Todd and Chuck blog about their trips to Montréal
Posted in 2009 plans, planning, restos on Nov 12th, 2009
With less than 40 days remaining before this year’s trip to Montreal for the holidays, the dinner plans are starting to fall into place.
First, a reset: Each year, we spend the Christmas holiday in Montreal, with a trip of 6-8 days. We’ve done this since 2004. We do it because it’s relaxing, a nice time [...]
So here’s the open question: Where can we eat on the holiday?
This is the question that vexes the traveler who isn’t planning to spend the holidays with family or friends. And the holidays are a great leveler because whether you’re new to a city or a frequent visitor, you can still be frustrated when [...]
Posted in restos on Sep 11th, 2009
Marie-Claude Lortie, in La Presse this week, writes that, while the ambience of Newtown is nothing like their old digs at Laloux, Patrice Demers and Marc-André Jetté are back in the business of creating really beautiful and good tasting food.
This follows a somewhat lukewarm review from Lesley Chesterman in the Montreal Gazette – albeit just [...]
Posted in 2009 plans, restos on Aug 30th, 2009
Well, with only(!) 110 days left before the next trip to Montreal, and our sixth holiday spent in the city, our restaurant plan is beginning to take shape.
Readers of this blog know that food matters a lot to us, and on a vacation where the goal is to relax and do little or nothing, planning [...]
Posted in restos on Aug 9th, 2009
Thinking of Laloux again, and Newtown and Patrice Demers, here the video that gave us our first look at Demers in action. From the Something’s Cooking series (now defunct), here he is making the stunning Lychee Granite with Chef Nancy Hinton narrating the action.
We had this dessert twice at Laloux, and Chuck re-created it at [...]
Posted in 2009 plans, restos on Aug 9th, 2009
Let me pass on a couple reviews of note about two restaurants we’ve been watching closely over the past several months.
Laloux
In the Montreal Gazette, Lesley Chesterman visits and finds much to praise in the cooking of Eric Gonzalez and pastry chef Michelle Marek. First the setting, which hasn’t changed a bit and that makes her [...]
The video is amazingly cool, the concept is forward-thinking and super-trendy, perhaps a bit too trendy even for the most over-touristed sections of Old Montreal. But here it is, MüvBox, now at the Quai des Éclusiers (McGill and de la Commune).
And, based on the word of Montreal Foodie, which we’ve come to trust over the years, [...]
Posted in restos on May 7th, 2009
More chef musical chairs:
Mari-Claude Lortie of La Presse blogs that Éric Gonzalez will be the new chef at Laloux, replacing Marc André Jetté, who has departed for Newtown with Patrice Demers, as we’ve already noted.
We’re familiar with Gonzalez from his time at Cube until late 2006 (we ate there the final night); he went to [...]
Posted in restos on Apr 30th, 2009
Patrice Demers and Marc-André Jetté put Laloux back on the map of great Montreal restaurants, and now comes news of their imminent departure.
Demers and Jetté will move to the kitchen at Newtown on May 17th. We don’t know a lot about Newtown, but its reputation (if you read the Chowhound boards) seems to stand on its [...]
Posted in 2008 plans, restos on Dec 2nd, 2008
Less than three weeks from arrival in Montreal, here are the restaurant reservations:
December 19:
December 20: DNA
December 21: au Pied de Cochon
December 22: Laloux
December 23: Le Local
December 24: Bronte
December 25:
December 26: au Pied de Cochon
I noted earlier this year that we couldn’t resist dining at APDC twice on this trip, but we reserve the right to [...]
Posted in restos on Nov 17th, 2008
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 [...]
Posted in 2008 plans, restos on Nov 16th, 2008
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 [...]