Frites Alors Vladimir Volodymyr poutine
Food & Drink

Frites Alors has finally changed the name of its Vladimir poutine… to Volodymyr

by Lorraine Carpenter

“We realized that Vladimir was no longer the right name.”

Quebec restaurant chain Frites Alors has finally done the right thing and renamed its standard poutine, long known as la Vladimir. Frites Alors, which has been serving Belgian and Québécois casse-croute fare in Montreal since 1991, is now calling their poutine la Volodymyr, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We realized that it was no longer the right name, even if [the names of our poutines] are more of a comic-strip-style gag.”

—Yannick de Groote, partner and product development director

The gag is derived from the fact that Putin is typically translated to Poutine in French, making the restaurant’s new “Volodymyr poutine” a bit of an uncomfortable blend. Still, wiping Vladimir from the menu is a good move for Frites Alors, which has 11 locations in Montreal and 2 in Quebec City.

“Our poutine was called Vladimir; we kept the name poutine because who are we to decide that we are going to change the name of this dish? We only changed the first name from Vladimir to Volodymyr.”

—Frites Alors on Facebook

For more on Frites Alors, please visit the restaurant’s website.

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Posted in Food & Drink

by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.