Montreal is a 24-hour town, yes.

[randomness]

(This is info for anyone going to Montreal, but it's being posted now because a bunch of friends are going there next week for Worldcon.)

Montreal is the kind of place where you not only can get good food 24 hours a day, you can actually get to that food and back on public transit at a stupid hour of the morning. You should not find yourself eating out of a hotel vending machine at 3:30AM. Here are a couple of suggestions to keep you out of the vend-o-mat.

First, there are two 24 hour bagel bakeries in Mile End: Fairmount Bagel (http://www.fairmountbagel.com/eng/index.htm, 74 Fairmount West (between Clark and St-Urbain), (514) 272-0667) and St-Viateur Bagel (http://www.stviateurbagel.com/main/, 263 St-Viateur West (between Parc and Jeanne-Mance), (514) 276-8044). Note that St-Viateur Bagel has a second location three blocks down which is not open all night, so if you find yourself standing in front of 158 St-Viateur West looking sadly at a locked door--which happened to us--do not despair. Cross the street and walk three blocks farther west, towards Parc.

At both, you can get fresh bagels, still hot from the wood-fired oven, in a variety of flavors--try the traditional ones first, because some of the newer ones are reportedly disappointing--24/7, starting at 60 cents Canadian apiece.

Note also that these are Montreal-style bagels, not New York-style bagels.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal-style_bagel: "The Montreal bagel, (sometimes beigel; Yiddish בײגל beygl, or sometimes in French "beguel"), is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel[1], the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven."

I really don't want to hear about which are better. Different Eastern European Jews brought different recipes.

(Final note is that if you want actual kosher Montreal-style bagels, you'll have to go to the Mount Royal Bagel Factory, at 709 Lucerne (corner Jean-Talon West), (514) 735-1174. They are not open all night, however. A listing of kosher bakeries can be found at the Montreal Kosher site: http://www.mk.ca/bakeries.html.)

Second, there's that Quebec invention, poutine. Again, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine: "Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation ˈputsɪn (help·info)) is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients."

24/7, poutine in over two dozen varieties can be found at La Banquise (http://www.restolabanquise.com/index.php?page=accueil&sp=&langue=an, 994 Rachel East (corner Parc Lafontaine), (514) 525-2415), a hipster haven over in the Plateau. The classic poutine comes in two sizes. Small was around $6, and large (feeds more than one) maybe $7.50. I can't remember because I can't imagine getting something bigger than a small for myself.

La Banquise also serves breakfast and a variety of other food, but I've only been there for their poutine. I was there last week, so the prices should be about right, allowing for my imperfect memory.

The Orange Julep (7700 Décarie, at Paré) which I posted about recently, is also open around the clock during the summer. Hot dogs are around $2, and a small orange julep is just under $2. Me, I usually get at least a medium. They also have burgers and a variety of other drive-in food, but I've never had any of it.

I also want to put in a plug for a place I found a couple of weeks ago which won't appear on anyone's 24-hour list, because I think it's pretty new. Le Gourmet, 414 Saint-Zotique East (corner St-Denis), up in Rosemont-Petite-Patrie, near Beaubien Metro, has a generally diner-y menu but executes those items very well. I had an excellent spaghetti carbonara for around $12, and the poutine was quite good, too. Again, order a large at your own risk; we couldn't finish the small, although we made the mistake of treating it as a side-dish to share. Staff were very nice in a home-town kind of way, even at 1:30 AM. Portions were generous.

http://montreal.com/tourism/24hr.html has a helpful list of 24 hour places, but it's not exhaustive. For one thing, there's a 24-hour fruit/vegetable market (!) right near the Côte-des-Neiges Metro station, called Les Trottiers Fruits et Légumes, which it doesn't list. It's on the northeast corner of Côte-des-Neiges and Jean Brillant. The Montreal Gazette article on the neighborhood (http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=62f8bd7c-cf24-4ca4-ab02-153176edd869) says: "Besides a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, its counters offer maple and honey products, herbs, plants and cut flowers." I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to go there when Jean-Talon Market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Talon_Market) is open, because really Jean-Talon is the place to go for that. But if you need fruit and veg at 4AM...

That neighborhood also has a couple of 24-hour coffee shops, and a 24-hour supermarket. But the Plateau (along Mont-Royal, walking east from the Metro stop of the same name) also has some late-night/all-night coffee, so you don't need to go quite so far for that.

My next post will discuss taking the night buses after the Metro stops running.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

also, to be clear, cheese curds are these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curds not cottage cheese (also *a* cheese curd, but not cheese curds.

i bring this up because since cheese curds can't be sold in MA unless treated in a way that really undoes the curd-ness, many (not all) MA peeps think something perverse instead of something divine when told about poutine.

i will restrict myself to eating it *once* next weekend.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

All of these posts - particularly this and the night transit post - are incredibly helpful. Thanks so much!