The Faubourg (continued)

The Grondines dairy factory, circa 1930.

From Butter Factory to Restaurant

Further down the road, towards the village, Charles Laganière owned a butter factory purchased from Louis Archambault. Laganière, who owned several such businesses, leased it to the Coopérative Fédérée de Québec in 1928. However, the economic crisis of the 1930s put the brakes on the Coop’s plans to export its products to the United States. Operations ceased in Grondines. A few years later, in 1933, Laganière sold what remained of his company.

Grondines Old Mill Dining Room brochure.

In 1944, Daniel Thibault bought the factory. His cheese-and-butter factory prospered and fuelled his ambitions. He developed a new product called “table spread,” made from lard fat. He then turned to margarine production, although not without clashes with government authorities. Over time, Thibault’s business grew to the point where, in 1955, he built a restaurant across the road. He called it La Petite vache.

The restaurant kept bellies filled until 1968, when Thibault transformed the old flour mill into a dining room. Until 1984, it served vegetable soup, fricasseed potatoes, pigs feet stew, homemade bread and maple-sugar cream butter.

La Petite vache restaurant in 1965.

The closing of La Petite vache, followed by the Salle à manger du Vieux Moulin, marked the end of the golden age of the Grondines faubourg.