When he first moved to his new shop, Benoit Lacas was a little anxious. Back in 2009, he had a great location in a residential area on Mountain Street and was quite happy. Nevertheless, he moved to a new shop on busy Notre Dame Street and has had a major uptick in visits as well as a whole new clientele. Moving Boutique Ludovik three years ago represented an entirely new challenge, but also a chance to renew and refresh his shop in a new 4000 square foot location in the heart of Griffintown.
“When we first arrived in the neighborhood nine years ago, I don’t think anyone was even calling it Griffintown! We were visionaries, we had to believe. Now it’s an up and coming, trendy neighborhood! I chose to settle here because I wanted my store to be the ‘Deco’ destination near downtown. I didn’t want to be next to all the other shops, I wanted us to be elsewhere. Today I live in the neighborhood, and I feel at home“, says Benoit Lacas, owner of the shop.
Mr. Lacas describes his shop in several styles: contemporary, urban, eclectic, yet both vintage and fun! Nothing less. The “vintage” section of the store is one of the owner’s favorites; you’ll find antiques and furniture. In fact, everything in the store are handpicked favorites of Mr. Lacas and his friend and long-time partner, designer Guy Viens, whose offices have been located in the shop since they opened.
“Guy’s design workshop is an independent company, but we’ve helped each other since we opened. They were also with us on the old Mountain Street location, and came with us when we moved. They’re now installed on our 2nd floor. We work well together. For example, if I have a client who needs a designer, I can refer them to his workshop, and if there is a customer at the workshop who is looking for unique pieces to decorate, they can shop here. These days we do most of our buying for Ludovik together“, Mr. Lacas continues.
What distinguishes Ludovik from other design boutiques?
There’s really something for everyone and every budget. The most important thing for the owner is to always offer well-designed, interesting products at the best price. Mr. Lacas confides he doesn’t take a big margin on products, but prefers to sell at the best possible price and to a loyal clientele. Some names we found at Luvidok: the many creations of ceramic artist and New York designer Jonathan Adler (the store is also the only one in Quebec to sell his furniture collection). The ‘art gallery’ section of the shop offers original creations and reproductions from several Quebec artists: Eric Villeneuve, Kim Geminari, etc. They also offer pillow collections from Quebec artist Denis Meunier (Meunier, tu dors/you sleep), which is one of their best sellers!
Mr. Lacas also let us in on a well-kept secret: White Fir candles. He receives a limited number of them in early November and they are a huge success every year. Indeed, they’re white candles that smell like ‘real’ Christmas trees. It’s perfect for someone with a small condo or apartment who can’t fit a tree and wants to take in that wonderful Christmas tree smell…until spring! I still have a few left, he says. “I light one every day from November to January, and customers entering the store are always surprised by the smell. You have to smell it to believe it, it’s really impressive. And our store is 4000 square feet, so imagine the smell in your 3 ½!” We ran to get one, just because we can’t do without that smell, even long after Christmas. Thank you, Ludovik.
LUDOVIK
1318 Notre Dame Street West
Montreal
514 678-6617
