Eating Montreal: The June Edition

We’ll be in Montréal next weekend for a few days of relaxation, the obligatory workouts at the gym, and some really great food.

As with every trip to Montréal, and this is my tenth, I’m pretty low key about planning activities. The general framework for a day is breakfast, some kind of tourist kind of activity, an invigorating workout, coffee at a café, cocktails, and then dinner. Next day, repeat.

The gym is Nautilus Plus in the Village, the coffee is at Café Myriade, cocktails are traditionally at the W Hotel, and dinners…

Friday 6/15 Les 400 Coups
Saturday 6/16 Le Filet
Sunday 6/17 Le Comptoir

This is a change from the original plan. I’ve wanted to drop in on Le Filet. Lesley Chesterman gave it a mixed review in the Gazette in 2011, but it had only been open for a couple months and it has some great names behind it (Claude Pelletier and Hubert Marsolais). And it popped up on some 2011 year-ender lists, including Marie-Claude Lortie’s in La Presse.

Tourist type activities? I want to go to the McCord Museum, which I’ve not been to. It’s a great city museum and there’s a good permanent exhibition on the history of Montréal that I’d like to see. What else? Nothing planned, but I can imagine I’ll spend a lot of time outdoors, since this is the first time in seven years that I’ve been to Montréal when the temperature was warmer than 40 degrees!

photo credit: Flickr/NedraI cc

Marie-Claude Lortie on Venti Osteria

Marie-Claude Lortie of La Presse headlines her mostly positive review of Venti Osteria “Simple and Good.”

I’ve blogged before about chef Michele Forgione and his success at KOKO. Venti Osteria opened a couple months ago in the space formerly occupied by BBQ Montreal, which lasted less than two years, and before that, the nicely contrived buy poorly named Stew Stop.

Lortie writes that innovation isn’t the hallmark of this restaurant, but if you’re looking for simple, delicious Italian food, you’ve found it. She describes tasty charcuterie plates, and melt-in-your-mouth ricotta gnocchi, although notes it was accompanied by a tomato sauce that was perhaps a bit too simple.

Her review is short, so I recommend you read it, but in summary, it looks like that there’s a new dining option in the more fashionable western end of the Old City, and another choice for Italian besides Graziella on McGill, which is quite excellent.

Venti Osteria: 372 St-Paul O. You can book through OpenTable.