All stories about "Montreal"

The Dodos, a wonderfully named duo from San Francisco, think Montreal is the friendliest city in the world. "Especially the girls," they say. "It gets even better in the summer!" [Refinery 29]

Restaurant Week is coming up in New York starting January 21, and already the internets are abuzz with guides of where to go, press releases with special menus fill my inbox, and friends are asking where to make reservations. However, after being excited and then inevitably disappointed year after year, I've learned my lesson about this clusterfuck. The premise of the whole thing, for those of you who haven't been paying attention these last 16 years, is that during the week normally expensive restaurants in the city serve a set menu for $24.07 for lunch and $35 for dinner, giving regular diners the chance to try out all the places they normally can't afford. The success of the New York scheme/promotion/culinary shitshow (originally only held during the summer, a sluggish time for a restaurant) inspired similar events in Brooklyn, DC, Boston, Denver, Montreal, and San Francisco. It generates a pile of cash for the over 200 participating restaurants, gives the industry something to crow about, and gooses the local economy. And in theory, it brings in diners who will return again to pay full price. For the most part though, it's the customers who get screwed by Restaurant Week(s), and here's why.

Montreal is best known for two things-- hockey and stripping. Their beloved Canadiens are one of the most successful franchises in the history of sports and their strip joints are equally acclaimed. Throughout the island of Montreal, full contact danses cost only $10 and are famous for leaving customers with a smile on their face. Sadly, even in this pervy paradise there are still some spots filled with hustlers, sketchy bouncers, and fugly dancers. To fully enjoy the city's sexy scene it helps to know where to start, so I consulted the good people of the internet and logged on to a Canadian message board dedicated to paying for punani to get the scoop on Montreal's infamous strip joints.

They might be insufferable linguistic nationalists, but give credit where it's due. The Quebecois are masters of drunk cuisine. Just take the case of poutine. The platonic ideal of poutine is brilliant: Freshly cut french fries topped with a peppery, meaty gravy and salty Quebec-style cheddar cheese curds. After a night of drinking and partying, poutine has a preternatural ability to soak up the alcohol, expand in the stomach, and leave the eater satiated and happy. But too many places in Montreal cut corners and offer a poutine that just isn't all that. However, we want to help you find the good stuff.

Montreal's Plateau and Mile End neighborhoods are exercises in cognitive dissonance. The mostly Francophone Plateau and Anglophone Mile End are home to generations of immigrant history -- the main stretch in the 'hood, Boulevard St-Laurent, is the place where one easily finds Jewish, Hungarian, Slovene and Portuguese grocery stores -- but it's also home to some of the best drinking in Montreal. Crescent Street is crowded with Montreal's homegrown bridge-and-tunnels, and the bars of Old Montreal show a stunning inability to transcend the sports bar and hotel bar barrier. Instead, here are ten quality selections for getting drinkerated in one of the world's best cities to do it in.

Montreal may not have a reputation as a prime destination for food lovers, but it should. Perhaps there is such abundance of quality cuisine in Montreal because the winters there are so brutal that residents are actually eager to put on a couple extra layers of fat. Whatever the reason, there's no question that folks in this city are serious about their meals. Montreal is one of my favorite destinations for the consumption of mass quantities, and the restaurants on this list are the main reasons why.

Sex tourism generally involves traveling to far-flung locales, but there is one city just a short flight away from the urban centers of the Eastern Seaboard that has dirty doings to rival the seamiest and most depraved: Montréal. Québec is famous for beer-fueled strip joints and sex clubs. Any drunk staggering down Sainte-Catherine Street can wander into a place offering Montréal's notorious danses contactes, but if you're looking for a full service sexual experience, you have to dig deeper. To get the lowdown on the massage parlors, whorehouses, and bedrooms where you can get the most bang for your buck in Montréal, I perused some of Canada's dirtiest web sites and message boards. Sorry girls and gays, but I couldn't find any reliable info on Québecois gigolos, but as always, if you have any further info, please drop us a line.

Just go through Canada! Say you're infected with a highly drug-resistant form of a deadly contagious disease. Should you get on an international flight with a few hundred other people in the enclosed space of a plane, potentially infecting them? Even if physicians who have tested you recommend against such travel? Well sure, why not -- if the doctors didn't explicitly forbid you from traveling, or legally compel you not to travel, how bad can it be? Aside from coughing up blood and having your tissue necrotize to the consistency of soft, white cheese until you die, it's not such a big deal. An as-yet unidentified Georgia man with dual Russian-American citizenship was diagnosed with tuberculosis in early May, and health officials advised him not to fly. But he'd already arranged for a wedding and honeymoon in Europe, so he went anyway. Then the Centers for Disease Control contacted him while he was in Rome, and things got a little more serious.

Montreal, Canada's cultural capital, is just now reaching top form in terms of weather. The place is colder than Moscow in the winter and has miles of tunnels built underneath the city just so inhabitants don't freeze to death while getting around. But in the late spring and all summer long, Montreal has fine weather indeed, and for Americans it can feel like a little taste of Europe much closer to home. Check out regional cuisines like poutine, Montreal bagels, and smoked meat. Or shop in one of their countless mega-malls. Or party all night with their drunken 18 year olds. We've compiled a selective beginner's guide for all you first timers who need a primer on all the best things to eat, drink, and see.

With all the hullaballoo surrounding the most recent release by Montreal's Arcade Fire, Neon Bible, one might be tempted to forget their roots. But don't. Montreal's Arcade Fire wouldn't exist without Montreal's arcades, oases of pixelated violence, zitty testosterone and sweaty frantic victory.

After the jump. Gridskipper rounds up what makes the Arcade Fire tick, the best of Montreal's arcades.

Of Montreal much can be said. But perhaps nothing captures the city's modest coolness as the Club Chasse et Peche. An unmarked door, an aura of mystique, low ceilings, leather banquettes, the Club has, no duh, a club-like feel. And though the subterranean vibe draws many the real siren is the food. A menu by famed Montreal chef Claude Pelletier mixes, no doy hickey, surf and turf. The roasted salmon, fennel & basil puree, braised endive get unmitigated praise while the wine list earns accolades for its fish friendliness. The land-based food products are no slouch either. Pelletier imports his Kurobuta pork from Boise to make the Kurobuta cheek cassoulet and smoked duck. Tucked in a small street, make sure you save at least a couple of your 36 hours trying to find the place and a couple more eating there.

Le Club Chasse Et Peche [Official site via Metroblogging Montreal]

[Photo: straup/flickr]

Previously: Safdie Shot, Pop! Goes The Vino, Montreal's Hotel Gault, Adult Day Care in Montreal

Even though panoramas don't look to hot when reduced to 365 pixels, this shot of Moishe Safdie's Habitat 67 maintains some of its beauty. For the full effect, visit Worksongs, a blog with a focus on urban exploration.

Habitat 67
Worksongs

Previous Pics of the Day: HDR Tokyo, Pic of the Day: What Is "I Was on Jeopardy?", Heartbreak Hotel, Chicago's South Side, Socal Pool Party, C84: Tai Chi, Favela, Photogrammetry, Budget Law Enforcement, Czarist Russia in Full Color, Dust Bowl in Full Color

What's not to love about Montreal? It's one of the few cities in North America where you're encouraged to be a gluttonous pig and they have the cuisine to make that gluttony worthwhile. Of course, not all meals need to be a meat juice down the chin experience. For a civilized respite from the overeating, Pop! Bar a Vin is worth a visit, especially for fans of design and/or drunkenness. Civilized drunkenness, of course.

Located near the Plateau, the bar is in a separate space from the restaurant in the same building, which is a bit too linen tablecloth-y for the Gridskipper crowd. The wine bar is decorated with 1960s and 1970s furniture; there's lots of low-slung chairs and couches, but they're in wood or orange and green fabric instead of the hard surfaces that are popular with the kids these days. This twist of design makes the bar a lot more comfortable and less pretentious than it would be otherwise. There's food too--a variety of French tarts and other girlie eats--and the bartender, happily ensconced behind a marble-topped bar, was knowledgeable, but stick with the wine. You'll want to save room for the overeating in your future.

Pop! Bar a Vin [Official Site]

[Alexander Basek]

Previously: Montreal's Hotel Gault, Adult Day Care in Montreal, $100 a Day Montreal, Cluny Artbar Montreal, Salon B

The thirty rooms of Montreal's Hotel Gault come replete with modernist furniture, oak paneling and luxurious beds. The hotel manages to be sleek and designed and at the same time comforting and lodge-y. For the small number of rooms, the hotel has a disproportionate amount of room classifications: Essential, Exstential, Extrassential, Etcetera, Top 5, Studio and Loft. Essential, the smallest, clocks in at 325 sq. feet and US$189. Loft, a 940 sq ft behemoth comes with a US$487 price tag though there are various deals to make the price less painful. With flat screen tvs, an "exclusive DVD library" and high speed internet, of course the Hotel Gault also has its restaurants and lounges serving hearty Canadian fare. The newly-opened Gault Le Soir, for instance, serves the syntactically challenging "Stag undercut pan fried with blueberries & pepper"

Hotel Gault

Previously: Adult Day Care in Montreal, Cluny Art Bar, This Place Is Dead, The Land of Honey and Water, World's Smallest Tequila Shots, Blogging Mutek : Ancient Japan in Montreal, More Vice City Guides, Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen, The Russian Debutante's Handbook Goes to Montreal, Montreal, 1967 Style.

No big deal or anything but an adult nursery just opened up in Montreal. Don't freak out. Like I said, no big deal, I plan to send my mom to one of these as soon as she gets passably senile. But wait a sec, is that middle-aged man wearing a bonnet and diapers? WTF? Mom, get in the car, you're going now! Just kidding. The daycare center is the first of its kind in North America. Clients can play good baby, bad baby, big brother, big sister, little sister, little brother, as well as the enfant qui fait pipi ou caca dans ses culottes. There are teddy bears, games, and domanatrices, one named Eloise, another named Nanny and a third named Bytchy. To find out the address, make a reservation. Go on and do it, or else we'll have to spank you. You'd like that wouldn't you?

Adult Baby and Diaper Lover Montreal

Previously: $100 in Montreal, Cluny Artbar in Montreal, Salon B: This Place is Dead, The Land of Honey and Water, World's Smallest Tequila Shots, Ancient Japan in Montreal

As is much touted on this site, we're giving away three complete sets of Wallpaper* City Guides to three lucky Gridskipperians. All you have to do is send us a $100 a day itinerary in any one of the 20 cities the guides cover by October 31. For complete rules and regs, click here.
To get your juices flowing, here are some of your competitor's entries for inspiration. Feel free to do the same city, just do it better. Send your entries to tips@gridskipper.com.

$100 in Barcelona by Jamie Greenberg
$100 in Montreal by Ms. Eva Bergazyn
$100 in New York by Phoebe Johnson
$100 in New York by Diane Cohen

Gridskipper, as many of you know, is giving away a complete set of Wallpaper* Travel Guides to three readers who have sent in a proposed $100 in a Day itinerary. The contest runs through October 31st so send your efforts to tips@gridskipper.com. For full rules, check out the initial post. Today, because it's Friday and because they're too good to keep cosseted in our inbox, we'll be featuring some reader responses. Our first one is $100 in Montreal by Eva, whose last name it is best to protect:

Wake up at noon. Go to Cafe Fruit Folie, a delish breakfast spot at 3817 Saint Denis. I'd have their yummy granola, yogurt and fruit sculpture combo with a giant cafe au lait, running me about $12. Then I'd trot down to Carré St-Louis and buy a couple of dime bags from one of the small-time dealers who hang out there. (For some reason, this square has more weirdos per square foot than anywhere else I know, maybe with the exception of Williamsburg.) After buying them ($20), I'd head uphill (phase one of exercise) to Park Mont-Royal for Sunday tam-tams, where people hang around, smoke, and either drum, dance, or nap. Then I'd dance (final stage of exercise) and maybe buy a hippie stick ($10) and a crocheted halter ($30). After wearing myself out, I'd pick up a couple friends and head over to Santropol, a weird sandwich shop at 3990 Saint Urbain, grab one of their cream cheese smeared sammies ($8), and read an existential book in French, which I will understand about half of through my pot-induced haze. I'll grab another j on Duluth, a pedestrian street, and head over to Biftek, a smoky bar with pool tables and cheap, giant pitchers of Boreale Blonde ($8 with tip.) Then, with my remaining $12, I'd go to Club 281, where half-naked men swing their half-erect penises around, and tuck loonies (Canuck-speak for one dollar coins) into their thongs until I run out of dough.

Cafe Fruit Folie [IgoUgo]
Carre St. Louis [Homeandabroad]
Santropol
Le Biftek
Club 281

Previously: Cluny Art Bar, This Place Is Dead, The Land of Honey and Water, World's Smallest Tequila Shots, Blogging Mutek : Ancient Japan in Montreal, More Vice City Guides, Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen, The Russian Debutante's Handbook Goes to Montreal, Montreal, 1967 Style.

So Cluny ArtBar has a couple things going against it. The pretentious name referring to Paris's museum of the middle age; the fact that it is an unhyphenated ArtBar; that it closes at ten. But Cluny has more going for it. Housed in a foundry, Cluny is a spacious relaxing cafe with wifi, mingling artists and food that's pretty good (Try the meatloaf). Cluny is also shares space with the Quartier Ephemere, an arts organization. True, dinner can only be had on Thursdays but teas, coffees, sandwhiches and the like can be had all the time, by office workers, artists, and you.

Cluny

[Photo: Our Punk Koala/Flickr]

Previously: This Place Is Dead, The Land of Honey and Water, World's Smallest Tequila Shots, Blogging Mutek : Ancient Japan in Montreal, More Vice City Guides, Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen, The Russian Debutante's Handbook Goes to Montreal, Montreal, 1967 Style.

Montreal's Salon B is a second story cafe. Fair enough. The first story is a funeral home. Fair enough. The second story cafe has a catwalk where, in the words of Midnight Poutine, one can "can go out...overlooking the Memorial services. Sometimes there are dead people." She continues, "There was an open casket funeral on Monday." Fair enou...hey that ain't right. That's some serious Eteocles shit right there. I don't want some latte-sipping hipster gawking at my exposed corpse, their bemused faces reflected in the golden coins covering my eyes. But that's apparently what you get if you die in Montreal. The lot of Montreal's living is slightly better. Salon B isn't such a bad place for a coffee. They've got a deadly brew, wifi and provide plenty of opportunities to contemplate the flight of time and the stutter that is our life.

Salon B Bibliocafe [Midnight Poutine]
Le Cafe Du Mort [in French]

[Photo: Gimme! Coffee]

Previously: The Land of Honey and Water, World's Smallest Tequila Shots, Blogging Mutek : Ancient Japan in Montreal, More Vice City Guides, Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen, The Russian Debutante's Handbook Goes to Montreal, Montreal, 1967 Style.

Ok, so it's not honey but it is sweet. Montreal is, as some may know, home to the sweetest secret outdoor pool in North America. The pool, nestled in the foothills of Mont Royal, is a hipster hangout where partying is par for the deck. (No, I don't mean deck like the supposed hipster shibboleth). During these hot summer months, this is where Montreal's scenesters go to stay cool. The pool was recently featured though not identified on the Montreal blog Midnight Poutine but I, being a New Yorker, am far from the vindictive reach of the enforcers of Montreal's swimming hole omerta. The pool is located on the McGill University campus and is affiliated with the Royal Victoria Hospital. Though hours are posted as 11am-7pm but those seem to be suggestions as parties often rage long into the dying of the light. Jump in quickly though because, according to Judy Ellerton of the Royal Victoria Hospital and a raging bitch, the pool won't stay open to the public long.

Super Secret Secret Pool [Midnight Poutine]
Pool Info [McGill Newsletter]

Previously: The Land of Milk and Honey, The Land of Milk and Water, Where To Swim in Toronto, Where To Swim in Singapore, Where to Swim in Boston, Where to Swim in Zurich, Where to Swim in London, Where To Swim in Paris (and Have Your Nose Broken)

Happy My Birthday, love Montreal. I think I have gotten more inebriated smelling an apple martini at West Hollywood's Abbey than I did from these mini-me Tequila shots at the Divers-Cite's Sky Terrasse Bar. It would take a few (dozen) of these to tempt me into the rooftop pool and jacuzzi.

Sky Club & Pub [Frommers]

[Boi From Troy]

Previously: Blogging Mutek, Ancient Japan in Montreal, More Vice City Guides, Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen, Shteyngart in Canada

Get along little doggies! This week we round up the roundup articles from print media, the "other" media.

Atlantic City
Vegas Style Hotels

Bangkok
5 Best Hotels

Boston
Hot Dates

Dubrovnik
Cheap living [NYT]

Montreal
What to do in Montreal if your kid is with you [LAT]

Moscow
What to do in the Touristless City [WSJ sub required]

Old San Juan
Three Lessons from an Old Town

Palermo
Art n' Architecture [IHT]

Phoenix
24-hour layover [MSNBC]

Roofs
Five Best Rooftops [Guardian]

$198 Houston to NYC: To hype their new Houston-JFK route, JetBlue is offering flights thereon at $99 each way to start. If you're feeling masochistic enough to endure a JFK transfer, you can go from there to various other northeastern cities at no extra charge (Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, etc.). Book by July 18 for travel September 7 to October 31.

$300 Canada from East Coast: Air Canada has a very short-term sale flogging all routes from East Coast cities to four cities in Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax), charging $150 each way. Departures include New York, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, and others. You must book by June 29 for travel through September 10.