Tag Archives: holiday 2010

Christmas: Where to Eat?

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I’ve asked this question before on the blog: Where do you go to eat on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when you’re a tourist in another city and you don’t have friends in town?

Many restaurants close on Christmas Eve, and most are closed on Christmas Day. The options? There’s always Chinese. We enjoyed a fun dim sum lunch at Ruby Rouge in Montréal’s Chinatown on Christmas 2008. As for dinners, we’ve found our best bet to be hotel restaurants, most of which stay open for their guests, however small the number of guests might be. Our go-to’s for the past 6 years? Bonaparte, which creates a rather beautiful and delicious French/Quebecois meal on Christmas Eve and Christmas night; and Otto at the W Hotel, which offers Italian-inspired food, also quite good.

Otherwise, be prepared for everything to be closed, from shops in the Underground City to the Couche-tard down the street. Particularly in the Old City, it’s not a good day to be in need of a quick snack, a toothbrush or a box of tissues, so think ahead on 12/23 or Christmas Eve so you’re not caught.

In other words, it’s really not that different from a Christmas Day back home, but back home you’re not restricted to what’s in your suitcase. If you’re staying at a hotel or auberge that offers a breakfast, there’s an extra guaranteed meal that you won’t have to think about.

Chowhounders are discussing what restaurants will be open in Montréal this holiday season – check out the conversation and join in, if you have any suggestions. If you’re staying in the city over the holidays, your concierge can help you, and you can consult OpenTable to see which of its participating restaurants.

What’s our plan for this year? Bonaparte on Christmas Eve… and on Christmas night, most likely Otto, unless something more intriguing grabs our attention.

(photo: Laloux on 12/20/09)

Montréal Holiday v7.0: 30 days away

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A month from today, we’ll be on our way to Montréal for 10 days in the city – our longest trip there. Here’s an update.

The restaurant plan: thus far, reservations are in place for Toque!, DNA, Les 400 Coups, and Bonaparte. I expect more reservations for Laloux (11/28 now made) and Au Pied de Cochon this weekend, with some “gap-filling” over the next couple weeks.

  • 12/17 Toque!
  • 12/18 DNA
  • 12/20 Laloux
  • 12/21 Les 400 Coups
  • 12/24 Bonaparte

Another note, while I’m here: Marie-Claude Lortie has an interesting review of DNA in La Presse. Push it through Google Translate if you need to, it’s worth reading.

I’ll leave late morning on 12/17 and should arrive mid-afternoon in Montréal. My friends, my now perennial holiday revelers in the city, arriving late Thursday.

Thinking about Montréal 2010

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With a mere 168 days separating me from my 7th holiday to Montréal, you can imagine the growing excitement. (If you think I’m kidding, you’d be surprised.)

Montréal 2009 was a truncated vacation – 5 days instead of the expected 8. We enjoyed ourselves and 5 days was enough to have a really good time, but we did miss out on a few things we wanted to do. So as we left the auberge, we booked a much longer trip for 2010: 11 days. Now, I look back on that decision and I feel it’s a bit excessive and indulgent.

In other words, it’s perfect because those words are what Christmas is all about.

The activity list in Montréal will be the same: low key, with one activity per day, maximum. The restaurant list is not likely to undergo a major change from last year, although I’m keeping a close eye on restaurant openings, as always.

One possible change: we’ve discussed an intra-vacation excursion to Québec City, perhaps flying there on December 17th or 18th and then taking VIA Rail to Montréal on December 20th for the rest of the stay. I’ve never been to Québec and a couple days there would add some “discovery” to the “discovered” so to speak.

More to come as I flesh out the details.

UPDATE: just after I posted this, Patrice Demers announced on twitter that he and Marc-André Jette are leaving Newtown for a new restaurant, to open in October. Naturally, this will alter our plans, since we like to follow these guys.

UPDATE 2: The new restaurant will be in Old Montréal, btw.