Yellow Door no more!

For over forty years the Yellow Door coffeehouse, located at 3625 Aylmer just north of Prince Arthur and south of Pine, has been one of our city’s favourite acoustic music venues, showcasing some of the best emerging talent and established folk and acoustic acts.

Clearly identified by –yup, you guessed it! - its bright yellow door, the basement coffeehouse is a no-frills kind of place, bringing to mind New York’s beatnik SoHo joints and the wonderful underground folk music they once gave (and still give) birth to. Back in the late ‘60s it was even known as a refuge for conscientious objectors from the U.S. With its basic chairs, basic stage and its no-alcohol rule, the Yellow Door is a nice alternative to Montreal’s sometimes superficial bar scene and, unless I’m mistaken, is also the longest running coffeehouse in Canada. It’s undeniably a Montreal landmark. Well, make that “WAS a landmark”.

No, the coffeehouse is still alive and well. Its yellow door, however, is another story completely. Much to my surprise, my colleague, Bram Eisenthal, recently informed me that the yellow door has now, unfortunately, been relegated to the annals of folk history since the Tremblay administration decided that the colour of a coffeehouse door in Montreal’s McGill Ghetto somehow made it to the top of its to-do list.

Forget the fact that efficient, quick and victim-free snow removal seems to be something that mystifies Tremblay and his team of top-notch go-getters. Forget that there are potholes the size of the Grand Canyon on our streets that could easily swallow me and my car whole. Somehow, despite this city’s many pressing issues, these silly bureaucrats deemed that their number one priority was cracking down on coffeehouses and their rebellious refusal to conform to what, one can only assume, was an established cookie-cutter colour code of boring brown!

I personally don’t get it. To me the Yellow Door’s… yellow door is as Montreal as the Montreal Julep, the Five Roses flashing sign and the Coke plant along the Lachine Canal. It’s just one of many quirky landmarks that make our city what it is and give it its unique charm. How does one go about removing the one main identifying symbol of an institution? If left to their own devices, would Tremblay and his team paint the White House a pretty shade of beige?

I find it so petty (and sadly, so telling) that our bureaucrats would be wasting their time (and my tax dollars) enforcing stupid rules like this when there are so many more pressing issues to tackle. I also find it strange that Holly Fleming (Yellow Door coffeehouse coordinator) and the long list of artists who have played there are not up in arms over this. Not a whimper was heard. Why?

In my humble opinion, the Yellow Door deserves to keep its iconic yellow door and Montreal deserves a mayor that has better things to do with his time and our tax dollars.