Montreal · ice cream
Le Bilboquet
The 1983 founding, Outremont flagship and stated no-additives mission are real and well documented on the company's own site, but that same site discloses the founders sold in 2004 and the company merged into a five-brand industrial group, Top Glaciers Inc., in 2016. That is a materially different production model from the specialist-maker signal GelatoSpots looks for, even though the original storefront still trades under the Bilboquet name.
What to order
Brou ha! ha! (vanilla ice cream with brownie, caramel and praline almonds) or cacophonie (dark chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chunks and cashews), named as long-standing house flavours (La Presse, 2025)
What we know
- Founded 1983 in a 'fairly decaying premise' at 1311 avenue Bernard, Outremont, by Carole Lavallée and Yves Lebuis, who made the ice cream in the store itself in the early years (bilboquet.ca history page)
- Stated corporate mission from its own history page: products made with 'real milk, real cream and real fruits, without any dyes or additives that aren't natural', explicitly refusing the pre-flavoured powder-mix method it says was and is common among small glaciers
- The founders sold the business in 2004 to Pierre Morin, ending 21 years of founder ownership (bilboquet.ca history page)
- Expanded via franchise from 2007 onward (Westmount, then Pointe-Claire, Laval, Brossard — the last three outside the Ville de Montréal boundary) and moved production twice, most recently in 2016 into a shared industrial facility under a five-brand holding company, Top Glaciers Inc. (bilboquet.ca history page)
- Its own former employee, Alexandre Deslauriers, went on to co-found Les Givrés in 2011 after 'travaillé aussi pendant longtemps au glacier de la rue Bernard' — the same address as Bilboquet's flagship (La Presse, 2011)
- Status
- open
- Address
- 1311, avenue Bernard Ouest, Outremont, QC H2V 1W1
- Maker
- Founded 1983 by Carole Lavallée and Yves Lebuis; the pair sold the company in 2004 to Pierre Morin, a longtime customer, who has owned it since; in 2016 the company merged with four other ice-cream brands (Solo Fruits, Hudson, Essence and Lambert) under the name Top Glaciers Inc.
- Opened
- 1983
- Website
- bilboquet.ca/
- Last checked
- 2026-08-21
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