Montreal

Schwartz’s deli, serving Montreal Smoked Meat

Pig odds and ends at Au Pied du Cochon

The next stop on our road trip was Montreal.  It turned out to be a pretty serendipitous trip, too.  Ben, my best friend from high school, and his wife Betsy were going to be in town at the same time we were planning to be there!  Which was perfect, because they are in the midst of having a baby and buying a new house to make room for said baby, and so were not able to attend any of our wedding reception parties.  We were very glad we got to see them.

Montreal is a very nice place (at least in the Summer).  Kristen had been there years before, but I had never been.  When we asked friends from the area for recommendations on what to do, their lists kept coming back filled with restaurant recommendations.  Ben and Betsy had the same experience.  It turns out that the best thing about the city is the food.

And so we ate.  After we arrived at our absolutely tiny rental apartment (complete with scary old elevator), we headed out to meet Ben and Betsy for dinner.  They took us out at Au Pied du Cochon (At The Pig’s Foot), which was one of the better dining experiences of my life.  It was the type of place where they serve every part of the pig in gourmet fashion.  Kristen and Betsy were a little leery of some of the odder organs and parts, but Ben and I dug in.

The next day, we woke up early and walked around the Plateau neighborhood, meeting up with Ben and Betsy to get breakfast at a Montreal style bagel shop called St. Viateurs (the bagels are baked in a wood oven, giving them a crunchier crust).  I liked the bagels a lot.  Sure, they’re different from New York style bagels, but they are delicious.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours walking through a street fair in the Plateau, and ducking into some little shops and boutiques.  For lunch, we tried the Montreal smoked meat at Schwartz’s deli.  The restaurant was very similar to Katz’s deli in NYC.  It had the long deli counter, the menu on the wall, the pictures of celebrities up everywhere, etc.  Montreal smoked meat itself appears to be very similar to pastrami, and we all thought the sandwiches were pretty comparable to the best NYC pastrami (i.e. very good).

From that point, we needed to walk off the meal, so we headed toward Old Montreal, which looks a bit like Paris, but smells yeasty (there is a huge Molson brewery nearby).  Kristen stopped for a coffee while Ben and I looked at some cool old poster prints.

At that point, it was time to say goodbye to Ben and Betsy.  They had reservations that night at the famed Joe Beef restaurant and had to go get ready, so Kristen and I walked around a bit more on the riverfront.

That night, our last, we were grounded a bit in our assessment of Montreal food (which to that point had been 100% incredible).  We went to the bistro L’Express, which was recommended by several friends.  It was good, but not great.  So normal restaurants do exist in Montreal!