Montreal Notebook

Barroco is now open in the old Cobalt space on rue St Paul Ouest. Not having been there yet, and without a menu online, I have to go on what others are saying.

We’re told it’s a selection of French, Spanish and Italian dishes, and the two reviews I’ve seen so far (both highlighted on the Barroco web site) are positive.

What is a good thing is the opening of another bistro in the less-trafficked, less-touristy “West of St. Laurent” section of Old Montreal. This is the part of the old city that we find most enjoyable, and it’s where we stay every year. Olive et Gourmando is a fixture on this side of St Paul, and there are notable restaurants like Titanic, Holder, Gandhi, Stash, etc., etc. But Barroco, DNA and some of the other new openings this year are most welcome and will bring new life to “our end of the street.”

One thing we can say about Barroco is the great location. We used to go to Cobalt before it closed in early 2007, and it was a cozy (I hate that word) rustic space with a front window you could fling open in the summer to welcome the sounds of the street.

• Barroco
• 312 rue St Paul Ouest
• 514-544-5800

Tags: barroco

Air Canada’s in-flight mag, enRoute, has published it list of the top 10 new restaurants in Canada, and while we should be surprised that only two restaurants in Montreal made the list, maybe we shouldn’t because there’s a lot of innovative cuisine popping up nationwide (although apparently not in eastern Canada, enRoute?!!?)

Nota Bene in Toronto takes the #1 spot, but right behind is a new Montreal restaurant that we’ve mentioned a few times: Le Local on William in Old Montreal.

enRoute describes the restaurant as a little baffling:

First there’s the location, somewhere between Old Montreal and an expressway on-ramp. Then there’s the fact that the floors are concrete and the walls are hardwood. Angled mirrors reflect not the diners but the buzz of the open kitchen. The staff can seem rude one minute, gracious the next. Don’t look to the menu for any help; it offers a cochonnailles plate with “a mixture of interesting things,” cassolette d’escargots and deer tartar with pickle cream. The butternut squash soup and chestnut purée is served with what resembles a baby spoon.

In a less food-savvy city, such a scene might detract from the food or cause the kitchen to get lazy. Not here.

Chowhounders have not been uniformly happy with the service here, but from the chatter, it’s clear they’re paying attention. So are we.

Also of note: Liverpool House (from the people who brought us Joe Beef) also represents Montreal on the list. (2501 rue Notre Dame O.)

Tags: lelocal

For the past three weeks, I’ve started nearly every morning checking this page. Click the link and the graph explains why: the Loonie has plummeted against the dollar, one of the many ripples from the widening financial crisis.

We haven’t seen an exchange rate of about 78 cents to the US Dollar (as of Friday 10/24) in more than three years. Getting into all of the ramifications of this shift is beyond my understanding, but here are a couple ways in which it’s not a bad thing: first, all things being equal, it can help the competitiveness of Canadian commodities on the world market by making them more affordable; second, for those of us traveling from the US to Canada right now, we get a more favorable exchange rate, with meals, hotels, and many other goods (not all, however) available at a “discount.”

Speaking for myself, I spent a lot of money in Montreal last year, when the Loonie was at parity with the US Dollar. If the rate holds, I look forward to saving some money and also spending some more at the businesses I patronize in the city.

Tags: exchange rate

If you find yourself visiting Montreal on Monday (or any day thereafter) and you’re downtown, and you have a few minutes, and you like good coffee, then stop by Cafe Myriade on 1432 rue MacKay and buy an espresso from Anthony Benda.

Anthony is the latest sign of a true coffee culture in Montreal. After working at other people’s cafes, he’s now opening his own place. It joins Cafe Veritas and Caffe in Gamba, among others, and this can only be a good thing, as each cafe educates its clientele, which in turn, increases demand for the good stuff.

The first time I went to Montreal, I was bewildered by the Second Cups and the Van Houttes, and the apparent lack of any good coffee in the city. It turned out to be more an issue of scarcity and visibility, but that’s changed a lot in the past 4 years.

That’s great for the locals, but it’s good news for us tourists, too. We don’t have to be a slave to the chains when we’re visiting; chances are, whether we’re bedding down in the old city or downtown, there’s good coffee nearby.

Chowhound has a few threads - you can start with this one.

UPDATE: I heard from a couple patrons of Cafe Myriade on its first day, both of whom thought their cup of coffee was excellent. I also corrected the typo in Anthony’s last name. Sometimes, you can look at a post 20 different ways and not see somethng so obvious.

Tags: cafemyriade, coffee

About five weeks ago, I took you through the first iteration of our restaurant planning for this year’s trip. I hope it was more enjoyable than last year’s vacation slide show because I’m back with round two.

This is the first list we’ve created to roughly approximate the number of dinners we’ll have in Montreal. I wish I could say it represents the results of exhaustive research, but it doesn’t. However, Chuck and I have been reading menus for the past few days.

• Dinner 1: Laloux
• Dinner 2: Au Pied du Cochon
• Dinner 3: DNA
• Dinner 4: Le Club Chasse et Pesce
• Dinner 5: Bonaparte
• Dinner 6: Le Germain: Laurie Raphael
• Dinner 7: Yoyo
• Dinner 8: Au Pied du Cochon

This order isn’t exact - we need to rationalize it with the restaurant holiday schedules, but it’s a good start. There are several first-time visits: Laloux, DNA, Chasse et Pesce, Laurie Raphael, Yoyo; only two repeats - Bonaparte and APDC.

Why in heaven’s name would we visit APDC twice in one trip? Despite the caloric burden, Chuck has repeatedly suggested this since our last visit in December 07. Well, while we’ve eaten better food elsewhere, our experiences at APDC - the ambiance, food, service, conviviality - have been unforgettable. (Our friend Howard sums it up beautifully here.) I hesitate to refer to any one restaurant as the quintessence of Quebecois dining; no single place captures that. But for us, it’s come to represent this city that celebrates pleasure.

What about Gandhi? Holder? Well, there’s always lunch, and thus, the planning continues.

Tags: 2008plans, apdc, bonaparte, chasseetpesce, dna, laloux, laurieraphael, yoyo

Like many visitors to Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, we’ve found ourselves going out in search of wine. We wanted to give it as a gift to friends, drink it at a restaurant, or share it back in our room. Like many visitors, we’ve found our first trips to SAQ to be dissatisfying.

An interesting discussion about purchasing wine in Quebec has popped up in Chowhound in the past couple of days, and if you travel to Quebec and like to buy wine, you might find it worth reading.

SAQ is Quebec’s provincial liquor monopoly; you can buy some wine elsewhere, in grocery stores and dépanneurs, but it’s only a small amount compared to what SAQ moves every year.

The conversation thread on Chowhound adds some depth to my knowledge and also provides some options for getting access to a wider variety of wine. For tourists, this isn’t optimal because it entails ordering wine in advance and then picking it up at a SAQ outlet. If you have friends in the province, perhaps they can do this for you.

A couple other observations that took us a SAQ visit or two to figure out:

• There are different kinds of SAQ outlets. The Wikipedia entry is helpful here. We discovered through trial and error that Sélection and Signature offer the kinds of wines and the selection that we desire. Express sells a lot of popular wines; it’s a good fall back if it’s the only SAQ outlet near you.
• We’re constantly reminded of the near invisibility of US wines outside the United States. The first time you walk into SAQ and see a couple of shelves devoted to California wines, and the shelves are filled with Beaulieu, Bogle, Mondavi, Fetzer and other such wine producers, you can get quite a jolt. California wines are world class, but finding anything but commodity California wine outside the US takes an effort. That said, there’s often excellent French and Italian wine. So if you “retune” your expectations, you’re likely to leave happy, with some excellent wine under your arm.

Tags: SAQ, wine

Old Montreal’s loss is Mile End’s gain: a Chowhounder reports that Bouchees Gourmandes will re-open at its new location at 1226 Bernard, near Theatre Outremont, probably sometime in late September.

The same Chowhound correspondent reported in May that the cafe was closing because of a dispute with the landlord.

Fans will be delighted to enjoy the brunches, the homemade caramel sauce and incredibly good chocolates (a serious holiday weakness of ours) once again. Those of us who visit Old Montreal will have to get out to Mile End - not a bad idea, since there’s much to do and eat there. We’ll keep an eye open for official word of the re-opening.

• Bouchees Gourmandes
• 1226 Bernard
• 514-845-3663

Tags: boucheesgourmandes

Christmas 2007 was our biggest trip to Montreal ever, and it was also one of our most enjoyable to date. Chuck and I were joined by two couples - close friends of ours - Michael and Bob, and Howard and Donovan. Both couples joined us for portions of our stay in Montreal, and for 3 nights, all of us enjoyed each other’s company.

We had some wild evenings… drinks before dinner at the W Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton, followed by not-to-be-forgotten dinners at Toque, Pintxo and Au Pied de Cochon. And this doesn’t include brunches at Olive et Gourmando, coffee at Cafe Veritas, and walks around Old Montreal.

Even after Howard and Donovan returned to the US for the holiday, we were pleased to have Bob and Michael with us for dinners at Otto and Gandhi, and a performance by Cirque du Soleil.

Now, Michael and Bob tell us they might join us in Montreal again for a few days. We’re pretty happy about this, not only because we greatly enjoy their company, but we have a few new restaurants we’d like to explore. It’s also a city best shared with friends.

I like the idea of a solitary vacation in Montreal, but it’s not as easy as it used to be. The Old City is changing every year, and even though my first holiday there was in 2004, I’ve noticed each year that, not only are there more businesses and boutiques in Old Montreal, there are more people there around the holidays, or so it seems. I’m sure part of it was the romance of the Old City, but on Christmas Eve 2004, I felt like we were the only ones there. It was a great experience that I’ve sought since then without achieving it.

After all that stuff about solitary vacations, I also like having friends around. I went in 2004 at the invitation of friends, participating in their annual Montreal tradition. As they moved on, I revived the tradition for myself, and I’ve found that I enjoy it more each year, especially as we’ve been able to welcome other friends to the tradition.

It’s hard to predict the impact of having friends with us again this year. I expect us to continue and expand our exploration of bistro food in Montreal. But we might do some touristy things this year - like going to Schwartz’s, for instance, or making the bagel tour of St. Viateur and Fairmount that we’ve always talked about. We’ve not trekked up Mont Royal since Christmas 2005. That was an invigorating, enjoyable walk for Christmas Day; perhaps it will return.

Montreal is a wonderful city. It represents all that’s best about the people and culture of Canada, with a Francophone joie de vivre that exists nowhere else.

Tags: 2008plans, Howard

Chuck and I spend all year talking about the restaurants we visit in Montreal over the holidays, and planning for the next holiday trip. I realize this can seem a bit freaky, but it’s not really because a large percentage of our conversation is about food and restaurants. It’s just kind of a natural thing.

This blog has chronicled our restaurant thinking and planning since 2006, and you can see the 2006 redux, as well as the 2007 discussion and a review of some of the 2007 restaurants from the inimitable Howard Schaefer. It’s chronicled restaurants that closed before we got to them (Anise, Bazaar Anise, Chevre) and some that closed after one visit (Cube, Brunoise) when we would have liked a second opportunity to dine there.

Truth be told, I’m more into this thing about making a list 120 days out from a trip than Chuck is, but from our previous visits, here are the prime candidates for a repeat visit.

2007: Pintxo

In 2007, there were two significant additions to our dining list: Toqué and Pintxo. Toqué was a celebratory event, an evening with all four of our friends for a dinner that would be memorable. Toqué doesn’t disappoint, but I doubt we’ll go back this year because we’ll be alone and less in need of the over-the-top dinner event. Pintxo, on the other hand, is a top candidate for 2008. It was a supremely pleasurable experience, and despite ordering everything on the menu (except the mixed salad), I think there’s more to enjoy there.

2006: Au Pied de Cochon

A significant percentage of web text about Montreal restaurants is devoted to this establishment, and this blog has contributed a fair amount, too, so I’ll spare you an additional review here. But our dinner there in 2006 led to a group celebration in 2007; and following those smashing successes, we’ll be back again this year. We’re spending a record 8 nights in Montreal this holiday, and we’ve talked about going twice, once before Christmas and again after. The caloric weight of two visits in such a short period of time may be more than my body can bear, but I’m willing to put it to the test.

2005: Gandhi

I written alot about Gandhi here; we think they serve some really good Indian food, and we like to visit often when we’re in Montreal. It’s also just steps away from the auberge where we stay, which makes it a convenient stop when we’re hungry and tired after a long day of leisure.

2004: Bato Thai, Bonaparte, Otto

Unless I’ve miscalculated, we’ve not been to Bato Thai since 2005, so I can’t vouch for its current state, but but we had three great meals there, we like the Thai food here a lot, and I’ve heard little since then to convince me otherwise. It might be worth another visit. Bonaparte is one of the our most visited restaurants in Montreal, in part because it’s close to the auberge, and it’s a nice “French dining experience.” I enjoyed it most for Christmas Eve, and we kept that tradition until 2007. It could return this year, and so could Otto, which has been the Christmas night restaurant since 2004. It’s just good food, the menu changes regularly, service is good, the wine list is fine. Christmas night choices for dining are limited, naturally, and although we’ve talked about Niu Kee for a couple years, so far we’ve booked at Otto every Christmas.

So to summarize:

Candidates for a repeat visit:

• Pintxo
• APDC
• Gandhi
• Bato Thai
• Bonaparte
• Otto

New Contenders (new to our list, I mean):

• Laloux has actually been on our list for some time, and Chuck is concerned that we make 2008 the year we get there. A search of “Laloux” will bring up enough reviews to confirm that this is a restaurant that deserves to be on the list. It’s been called the best in Montreal by many, and the best in Canada by some. We hope to draw our own conclusion.
• Le Local has generated a fair amount of buzz, not all of it positive, since it opened. I expect Chuck and I will give it some consideration.
• Holder has been around longer, and also receives generally positive reviews. We’ve kept this restaurant as an option for a couple years now… perhaps this year.
• Joe Beef
• Niu Kee: 1163 rue Clark
• Restaurant YoYo

The New Contender list will grow, I’m sure, and I’ll keep you up-to-date.

What about lunch? That’s next.

Tags: 2008plans, apdc, batothai, bonaparte, gandhi, holder, laloux, lelocal, otto, pintxo

I mentioned Anthony’s departure as barista at Cafe Sante Veritas a short while back, Anthony now provides some details about his new place, to be opening in downtown Montreal in October, most likely.

Cafe Myriade will be located on Mackay, between Ste. Catherine and Maissoneuve, which means it’s pretty close to that weird new Rice Pudding place (try not to confuse the two).

I’m excited because Montreal can use another good place for coffee, and the guy running the place is someone who cares about coffee. The other big thing about Myriade that makes me happy is the attention Anthony promises to give to drip coffee, which is something I care about a lot. You can go to places like Blue Bottle in San Francisco (it springs to mind because we’ll be there next week) and drink drip coffee that tastes, not like what you’d expect, but what you hope, drip coffee would taste like… fresh, rich, free of bitterness.

Even if you don’t get all frothy about drip coffee, you have to be heartened to know that this won’t be another shop with timers sitting on big pots of brew.

And now, a word about our next trip to Montreal. We don’t begin planning our next Christmas holiday in Montreal the day after we get back from the last one; we start the day we leave, when we book for the following year. This year, we’ll be at Auberge Les Passants du Sans Soucy from December 19-27. It will be our longest trip ever, and the best. Today, I bought the airline tickets, and that takes care of the second major element of our planning.

More to come on this, but with 129 days to prepare, we have some time to think about it.

Tags: 2008plans, cafemyriade, coffee

Montreal’s Apple Store opens this Friday, downtown at 1321 Rue Ste-Catherine Ouest. It’s been awhile since we talked about this - renovations began last November. (Photos of MENS, the previous tenant, here.)

I’m happy to know that on future trips, we’ll be able to take care of any iPhone, iPod or MacBook Pro needs that might arise.

UPDATE: A few photos from opening day are here.

Tags: apple

A while back, we noted the passing of Anise… and then the opening of its successor, Bazaar Anise.

Now, comes word that Bazaar Anise will close on July 13th, due to the owner’s health and a doctor’s recommendation, according to the Chowhound member.

We’re sad to discover that this will likely be the last incarnation of Anise.

Tags: anise, restos