Eat Montreal

It’s never too early to plan for The End of the World, right?

On December 20th, our last night of life as we know it, where will we be? We’ll be having champagne at the Plateau Lounge at the W Hotel, followed by dinner: Au Pied de Cochon.

It seems only fitting that we end the world with a world-ending mound of foie gras.

(yes, I will be making dinner reservations for 12/21)

Where will be you eating on the night before the world ends? :)

I’ve devoted a lot of space over the years to my obsessive compulsive concerns about every aspect of my trip to Montréal.

There was the year we waited half an hour while the gate crew tried to move a frozen jetway away from the plane. We made our connecting flight only because it was an adjacent gate. There was the year when, fearful of an approaching winter storm, I switched my travel to another nearby hub at the last minute, rented a car and drove there to catch the flight.

Yesterday, perfect. Both flights left and arrived ahead of schedule. Off the plane, through customs, to the cab, engaging in the customary fight with horrendous traffic, and voilà!

I got to my auberge at 5pm, my friends arrived at their hotel at 5:30pm, and we met at 6:15pm for our tradition champagne toast at the W Hotel.

The planned dinner at Garde Manger almost didn’t happen. We checked in at 7pm: no room for three. So we left and made alternate plans. But 15 minutes later, on our way to the new reservation, the maître d’ apparently saw us walk by and ran out the door, asking us if we still wanted to eat - he had an open table for 2 hours. Done.

Garde Manger was exactly as I expected and wanted it to be: loud, dark, fun… with delicious oysters, a shockingly good poutine made with lobster and sauced with an especially thick lobster bisque (it was my first poutine; I’d sworn never to eat it, but this was damn good), and a perfect shrimp risotto.

That was the extent of my first night in my favorite city after nearly a year. I’m back!