I Left My Deer Heart in Montreal: Part Two
Little Italy, Fairmount Bagel Bakery, Singh’s Indian Cuisine, Toqué, Peter Brook, Galerie Le Chariot and more!
Editor’s Note: To read “I Left My Deer Heart in Montreal: Part One,” click here. To listen to the audio version of part one, click here.
Snow was falling as we settled into our two-bedroom apartment on the bottom of a two-story duplex on St. Laurent Boulevard. It was winter (we’ve never been in Montreal when it’s not winter, so don’t ask us what summer is like, we haven’t the faintest idea). Our very frosty sojourn in Montreal, one of our favorite cities in the Western Hemisphere, began in “Little Italy,” a particularly captivating neighborhood in the Mile End district of the city.
We settled into our cozy house and set about acquainting ourselves with our new neighborhood. Along with the world-famous Schwartz’s Deli (one of our favorite haunts in Montreal), The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery. A seriously authentic bagel is a treasured morsel of food that soothes this Jewish boy’s soul like nothing else. Add on a schmear, some lox, onion, tomato and capers, and it’s like a Yom Kippur breakfast is happening in my stomach every day. And I do mean every day – as in we purchased at least a dozen “all-dressed bagels” a week from the Fairmount Bagel Bakery for five months. Did I mention they’re open 24 hours?!!!
From their website: “In 1919, Isadore Shlafman arrived in Canada and opened the first bagel bakery in Montreal. It was called the Montreal Bagel Bakery. It was located at the back of a lane, just off of Saint-Lawrence Boulevard, which was then known as “The Main”. This is where Montrealers got their first taste of bagel, rolled by hand and baked in a wood-fired oven. This was the very first bagel bakery in Montreal. In 1949, Grandfather Isadore move from Saint-Lawrence Boulevard over to Fairmount street. He bought a charming little cottage, and proceeded to knock down the back wall of the house, and built his bagel oven right there. He and his family lived upstairs, and when Grandfather Isadore went to work, he went downstairs and baked the bagel right there in his house. His son, Jack, learned the art of baking bagel and joined the business. They continued the tradition of rolling their bagel by hand, and baking them in their wood fired oven’s. Since they were now located on Fairmount Street, they renamed the bakery “The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery.””
Singh’s Indian Cuisine was probably the restaurant we ate at most in Montreal. It is, hands down, one of the best Indian restaurants we’ve ever eaten at in North America or Europe. The restaurant is family-run, with two daughters and Papa at the front of the house and Mama in the kitchen cooking some of the best Northern Indian cuisine you could ever ask for. The atmosphere and service are both warm and friendly and their menu is stupendous. I don’t think I ever ate there without ordering the green chicken tikka, which is quite simply the best I’ve ever had, anywhere (okay, we haven’t been to India, but they have!). And their mint chutney . . . I’m simply speechless. My mouth is watering just reminiscing about it. We never left the restaurant without placing a take-out order of five or six containers every time we ate there. Oh, and they deliver, which is mighty convenient when there is eight feet of snow and treacherous, icy sidewalks between you and your curry.
Another one of the highlights of our stay in Montreal this time was an unforgettable dinner at Toqué, the restaurant of game-changing chef Normand Laprise. We did their 7-course menu (with foie gras) with wines the sommelier graciously allowed me to pair from his meticulously-curated wine list. It was like winning the gold medal in gastronomical gymnastics at the culinary Olympics. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel at Toqué, just make the ride as smooth as possible. This is extremely refined dining . . . from the welcome reception at the coat check to the petit fours and digestifs with the final check. To see their current, exceptional menu, click here.
And just so you don’t think all we did was eat our way across Montreal (which may be true, but still) there was also a plethora of art and culture. So much art and so much culture! From seeing the spectacularly psychedelic Roger Waters in concert at the Bell Center, to the electrifying Ballet BC dance troupe at the Place des Arts, to the legendary Kent Nagano conducting Brahms at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, to drag superstar Rita Baga performing at Cabaret Mado, there was always something extraordinary to see in Montreal. In fact, we attended two of our favorite art exhibitions of all time during our stay, both at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Focus: Perfection - Robert Mapplethorpe and Chagall: Colour And Music.
One of the most aesthetically arresting spots in Montreal is the incredible Galerie Le Chariot, where you can experience (and even purchase) the transcendent art of Inuit sculptors like Toonoo Sharky, Jaco Ishulutaq, Billy Merkosak and Ning Ashoona. One could honestly spend hours here absorbing and admiring the breathtaking works created by these phenomenal artists.
On a particularly bone-chilling evening in March, we bundled up and made our way to Place des Arts to see an incredibly poignant stage production of Battlefield, a stripped-down reimagining of legendary director Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne’s adaptation of The Mahabharata. I first saw the film when I was 19, working at the concession stand of The Nuart Theater in Los Angeles. I was utterly transfixed by the beauty of the film and the soundtrack literally became one of my favorite film scores ever. This theatrical production, a coda to the original adaptation, was no exception. Actually, it was exceptional! It was a minimalist, elegiac masterpiece that featured the music of the iconic multi-instrumentalist, Toshi Tsuchitori and tremendous performances by Carole Karemera, Jared McNeill, Ery Nzaramba, and Sean O’Callaghan, culminating in a prophetic meditation on death, despair and the meaning of life.
And that’s just tip of the iceberg! (See what I did there?) There simply aren’t enough words to describe how magical, how enticing, how captivating this city is. No matter where we may roam, no matter what small village, remote island or buzzing metropolis we happen to find ourselves in, I always feel as if there is a dear part of my heart that I left in Montreal.
Click below to read or listen to part one of this article:
Montreal is like a European experience. If you can't make it to Paris, go to Montreal.