The Chateau Lafayette, also known as the Laff, is Ottawa's oldest tavern hotel.
The Laff is older than the City of Ottawa, the Chateau Laurier Hotel, and even older than the original Parliament Buildings.
The story of this establishment has not always been quiet and tidy: built in 1849, the Lafayette has had many owners who have successively turned it into a four-story hotel, a tavern, a restaurant, a theatre, but also a “meeting place for farmers, Lowertown riff-raff, obnoxious lumberjacks, and drunks of all kinds.”
Today, the Chateau Lafayette is a pleasant and busy bar-brewery in the heart of the Byward Market. The beers on tap are mostly from the region, including the famous 1849 beer specially made for the cause.
Numerous visiting stars are stopping over, leaving behind them their share of more or less plausible stories.
As the owners of the establishment so aptly put it, “You never know who you'll meet at the Laff.”
It is said that the basement is haunted…