In a downtown core jammed with Murano glass–lit power-restos, the Café du Marché was no small anomaly: even as an entire generation of mom-and-pop restaurants packed off to cheaper quarters, the little room with the gorgeous poulet chasseur and the famous gâteau Basque kept right on going. Marie-Claude and Noël Hamon opened shop in 1975, and the restaurant thrived through the ’70s and ’80s as would-be gastronomes flocked to diversify their Yorkshire pudding palates. They hung on admirably through the up-again, down-again 1990s and into their 30th year. But this summer, the café hit a wall as the city’s condo boom finally drove rents and taxes too high. The lease neared $10,000 a month, says Marie-Claude, and it promised to keep on climbing. “It’s like your baby,” she says. “You have to let it go, but it’s very difficult.” Though the Hamons hung up their toques in late September, all may not be lost. Chef Claudio Aprile, the former Senses wunderkind who has taken over the Colborne Street space, hopes to resurrect Noël’s gâteau Basque—if he’ll let him. “I can’t guarantee it will happen,” says Aprile. “Noël is very protective of his recipes.” At press time, Marie-Claude promised to “work on him.”