C’est Bon, Montreal

A few weeks ago, our local friends Nat and Mike spent three days in Montreal, Quebec. Theirs was a romantic weekend getaway, like a short trip to Europe…with only half the jet lag.

Nat, who has family in Montreal and has visited before, says that Saint-Laurent just north of Sherbrooke (“The Main”) is the place to be if you want to party at clubs, or just grab dinner and drinks. Nearby, Prince Arthur and Duluth are pedestrian streets with tons of cute little restaurants, usually cheaper (but not as fancy pants) than those found on The Main.

Their favorite meal on The Main was dinner at Ristorante Primadonna, on Saint-Laurent north of Sherbrooke. Nat says the food here is absolutely delicious, but the service, as in all of Montreal, can be hit or miss. Everyone is very friendly, but sometimes it’s slow. She advises preparing yourselves for a long wait by requesting bread, having an extra drink and taking in the view (a.k.a., pretty people).

She and Mike stayed at the Opus Hotel Montreal, at the ubër-hip corner of Sherbrooke & Saint-Laurent. The Opus, housed in a renovated Art Nouveau-era building, has large, modernista rooms and truly great beds, as well as one of Montreal’s most popular bars, the Suco Resto Lounge. Suco extends into the ground floor courtyard, and, because this always seems to be our dear friends’ luck, they were given a first floor room facing the courtyard. To say this would become a loud arrangement would be an understatement.

Their first night, they returned from dinner at Primadonna to find upwards of 400 people partying hard right beneath their window, a DJ’s speakers pointed directly at their room. Requesting a room change approximately two seconds later, the front desk informed them that the hotel was fully booked. Nat and Mike were thrilled to find that despite the good money they’d paid for a hotel room (an average $200 US per night), the Opus, rather than they themselves, would dictate what time they’d go to sleep.

In Montreal, bars are supposed to close at 3:00 am; at 3:30 am, with a teeth-shattering bass still pumping from below, Nat called downstairs to say, in essence, “What gives? Why is it still so noisy?”

The gentleman at the front desk replied simply, “Huh, that’s weird” and hung up.

The Opus is under the impression that the earplugs they provide in the room are enough to block Suco’s noise; Mike and Nat somewhat politely demur.

By the time the bar closed and the less-than-silent cleanup crew departed, it was 5:00 am. Miraculously, they were moved to the other (blessedly quieter) side of the hotel the next day, but in their opinion, the hotel staff were a bit snooty about the whole arrangement.

To show their good will, though, later in the weekend Mike and Nat enjoyed a drink in Suco’s courtyard, and with a good night’s sleep to their credit, declared it cool and funky with good music — very Hollywood with a French flair.

For their favorite breakfast, they ate at Café Melies (also on The Main), where the interior is styled after the work of Georges Méliès, both a Frenchman and one of the founding fathers of cinema. A classic French bistro, this cafè features uniformed waiters and gorgeous food.

But both Mike and Nathalie agree, the not-miss food in Montreal is the local bagel. Very different from New York bagels, Montreal’s bagels are thinner, less doughy, more chewy… basically drool central. Fairmount Bagel (on Fairmount Street, just West of St. Laurent) is an institution; Nat remembers her parents reminiscing about stopping by here in the 1950s after going out on the town. She recommends grabbing some cream cheese and half a dozen of Fairmount’s bagels fresh and hot out of the oven, and heading up to Parc du Mont Royal with your sweetie.

On Sundays, Mont Royal (where you’ll find the city’s famous angel statue) is the site of what’s known as the “Tam Tam Jam.” All hippie-friendly peace and love, musicians show up for a collective drum jam, with picknickers and spontaneous dancing.

This famous weekly festival is a great way to see what the laid-back people of Montreal are really like. Hotels should be able to tell you what time it goes down and how to get there.

Old Montreal is a must. You can simply grab a map from a souvenir shop and wander the streets, there’s cool little spots everywhere. Or, you can rent bikes at self-serve BIXI stations all over the city, which take credit cards and charge by the hour.

Notre-Dame Basilica ($5 per person, including guided tours offered in French and English) is truly awesome, azure, gilded and stunning, with statues of saints and a clear picture of the local history; the tale of priests and nuns converting the natives ends very, very badly…for the natives.

In Old Montreal, Nat and Mike had sunset drinks and tapas on the rooftop terrace at Verses Sky in the Nelligan Hotel. Not cheap, but worth it. They continued on to dinner at the cozy, pub-like Mechant Boeuf Brasserie (which basically translates to “the mean (or evil) bull”) for great fries, hamburgers and grilled salmon.

Nat is a fan of Montreal at all times of the year, but warns that it has temperature extremes.  Booger-freezing, crispy, crunchy iced-jeans cold in Winter, and lush-green, muggy Florida-bog hot in Summer.

Sounds like Fall or Spring would be excellent times to visit…

See also
TWT Travel Binder: Quebec

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