from Jim Withers at the Montreal Gazette,

The hockey-stick door handles are a giveaway: This is no typical Parisian brasserie.

You don’t come here to soak up Paris’s bohemian lifestyle, savour foie gras or fantasize about hanging out with Hemingway and Toulouse-Lautrec.

You come here for burgers, poutine, beer — and to get your Habs fix.

In the heart of the world’s most romantic city, The Great Canadian Pub has for more than eight years been an oasis for homesick, museum-weary North Americans. On the tourist-heavy Left Bank only a short stroll from Notre Dame Cathedral, hockey-starved visitors find salvation here and communion with their fellow Canadiens faithful.

While TGC, as it is commonly known, shows other sports on its overhead TV screens, hockey rules here — an overturned hockey helmet serves as the barmaids’ tip jar — and the Canadiens are, for all intents and purposes, the home team.

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