The Matchcover Storyteller

We don’t celebrate the French-Canadian element of our Canadian matchcover collecting as much as we used to.  My French is not what it should be, but the simple world “Patate” on this matchcover intrigued me.   If there are potato restaurants outside Quebec, we may not label them the same.   I suppose this is an equivalent of a place like “New York Fries”.

 Patateries are very common in La Belle Province.   They are everywhere,  simply restaurants that specialize in fries and poutine; the word is a classic Montreal term..

 Royaume de la Patate was one of the more venerable of these eateries.  It opened in 1955 in Plessisville, Quebec, maybe an hour southeast of Trois-Rivieres.  It moved to its long-time present location in the 70s and in 2010 La Royaume was one of 38 outlets vying for the title “Roi de la Patate” (King Of The  Potato).   That contest was won by Chez Reno Marsoui in Quebec City; Royaume did not even finish in the Top 15 .  Meanwhile, it had flourished on its own into a genuine regional institution  —  until it was destroyed by fire, water and smoke in September of 2013, leaving some 35 employees out of work. 

 This is where the history stops.  I thought Royaume was open again; I have seen a couple of articles and online references, but while it is easy to find on Google maps, it comes up there and elsewhere as “permanently closed”.

 Still, “papateries” might be an interesting category for a Canadian (Quebec) collector.  This 20-strike, rear-strike cover had a local QC manumark  — and a picture of a  potato!  Maybe another small category?