Stanbridge East's historic L'Éspace Old Mill has reopened with a new purpose and vision.

L'Éspace Old Mill is a historic landmark in Stanbridge East dating back to 1849. Originally known as the Cecil House, it served as an inn for people passing through the area. Since its construction, its had its famous bar called the Old Mill due to it being located right next door to the old grist mill along the Pike River, now the home of the Missisquoi Museum. 

Jean-Martin Fortier, a market gardener and owner of Les Jardins de la Grelinette in Stanbridge East, purchased Éspace Old Mill about a year ago from former Member of Parliament for Brome-Missisquoi Denis Paradis with a new vision for the site. 

Offering a farm-to-table style restaurant, an inn with a historical touch, a new and improved bar, and a garden for the summer and a greenhouse for the winter, Éspace Old Mill reminds Townshippers of the region’s agricultural roots and the importance of buying and eating local. 

“Before Mr. Paradis took it (over) in 2015, it was the local bar in Stanbridge East. There’s a lot of stories about this bar and there’s a lot of stories about this bar in one way being really kind of tough, cowboy, and really popular. There’s a lot of people from Stanbridge East that it was really their go-to place,” said Fortier. 

Fortier described the old grist mill, located right next door to Éspace Old Mill, as a “communal mill” where farmers would bring their grain and transform it into flour. “That’s why in Stanbridge East the slogan says ‘grind slowly,’ that’s where it comes from. Because of the river there was the mill, because of the mill there was the Old Mill. Being a farmer myself, when the mill was grinding they probably wanted to have a few beers so they would come here,” he mentioned. 

As the owner of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, Fortier and his wife have experience growing vegetables, which they have been selling at the Knowlton farmer’s market for about 20 years. Fortier eventually branched out and started another farm in Hemmingford, Quebec called La Fermes des Quatres Temps, a “teaching ground” for market gardening, before falling on Éspace Old Mill. 

“I guess, because of the pandemic, I felt like I wanted to come back. I also teach an online course called ‘The Market Gardening Masterclass.’ The space here had a garden that could be a market garden, it’s about an acre, it had a nice place to host, an office space, and it had the restaurant opportunity. All of these reasons kinda brought me back here and I decided to jump and do this,” highlighted Fortier.

The restaurant at Éspace Old Mill officially about three weeks ago, and Fortier said that he is happy with how the project is unfolding so far. He and his team are still in the midst of some renovations to bring certain projects to life.

“We did change a lot of things. One of the first things that we did was to tear down the bar. It wasn’t the original bar, it was kind of refurbished by Mr. Paradis, but it was a ‘U’ shape bar in the middle of the space,” explained Fortier. “We thought it wasn’t a good design for the space. So we took that one down and we built it to the side of the kitchen that was already there. We also put another dividing wall for an office space and other dividing walls for an intimate room. So we broke down the space but besides that we kept everything as it was.”

Éspace Old Mill has its original ceiling, beams, and it maintains its original brick structure. The rooms upstairs that once served the Cecil House have also been renovated and are available to rent. 

Fortier described Éspace Old Mill as “a mix of modern things, but in a really original setup.”

“We tore down an old barn and then we took that wood to do all of the moldings and all of that. The first person that we asked for help was a designer from Montreal. We paid a lot of money for him to come up with a design and everything was painted white and there was glass everywhere,” mentioned Fortier. “We were like, I don’t think this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to keep it more like it was. So that’s what we did.”

Highlighting his vision for Éspace Old Mill, Fortier explained that the  restaurant is farm-to-table style, with all produce and products coming from farmers in Brome-Missisquoi and directly from the gardens and greenhouse on site. 

“Everything that we cook, all of the ingredients, come from Brome-Missisquoi, except for the salt and the coffee beans obviously but they’re roasted just down the river by friends of ours. It’s grass-fed beef, it’s pastured pork, it’s local organic vegetables that come from this farm here, but also other farmers in the area, the grains are local,” he said. “(…) That’s our main focus is to show people that hey, it could be local and this could be really awesome, we should be really proud (…) of everything we have in Brome-Missisquoi.”

Click on the link for more information on Éspace Old Mill and its opening hours.

To hear more about Éspace Old Mill and its other offerings listen to the full interview with Fortier below: