Montreal
After a few days In Quebec City, Becky and I made our drive to Montreal. This was marked by a most unfortunate bee sting at a gas station, poor Becky! Luckily she wasn’t that allergic and a little ice sent the swelling packing. Our Airbnb was in Mile End, an artsy and Brooklyn-esque section of Montreal. Home to a plethora of thrift stores and Montreal’s two more famous bagel establishments, Fairmount and St-Viateur. After trying both in succession, I can confirm that Fairmount is my preferred Montreal bagel. It has everything you could want from a bagel, the crispy exterior paired with the soft interior. Just lovely!
We stayed in a room in a shared apartment. Our hosts were delightful and had plenty of great tips for the area. +1 for staying in a shared room style Airbnb, it’s not my preference, but it worked out pretty great. Our first night we opted for a chill dinner at Falafel Yoni. I LOVE Mediterranean food. We often get it post show because it’s the most consistent across the country. I feel like wherever you are, there’s bound to be a good Mede spot. Falafel Yoni was among the cream of the crop. The interior reminded me of a Chipotle with its natural plywood, but man was the falafel way above average. Becky got some GF fried aubergine that was just out of this world. The falafel plate came with pickles, a little salad, hummus, and the dankest falafels I think I’ve ever had.
After dinner we had heard about some local jazz going down at Bar Datcha, which was just around the corner. The band was made up of younger musicians, and super tight! I think they play there almost every Thursday. It was unique show in that they almost never stopped playing, improv-ing their way from one song to the next and sometimes just jamming. I was stoked! The cocktails here were also excellent. I got a penicillin—one of my favorites!
We hit some notable shops while in Montreal. Lucky for our timing, almost everything was on sale for the end of Summer sales. Plus, the Canadian dollar was about $.70 to the US dollar, so take an additional 30% off everything! I was super stoked to check out Palmo Goods, a true vintage store in our area. They had a huge selection of vintage Levis + great flannels! There’s nothing quite like finding a well curated vintage store with proper interior design and display. I just love it. Sure, I’ll dig through cluttered racks, but when it’s laid out so well, my brain can relax.
The food in Montreal is some of the best I’ve had. Our Airbnb host told us that it’s just behind NYC for the most restaurants per capita in the world. Needless to say there were plenty of options. Becky had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant named Candide and boy did it deliver! The restaurant was at the back of a church in a very quiet section of town. I realized later it was so they could have their own gardens right there. Yes, the garden for the restaurant was right next to our table! The outdoor seating was lovely, but the indoor design was also top notch. Everything was cooked on an open flame inside. We had to go get a glimpse, it was epic. The menu was pre-fix with a few options and we also had a wine pairing which was very well done. The sommelier had captivating stories to go along with each wine, and most were local. All of the food by the way, was also local to Canada. I think the farthest traveling items were the clams we had, which came from Nova Scotia. I really appreciated the fact that this restaurant worked so well with our dietary restrictions. I’m mostly dairy free and Becky is gluten free and they didn’t hiccup about it at all. All in all, this was the best meal we had in Montreal, food + atmosphere combined. Highly recommend!
Becky loves to find speakeasies and with DJs is a major plus. Our favorite was Sans Soleil, which we went to after our Sunday at Piknic Electronik. We stumbled in around 8:30pm hoping to grab some food before their kitchen closed. Little did we know we actually ended up in a restaurant that is owned by the same people just upstairs. It was absolutely delicious Japanese food. We had sashimi, various vegetables, and “The Perfect Egg”—highly recommend this order. Afterwards we waited in line to get into the speakeasy, which we found out was in the basement of the restaurant. They had cleared their tables for a vinyl DJ night and it was perfect. The cocktails were brilliant and the vinyl spinners were killing it with a wide range of disco and house. Super impressive to watch vinyl DJs up close, we Shazam’ed a ton of stuff for Becky’s future Rivka Ruth sets.
One of our favorite days in Montreal consisted of going up to Jean Talon Market for picnic supplies and biking 45 minutes to Café Ma Bicyclette. Renting Bixi bikes in Montreal is similar to Citi bikes in NYC, super easy to use when you download their app. We really loved the section near the St. Lawrence river and the adjacent canal. Tons of people were picnicking down there and the bike path was wide and for the most part separate from the road.
Overall, Montreal is one of my favorite cities in North America. It felt like a little slice of Europe! The metro was clean and easy to use, the bike paths were plentiful, and the food was to die for! We are definitely going to be coming back.
Plenty of more recs and info on our time in Montreal below!