Sebastian White :: Montreal: A Food Lover's Paradise, Par Excellence

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Montreal: A Food Lover's Paradise, Par Excellence

The Sunday Spectator | January 29, 2006
By Sebastian White

MONTREAL—Times have changed a bit since Mark Twain made a famed visit to Montreal in 1881. After touring the city’s architectural gems, the writer observed, “This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window.” Countless steeples still soar in Montreal, but the cityscape today is instead dominated by interesting neighborhood brasseries while the religious lock on life has been largely supplanted by an indulgent culture of cuisine.

Modern-day Montreal is a true feast for the gastronomic senses, a multicultural bouillabaisse of Asian, French, Italian, North African, and West Indian flavors on par with food capitals like New York, Paris, and San Francisco.

It's a remarkable shift for a city that was once the staid darling of the British Empire but that today is the only major city in North America where English is a minority language. Home to thriving ethnic neighborhoods fusing flavors and cultures, Montreal is one of the most interesting and varied (not to mention tantalizingly fun) places on the planet. Tempered by a low cost of living and buoyed by a host of romantic appeal, this once-declining city is staging a comeback on the world scene with its culinary delights positioned front and center.

Dining options are virtually limitless in Canada’s second-largest city, with a dizzying 5,000 restaurants scattered across this croissant-shaped island of gas street lamps and old cobblestone lanes. One of the best strategies for tackling the immense slew of choices is to hit one of Montreal’s many restaurant-packed main drags like Rue St. Denis in the Latin Quarter, or pick an ethnicity (Iranian or Senegalese, anyone?) and pair it with its urban enclave where you’ll find a host of options fitting both your palate and your pocketbook.

Whichever route you take, it’s doesn’t take long to realize that life in the City of Saints revolves effortlessly around good food and uncontrived European-style good living. Though Montreal ceded its place as Canada’s economic nexus to Toronto some time ago, it remains the nation’s liveliest and most sophisticated city, deserving of its reputation as the place to be for the hip, the young, and the young at heart.

Montreal is obsessive about fashion and food, but the pace is less hurried than in other big cities, with unabashed people-watching playing an essential part in the Montreal experience. The city’s restaurants are designed with this in mind, tempting diners with inviting sidewalk seating and beguiling backyard terraces. Nowhere is this fact of life more apparent than in the stylish Plateau Mont Royal district, an unselfconscious neighborhood of Parisian pâtisseries and funky storefronts that residents proudly contend is the trendiest in all of Canada.

Besides the bohemians and yuppies who inhabit its lofts and flats, the densely-packed Plateau is also home to Montreal’s most famous restaurant, the chaotic and unpretentious Schwartz’s. The Holy Grail of Hebrew delis in a city boasting many impressive contenders, Schwartz’s is known world over for its smoked meat—Montreal’s own soul food. Its oversized sandwiches, a steal at about $3.50 (all prices in U.S. dollars), are legendary, attracting a diverse crowd of locals and visitors to a sliver of a restaurant on hopping Boulevard St. Laurent (known locally as “the Main”) until late into the evening.

The many defining faces of Montreal converge at Schwartz’s cramped, narrow tables and outside on the Main: English and French, bourgeois and proletariat, new arrival and lifelong Quebecer. Dining options are as endless as street life is boisterous in this part of the city, where an arresting vitality spills out of chic bistros and onto the multilingual, well-dressed streets at all hours.

Northward along the Main, past the high-stooped row houses of vintage clothing shops and tattoo parlors, the Plateau gives way to Mile-End, the district immortalized by local author Mordecai Richler, and once ground zero of Montreal’s 100,000-strong Jewish population. The community is more dispersed today, but this remains prime bagel-buying country, with two of the city's most renowned bakeries, Fairmount Bagel and St. Viateur Bagel, duking it out for customers a few blocks apart.

Montreal’s sublime wood-oven fired bagels are unique: made with eggs instead of water, and thinner and less bready than New York’s, locals line up in droves to get the still-warm goods as soon as they come out of the massive, glowing ovens (especially on lazy weekends), making a trip to one of these bakeries both a sure pleasure and a Montreal must.

It’s an easy stroll west from Mile-End into residential Outremont and its lush Bernard Avenue, which caters to the hip, mostly francophone denizens of this upscale neighborhood. Not a traditional tourist stop-off, Bernard charms visitors with tree-lined streets of inviting sidewalk cafes and relaxing terrace restaurants interspersed among turn-of-the-century mansions. For a drippy palate pleaser in this posh district, stop in at Le Bilboquet, a chic ice cream place (they even have “chocochic” flavor) where the lines are long but the delights scrumptious.

The understated and privileged air of Outremont is a testament to the solid prominence of francophones in Montreal life. Though they tend to be almost infamously known for pushing provincial separatism, they’ve also had a hand in creating Quebec’s most famous culinary quick fix: poutine.

This gooey, piled-high mess of French fries, cheese curds, and thick gravy is enough to make connoisseurs cringe, but poutine has earned a hallowed place in the hearts of French-Canadians and on the menus of establishments of all sorts, from the finest bars and bistros (many of which have their own gourmet variations of the artery-clogger) to the standard fast-food chains.

Even more than its eclectic cuisine, though, Montreal’s draw is its physical beauty. And as the lush greenery of spring slowly returns after a long and dark winter, one of the best diversions Montreal has to offer is its picnicking potential. In fact, with an abundance of green space—and a bounty of public markets—Montreal is the perfect place for dining en plein air. Putting one together is half the fun.

Start by heading to the stalls and pushcarts of the Jean-Talon Market in Little Italy or the Atwater Market on the western end of downtown and linger in an expanse of charcuterie, piping hot baguettes, and a to-die-for selection of impeccably displayed fruits and vegetables. The jovial and Franglais-speaking vendors also hawk an impressive array of locally-produced and quintessentially Quebec maple sugar goods, pates, raw milk cheeses, caribou sausage, even exotic game meats.

Graceful parks dot all reaches of the city, but the best picnic spots—and the most dramatic, romantic vistas—are hidden in the old shade trees of Mount Royal Park, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed oasis rising from the center of the city. From its landscaped lookouts, this 1876-era jewel offers spectacular birds-eye views of the city below and across the St. Lawrence River to the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Come for a picnic but stick around for a jaw-dropping sunset set against the backdrop of the city’s contrasting glass towers and the fabled greystone neighborhoods that wind their way up the slopes of Mount Royal. As the sun dips below the horizon, the captivating je ne sais quoi that has drawn generations to this quiet spot only makes the city of Montreal seem even more magical.

IF YOU GO

For more information, including details about discount travel packages, contact Tourism Montreal, C.P. 979, Montreal, QC, H3C 2W3; Tel. 877-BONJOUR.

How to Get There

Because of its close proximity, driving is the best way to get to Montreal from the Southern Tier. The city is about seven hours from Allegany and Steuben Counties. Alternatively, Continental, Northwest, United, and US Airways all offer multiple daily connecting flights to Montreal from Buffalo, Elmira, and Rochester, beginning at about $200 roundtrip (all prices in U.S. dollars). Air Canada also flies daily from Rochester.

Where to Stay

As Montreal has become an increasingly popular destination, the price of its hotel rooms has also risen substantially. Still, internet and last minute specials, as well as a favorable currency exchange rate (the Canadian dollar is worth about three-quarters of a U.S. dollar) means there are hotel bargains to be had for those willing to do a bit of legwork.

Moderate: Le Chateau Versailles, 1659 Sherbrooke St. West, (514) 933-8111, is housed in four adjacent and recently renovated beaux-arts townhouses steps from the city’s fashionable Golden Square Mile neighborhood. Prices range from about $125-200 per night.

Luxury: The Ritz-Carlton Montreal, 1228 Sherbrooke St. West, (514) 842-4212, is Montreal’s most sumptuous hotel, and one of the luxury chain’s most affordable offerings. The hotel is adjacent to the Museum of Fine Arts and Sherbrooke Street shopping. Enjoy alfresco dining at the hotel’s storied Jardin du Ritz restaurant, which includes lush gardens and even a duck pond. Prices range from about $150 for a standard room to $300 for a junior suite.

Where to Eat

Atwater Market, 138 Atwater St., (514) 935-5716, and the Jean-Talon Market, 7075 Casgrain Ave., (514) 277-1379, are the best places to pick up a quick, fresh meal, or to prep for a picnic. Each offers restaurants, cafes, and vendors offering an array of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses.

Fairmount Bagel Bakery, 74 Fairmount Ave. West, (514) 272-0067, and St. Viateur Bagel Shop, 263 St. Viateur Ave. West, (514) 276-8044, are neighbors in the Mile-End section of Montreal, and are consistently rated as the city’s favorite bagel shops. Expect to pay $1-2 per person.

Le Bilboquet, 1311 Bernard St. West, (514) 276-0414, in the Outremont neighborhood, has a delectable selection of homemade sorbets and ice creams, as well as standard favorites like Ben & Jerry’s. Expect to pay about $3 per person.

Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen, 3895 Boulevard St. Laurent, (514) 842-4813, in the lively Plateau Mont Royal neighborhood. Expect to pay about $5 per person for a too-big-to-finish smoked meat sandwich and soda.