Le Cartet
(106 rue McGill, Old Montreal),
a combination of a high-end grocery store
( boutique alimentaire) and a café, reopened after
winter renovation. Our reviewers will soon be dispatched
to sample Le Cartet's brunch.
Read the rest of: "Le Cartet Reopens"»  With few exceptions, I never order anything that I can cook well myself. Thai is one cuisine that I would love to wow guests with. Its distinguishing feature is the use of coconut milk, lemon grass, peanuts and chilli peppers in harmonious constellations for consumption. But sadly, I've never actually done anything about studying it, maybe because I am a regular at Restaurant Thaïlande. Let's face it, we're a lazy species, and if others can do it better, why not go to them?
Read the rest of: "High on Thai at Restaurant Thaïlande"»  There are many restaurants in this town proving their worth by hiring the right chef, PR agency or interior designer, attracting the "in" crowd or serving the most "creative" (sometimes absurdly creative) nouvelle cuisine dishes.
And then there are restaurants that don't need to prove anything: as long as they stay true to their mission and character, they will be deservedly popular.
L'Express at 3927 rue St-Denis belongs to the second category. In the 20-odd years that the place existed, it slowly transformed its status from that of a "cool new thing" to that of a Montreal institution...
Read the rest of: "L'Express Way"»  I am not exactly a frequent visitor at tea salons
- a fact pretty much ensured by the very presence
of the Y chromosome in my DNA.
Yet, since about a year ago, I regularly find
myself at a place that ranks suspiciously well on
the tea connoisseurs' list of Montreal cafés and
restaurants.
And what do I order there? Tea. And cookies...
Read the rest of: "Tea and Cookies at Nocochi"»
 A visiting Parisian recently made me laugh. Stretched on the grass next to the esplanade in the Old Port, she suddenly noticed Habitat 67's retro-futuristic assemblage across Canal Lachine.
" Et ça" - she said peering confusedly at the distant building - " Ce sont des logements sociaux?" ("And that... that's a housing project?"). I laughed because although nothing could be further from the truth (the internationally acclaimed building houses well-to-do Montrealers - one could even say, the city's elite) many people somehow make a similar mistake. They are put off by the building's stern look, uninviting color and absurd shape, and so they wrongly assume something of the sort can only be used to house the underclass. I am here to clear up the confusion and defend the merits of Habitat 67...
Read the rest of: "The Habitat"»  I am not a wine connoisseur, and completely hopeless when it comes to Hungarian wines, so I am not going to give you any advice to guide you through the wine list at Aszú. Heck, I didn't even try any Hungarian wines there! My mission for the night was much simpler: to have a decent terrace meal in the Old Port and enjoy a nice conversation with my dining partner who happened to be another SiteBits contributor...
Read the rest of: "Dinner at Aszú"»  I remember the first time I walked by Nota Bene store on Avenue du Parc in November, 2004. A series of colorful German-made notebooks with aluminum edges were shown in the display window and I immediately thought “I am going to spend a lot of money here”. And sure enough, over the following three years, I did...
Nota Bene sells an amazing array of imported designer stationery items – mostly of European and Japanese origin. If you're the type who prefers to think with a pen or a pencil in their hands, chances are you're going to love this store...
Read the rest of: "Nota Bene"»  Like every good European, I am fond of food and like it to be as fresh as possible. I've always looked for the best ingredients to make my cooking exceptional for my wife, friends and family, as that's whom I usually cook for. Getting my groceries fresh from the market or straight from the farmer has always been my goal, because everything tastes better from the people who take care of their produce and work hard to bring the raw ingredients to our fridges.
In Montreal I was overjoyed to find that there's more than one farmer's market open seven days a week. One of my favorites (not only for its nice building, which I really like) is the Atwater Market, situated very close to the Lachine Canal path, making it the perfect stop after a walk or a bike ride...
Read the rest of: "Marché Atwater"» If you know anything about Ottawa you probably know it as the capital of Canada and not much else. That's most of the story. Unless you work for the government, there's not much to do in Ottawa, particularly after sunset, aside from an all-you-can-eat lobster dinner and a cozy bed...
Read the rest of: "Ottawa: I came, I saw, I left"» Quick, where to go in Montreal on a Thursday night?
Think beer, pool, conversation and a little live music by a good local band on a miniscule stage – not to mention the spirited roar of Canadiens' fans.
Located right in the middle of Plateau Mont Royal, L'Inspecteur Épingle is a bar where a variety of characters congregate to drink affordably priced pints of beer. Patrons are often perched on bar stools or lounging at corner tables beneath plasma TV screens, either listening to or ignoring the game and raising their voices just above the clinking of glasses and background music...
Read the rest of: "L'Inspecteur Épingle: Raise Your Pint, Follow the Puck"»
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