Working a weekday shift at a small café in the Village usually means regulars, laptops and a steady stream of iced lattes. The team at Montreal’s Café Meekha got something else entirely this week when Ariana Grande walked through the door.
The café, which opened on Atateken Street just under two months ago, had built up a modest following of around 500 people on Instagram, largely on the strength of its matcha menu. That number started climbing the moment this video went up on Wednesday evening.
Enzo Gandin, who helps out with content and creative projects for the owner, posted footage of the encounter to Instagram, where it has since picked up more than 22,000 likes and counting. In it, he tells Grande he’s shaking, thanks her, and explains that the café has been open less than two months and is still a very small business figuring things out as it goes. She tells him he’s sweet.
Gandin described the whole thing as a wild experience and said Grande, who walked in with former backup dancer Ricky Alvarez, stayed to take photos with everyone in the room who wanted one.
“I was shocked, and shaking. I really wasn’t expecting something like that to happen on a pretty ordinary Wednesday,” he said.
For a business less than two months old, that kind of exposure is difficult to buy.
Gandin, along with the customers who saw the singer, also partook in an impromptu dance party after she left.
Why she’s in town
Grande is playing three nights at the Bell Centre, on July 28, 30 and 31, as part of The Eternal Sunshine Tour. Montreal is the only Canadian city on the entire run, and she has said she chose it herself because of how warm the fans are here. It’s her first time performing in the country since 2019.
Her eighth album, Petal, drops on July 31, the same day as her final Bell Centre show. She already gave the title track its live debut at Tuesday’s concert, which went viral within hours, and pulled out a first-ever live performance of a 2021 deep cut as that night’s a cappella surprise song.
Fans who missed out on tickets have another option. Grande has lined up listening events at 16 independent record stores across Canada between July 31 and August 2, including stops in Montreal and Longueuil, with merch and door prizes on site.
Café Meekha
Address: 1227A Atateken St., Montreal, QC
Instagram: @cafemeekha
This story was inspired by the article “Ariana Grande spottée dans ce nouveau café à Montréal avec Ricky Álvarez” which was originally published on Narcity.
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