Montreal's Fledgling Contemporary Art Scene

Bilingual. Bicultural. Bipolar? It’s hard not to think of Montreal in terms of split identity, as equal parts French and Anglo, North American and European. The notorious St. Catherine Street strip clubs notwithstanding, the city is generally a pretty civilized hub of arts and learning. McGill is one of the best schools on the continent. Catholic steeples vie for skyline primacy with more modern landmarks like Moshe Safdie’s famous modular housing complex, a legacy of the forward-looking 1967 Expo, and arts spaces are popping up in all sorts of re-purposed old buildings. Sophisticated but unpretentious, it’s a burgeoning center of contemporary art and design, the kind of city where you can show some homegrown or international work in an old warehouse without too much fuss. Our thanks for photos and guidance to local blogger Daviel Vieira, who writes about the local art scene here.

Montreal Restaurants 101

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.

Drinking in Montreal's Plateau & Mile End

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's Top Terrasses

To understand why Montreal is a must-visit destination during the summer (a whirlwind period of music, comedy, arts and culture festivals, an unending night of long dinners, drinks and after-hours merriment), one need look no further than Montreal’s winters. Montrealers, contrary to popular belief, don’t love the cold. They tolerate it- where do you think all that moody art and music comes from? So they reluctantly hole up in their houses and apartments, confident with the knowledge that, come June, they won’t be inside for a second more than necessary.

Live Music in Montreal

Montreal has been a musical mecca since the 1920s, when its famed burlesque and jazz clubs offered audiences something that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Given that this coincided with U.S. prohibition, that “something” may in large part have been “booze”. But the cities’ attachment to live music has never waned and its jazz scene eventually begat the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the largest of its kind in the world.

The Dodos, a wonderfully named

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]

Why I Hate Restaurant Week

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 Strip Club Showdown

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.

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Montreal's Best Poutine

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.

Boudoirs & Bordellos in Montreal

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.

HOWTO: Fly with Tuberculosis

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.

Beginner's Guide to Montreal

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.

Ready, Aim, Arcade Fire: A Neon Bible to Montreal Gaming Scene

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.