM on March 6, 2015

I grew up in Montreal and lived in Vancouver during the 90s; we would get poutine during the special French Canadian festival in Coquitlam (Festival Du Bois!) and it was a big deal to get it outside Quebec. New York Fries started selling poutine in BC around 99, though they made it with shredded cheese and crunchy fries.
posted by third word on a random page at 3:41 AM on March 6, 2015

I think your estimate is too late. As a kid I remember poutine being served in restaurants in Ontario in the early 90s. I don't remember ever not knowing what poutine was. But there are plenty of articles on the history of poutine and apparently it had started being sold in New York and New Jersey by the late 1970s.
posted by Polychrome at 4:22 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I grew up in Winnipeg, and left for the States (for university) in '97. My friends and I knew had heard of poutine, but we were all in a French Immersion school and so we were exposed to more French-Canadian culture than your average Winnipegger. I don't think that any of us had ever actually tried it, though, and I don't remember ever seeing it in restaurants.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:25 AM on March 6, 2015

When I was a kin in Massachusetts I remember seeing canned Poutine. It wasn't the kind I have had up in Quebec (french fries, curds and gravy), it was like a mashed potato looking thing with a meat center.
This was in the 70's.
posted by beccaj at 5:01 AM on March 6, 2015

I moved to Vermont in the late 90s and it was available at truck stops in the northern part of the state then, but I got the impression it was well-known at those places at that time.
posted by jessamyn at 5:11 AM on March 6, 2015

Poutine was available in my (southern ontario) high school cafeteria in the mid to late 80s. They were not known for offering a particularly adventurous menu. I definitely ate poutine in restaurants around that time frame too. Like Polychrome, I don't remember ever not knowing about it.
posted by VioletU at 5:13 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've had poutine at greasy spoons in central VT in the early 90's with ti being available before that I think.
posted by koolkat at 5:14 AM on March 6, 2015

I moved to Montreal in 1986 after living variously in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa. I had never heard of poutine until then.

In 1991, I moved to Chicago and didn't see or hear of poutine again until (I think) about 2005.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:15 AM on March 6, 2015

First late night after-bar poutine shop in Vancouver opened (to my memory) at Davie and Granville no earlier than 1999.

Was poutine known and available on menus earlier. Undoubtedly known (for me it was that weird thing they did to french fries memory from a family trip to Montreal in the 80s). On menus? Probably but it was something I probably would have deselcted. But what I think you're asking is was poutine a OMG-you-must-try-this with 50 different variations earlier than late 90s -- don't remember so. It was more like that marshmallow salad I had at the buffet at a harrah's casino in Iowa while road tripping cross country in '07. Its a thing that I know to exist that regionally is something that is eaten with some popularity which have tried thank you very much (quietly waiting for the artisan marshmallow movement to begin)
posted by dismitree at 5:27 AM on March 6, 2015

Poutine was available from A&W on the Halifax waterfront for as long as I remember (1980?) and from places in St. John's (MUN and take-out pizza place) at least from the late 1990s and it didn't seem to be a new food. Neither of these places had proper cheese curds, just shredded cheese, but we all knew what was missing. So I'd agree that cheese curds were hard to find outside Quebec but we just ate it as best we could. Also Newfoundland and Nova Scotia often serve fries and gravy (in NL with stuffing too) so that wasn't weird or difficult to get. Just sprinkle some cheese in top - 'poutine'
posted by hydrobatidae at 5:33 AM on March 6, 2015

I ate my own weight in Poutine in the campus restaurant at Nait in Edmonton in 1995. It wasn't an unusual menu item from what I remember.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:35 AM on March 6, 2015

I'm in the "much earlier" camp, if we're just talking about regular poutine. The fancy stuff IDK.
I grew up in and around Toronto in the '70's, and it was a staple then.
Most greasy spoons had it listed on their menus.
Great question!
posted by whowearsthepants at 5:40 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

GTA: I have known about and eaten poutine at restaurants/school cafeteria since the seventies but it wasn't really "common" until early nineties when it started showing up at chip trucks and on fast food menus. We had a St-Hubert in my Ontario town in the eighties...mmm their gravy...and I would buy St-Hubert gravy at the local supermarket in the eighties too.
posted by saucysault at 6:41 AM on March 6, 2015

It's been available it Francophone communities outside QC from at least the mid-80s. I used to get it occasionally in northern Alberta as a kid. I think it was in the 90s or so that it spread further to fast food and Anglo areas in the west.
posted by Kurichina at 7:57 AM on March 6, 2015

I remember it in the mid to late 80's in southern Ontario at my high school cafeteria. I don't know if it was available before then as I was too young to notice such things. Definitely a standard pub food in southern Ontario by the early 90's. I ate far too much of the stuff for my own good in my first year of University at the residence cafeteria in 1991.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:12 AM on March 6, 2015

Born and raised in Toronto, definitely remember eating it as a kid in the 80s and it wasn't unusual.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:50 AM on March 6, 2015

I grew up in Orangeville, a (then) small town outside Toronto. We had it in the 80's as well. There was a chicken place in the hotel that had it, and you could frequently get it at the faires.
posted by sincarne at 11:08 AM on March 6, 2015

I saw no Poutine growing up in Edmonton during the 70s and first-half of the 80s, though my Quebecois aunt* made mention of it. Living in Toronto in 86-87, I saw no Poutine, but then again I was on West Eglngton where other yummy treats dominate (roti! doubles!). I first encountered it in Montreal and didn't notice it outside of Quebec until the mid-90s, though my travels didn't take me to the northeastern states or the Maritimes.

The timeline seems right to me if adjusted to apply primarily to Central and Western Canada.

(My Quebecois aunt who met my uncle, a sailor in the Navy, when he was on shore-leave in Montreal. He spoke no French; she no English; yet they married two months later. My aunt learned English largely by playing Scrabble: you *do not* want to play Scrabble against her unless you're willing to have your ass kicked, hard.)
posted by alaaarm at 11:25 AM on March 6, 2015

No, you're not wrong. I was living in BC until the late 90s and it was about that time I started hearing about it (though even then where everyone was eating it from was a chain called "New York Fries").
posted by Blitz at 12:05 PM on March 6, 2015

Poutine was definitely available in Mississauga from Harvey's in the middle eighties.

And it was awesome right up until harvey's changed to those sad non-crispy fries.
posted by srboisvert at 1:43 PM on March 6, 2015

beccaj: "When I was a kin in Massachusetts I remember seeing canned Poutine. It wasn't the kind I have had up in Quebec (french fries, curds and gravy), it was like a mashed potato looking thing with a meat center.
This was in the 70's."

That's poutine rapée, a whole different sort of food.
posted by vasi at 2:36 PM on March 6, 2015

Another Torontonian here who remembers eating poutine in at least the late 80s. It had been around longer, but my folks didn't allow me to flop it into my mouth until 88-89 or so.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 4:00 PM on March 6, 2015

Poutine (with good squeeky curds if you knew were to go) was a kind of specialty restaurant item at least as far back as the mid 80s in BC.
posted by Mitheral at 4:06 PM on March 6, 2015

I think I ate poutine at Burger King in Ottawa in 1990 on a trip.

But it became more of a thing here in Vancouver just after that.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 6:13 PM on March 6, 2015

I grew up east of Toronto and you could definitely get poutine from chip trucks, diners, and school cafeterias in the 80s. It was usually made with plain brown gravy though, not the far superior St-Hubert gravy.
posted by atropos at 10:01 PM on March 6, 2015

I can remember McDonalds in Ottawa offering a horrible poutine in a medium drink cup with plastic bubble dome as a lid. I lived there from 1989-1991 but it would have been 90-91, and I lived in Quebec before that and so had my eye open for poutine. Harveys at the time didn't have poutine, but they had Swiss Chalet BBQ sauce in a little cup for $0.35, it was fantastic. They no longer serve that recipe and goodness knows what their fries taste like now but it sure ain't what it used to be.
posted by furtive at 9:35 PM on November 2, 2015

Also, just saw Atropos answer and yes, you could get poutine from chip trucks in Ottawa in the late 80s.
posted by furtive at 9:38 PM on November 2, 2015