Where Colin Ate: Montreal Edition—The Return
Plus: a beautiful New York burger
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.
Vive Montréal! The week started off in New York City, but it ended in Canada's second-largest city, bilingual Montreal. I visited last winter, and I've just returned from a quick trip, where I enjoyed warmer weather, a few old favorites, and some new spots. Here's my rundown from my January trip; scroll on for my continuing adventures in one of North America's most European metropolises, which is just a short flight away.
Colin
Le B NYC
📍 Greenwich Village
🍽️ Haute French
I wrote about Le B. a while back when I popped in and had a fantastic meal at the bar. Last week was their turn for Blackbirds' weekly Burger League, so fresh off of Sunday’s Steak Club meal, I got the chance to hit up another meaty spot for a burger and to check out a few other dishes from this season’s menu. The food at Le B is always so dialed in, and this visit was no different. We started with the salad “chinoise” made with bitter greens, satsuma, and seasoned beautifully with sesame. It was an incredibly simple salad that got the meal started on the right note. We also ordered the always tasty Onions Nancy, which is basically high-end French onion dip. We then went on to the much more adventurous calf’s brain ravioli, which, for me, was the highlight of the night, topped with caviar in what I believe was a (yuzu maybe?) buerre blanc-like sauce. It was a really amazing dish that I will be back for. My colleague also enjoyed a delicious Tasmanian sea trout with a dill horseradish cream sauce and nice pops of ikura (trout roe) throughout. For the burgers, I went with the black truffle add-on, which, to my surprise, also came with a sunny-side-up egg on top. The burger is always a showstopper, and the extra luxury that the truffles and egg offered was a nice touch. I tend to lean more simple with burgers but every once in a while it’s fun to go outside the box. Desserts are also fantastic here, and we again went overboard ordering the tableside crepe suzette, warm made-to-order madeleines, and a soufflé made with my favorite combo of pie fillings, strawberry and rhubarb. They also have a sneaky fun mezcal selection, of which I highly recommend the Palomas Mensajeras ensemble.
Adda
📍 East Village
🍽️ Indian
I had a solo dinner at Adda a week or so after they opened and had been dying to get back with a larger party ever since. While I still didn’t get to try the “butter chicken experience,” which is now a pre-order, I had another wonderful experience with some really incredible dishes. I booked a 2-top with my friend Chef Oscar Lorenzzi who is soon opening his own West Village Peruvian restaurant in the coming months. Dining at the Unapologetic restaurants solo is always hard to do, based on larger portion sizes and the fact that I want to try so many different things, so having a dining companion this time, I was really excited to try more of the menu. Another really cool feature of the menu here is that not only do they have their regular menu, but on the back there is a full vegetarian menu as well. On which we found a few of my favorite bites of the meal. We started with makai mattar tiki ,which were small fried corn and bean fritters with a tomato dipping sauce that tasted like an Indian-style falafel in all of the best ways. The depth of the flavors of this small fritter really blew me away and got me even more excited about what was to come. Next up was another seasonal dish and gift from the kitchen, which was a variety of mushrooms over a yogurt sauce with coriander and chili. The variety of mushrooms gave the dish a really great texture and flavor as you swiped it through the cooling yogurt sauce. Following that were two of my all-time favorites from Adda, the first being the bheja masala, which is goat brain in a masala sauce served over an egg custard with lamb butter with pao on the side. The pops of coriander in the masala with the creamy texture of both the egg and brain scooped on top of the fluffy pao is one of the best bites in NYC (for the adventurous). My other longtime favorite, which I believe also may have appeared in a similar prep at both the original Adda in LIC and at Dhamaka, is the massive tiger prawn served so that the body is exposed and covered in a creamy topping consisting of black cumin and garlic that is just a fantastic dish. Some new items on the menu were the peppercorn bone marrow, finished tableside with a green peppercorn sauce punched-up with coconut milk and coconut buttered pao on the side to sop it all up. The kitchen also sent us out the lamb parcha, which was sliced pieces of lamb in a bubbling saffron cream, topped with even more of the delicious lamb butter and some paratha on the side. It was spicy and nutty as well as a bit gamey from the lamb. It hit all the right notes. We finished the savory side off with the baby goat biryani because it’s a perfect dish, and I can’t leave any of their restaurants without a biryani.
Another trip to Montreal (Check out the last one)
Vin Mon Lapin
📍 Montreal (Little Italy)
🍽️ French
Headed to Montreal for a friend's birthday, I took it upon myself to show the group around a bit and get us into some of my favorite spots. There are quite a few places I revisited from my last trip, but to me, these are some places you can hit every trip. Mon Lapin being one of my favorites, I made it to the reservation just on time after having some nightmare travel delays, as my flight was delayed several times just before boarding. Quickly after joining my already seated party, I had a glass of wine in hand and a 50/50 on the way. Mon Lapin is one of the best restaurants in Canada, run by a husband and wife team who struck out on their own in Little Italy after an incredibly successful run running the Joe Beef group of restaurants. Mon Lapin to me is the continuation of what they started doing at Vin Papillon, and just really making it their own. The menu is rooted in seasonal dishes with a particular highlight on vegetables, which I think they do as well as anyone in the world. We started with one of the best dishes of the night which was potato chips served around a small bowl of pickled leeks with toothpicks sticking into the small rounds. You were instructed to add the “mussel butter” on the side to the chips and put the leeks on top. It was an insane way to start. We opted to let the kitchen cook for us, so almost all dishes were a surprise. Another dish that had the table excited was raw radishes served atop a creamy chicken liver with nicely fried chicken oysters surrounding the dish and meant to be eaten as the last bites after finishing dipping all the radishes. The chicken on chicken dish was really fun and tasted amazing. One of the most Instagrammable dishes on the menu was the little scallop toastie, where scallops were mixed into a mousse and served between nicely toasted bread, almost like a tea sandwich with a thick, green, herbal dipping sauce on the side. It was another ML classic. The next group of dishes may have been my favorite of the night. The first was a really smoky cauliflower and chanterelle mushrooms topped with greens that was so much more flavorful than it looked, and may have been my bite of the meal. This paired really nicely with the large sweetbread dish served over various peas that were slick with a BBQ eel sauce. The desserts were all phenomenal, with the buckwheat dessert bringing back childhood flavors of cereal, as well as some ice cream sandwiches to finish up. The thing they do so well here is mix in creative cooking with nostalgic flavors that immediately bring you back to certain places and times. Always a special treat.
Club Social PS
📍 Montreal (Saint-Henri)
🍽️ Pizza/Wine bar
I called up my friend Ryan Gray (Elena, Gia, Nora Gray) to try to catch up before he headed out with the fam to the country for the weekend, before flying to NYC for last night’s pop-up at the F&F Pizza Sessions. We checked out his soon-to-open new slice shop as well as drove around catching up before popping in to check out the day's sandwich specials at Cafe P.S., which is the small coffee and wine bar that operates in the back of Elena's. Today’s specials were a tomato and stracciatella sandwich as well as a sausage and peppers with chilies and broccoli rabe. Both were delicious, on housemade bread, but my favorite was the tomato, bursting with the flavor of first-of-the-season tomatoes and a bit of pickle to round the whole thing out in a delicious but slightly unexpected way. We finished up our snack with a really good housemade chocolate chip cookie.
Beba
📍 Montreal (Verdun)
🍽️ Argentinian
Instead of trying a new spot, we made a same-day pivot and were able to snag some last-minute outdoor tables at Beba, which is another one of my favorite places to visit when in town. Beba is a really fun restaurant, but cooking is no-nonsense and super honest. They source the best ingredients they can and treat them simply and thoughtfully, using high-level techniques. We opted to have the team just cook for us, and it did not disappoint. The first two dishes were Beba classics and set the stage for the rest of the meal, starting with the mini knish topped with a nice pile of caviar. The salty nuttiness of the caviar, rounded out by the potato, is a classic for a reason. The next is my favorite of the two, mackerel on top of a housemade sesame bread with horseradish and salted butter. It’s like the best little bagel bite you’ve ever had. After a few heavier little snacks, they hit us with a small salad of cold octopus, adding the perfect chew to a salad of peas and cucumbers in a bright chili oil dressing that really hit. Following that, we had bone marrow topped with pan con tomate & anchovy. Adding the marrow to the tomato bread was a delicious revelation. Pedro, a co-owner of the restaurant, came around shortly after to give each of us a lug of marrow bone, pouring armagnac into the bone for each of us to drink. After our luge, we were treated to an enormous plate of tagliatelle in a fatty, chunky ragu Napoletano topped with parmigiano reggiano. The pasta was a nice al dente, carrying the ragu wonderfully. Our final main course was a rabbit, broken down and lying in a shallow pool of brodo with pancetta and pole beans. We picked each bite off the bone surgically until our plates were just piles of bones. Once the rabbit had been cleared, our server brought over another amazing little bite of a single date for each guest, stuffed with foie gras and topped with pistachios. This was paired perfectly with small glasses of Madeira and vaguely reminiscent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but much richer and more delicious. We rounded out the meal with a beautiful flan and a dish of fresh strawberries and cream.
Rôtisserie La Lune
📍 Montreal (La Petite-Patrie)
🍽️ Quebecois-style rotisserie
Rotisserie La Lune is the newest restaurant from the team behind Vin Mon Lapin. I went there a few months back when they were brand new, but was only able to order a few dishes as I was only a 2-top and we planned for Second Dinner™ at Mon Lapin right after. This time, I brought back a crew and was excited to taste everything they had to offer. The restaurant is based on the classic Quebecois rotisseries that the owners grew up going to and hits all the nostalgia, whether you grew up there or not. The menu is seemingly straightforward, but it is incredibly well done and some of the best rotisserie birds I’ve ever had. We started with a small gift from the kitchen of fondue Louis d’Or, which was basically a tiny fried cube of cheese topped with a bit of tomato sauce and cheese grated over the top, as good as the best mozz stick you’ve ever had, or, honestly, better. We then moved on to the stuffed chicken wings, stuffed with a farce and fried until crispy, served with mustard sauce. Liver toast covered in gravy, for me is a must and with a table of 4 a small quarter of the thick sliced bread hits the spot. The table also indulged in a few of the daily specials from the chalkboard, which came in the form of a cucumber and lobster salad in a creamy dressing and topped with dill that provided a nice counterpoint to the other heavy dishes, as well as a loaded baked potato that was one of the best sides of the night. Still, one of my favorite dishes of the night was the absolutely insane Caesar salad adorned with chicken offal that makes you wonder why this isn’t the standard topping for all Caesar’s. For the birds, we went with the half & half, which is half of a chicken and half of a pintade (guinea fowl). This was the best of both worlds, giving you both the meaty chicken as well as the slightly leaner and flavorful pintade. All tables get unlimited pickles and an amazing coleslaw to eat with the birds, and they come with an order of amazing fries as well. Top it all off with the gravy and it is the platonic ideal of comfort food. Desserts should not be missed as well, even if you don’t think you can, there's always room.
Pasta Pooks
📍 Montreal (Little Italy)
🍽️ Italian
Pasta Pooks is the tiny new pasta bar in what was the longtime home of Dinette Triple Crown up in Little Italy. It comes from the same team as Doubles Late Night, which happens to be one of my favorite places to hang out when in town. Coach Vic, who is the consummate host, greeted us warmly and took the lead, ordering for us, and it could not have been a more fun experience. We started with a nice green salad, which was welcome after all of the heavy food we had been eating, followed by a fantastic salad of string beans topped with grated cheese and lardons. All of our dreams of a light meal were quickly dashed when the delicious pasta courses came out. First up was the tagliatelle with a deep bolognese sauce, cooked perfectly and got progressively more flavorful as it came to room temperature. The star of the show is their ravioli, golden pouches filled with bright green spinach and ricotta filling lightly dressed in butter, and a true standout dish. The team also makes the best cheesesteak in town, coming from some real Eagles fans (unfortunately). Definitely worth a stop on any trip north.
Bistro La Franquette
📍 Montreal (Westmount)
🍽️ French
Out deeper in the Westmount area, I got to check out Bistro La Franquette which I had been wanting to check out on my last few trips but didn’t have the time, but, after a marathon of dining, a low key bistro seemed like a great move. The menu is small and straightforward but really well done. I came in with a plan to go classic with some mussels or steak frites, but the plan all went to shit when we saw the special of the day, which was a stuffed pintade (guinea fowl) for 2, which hit the seats at the bar right next to us while we were looking through the menu. The pintade, by nature, is a bit leaner than a chicken but bursting with flavor when cooked correctly. The stuffed version here was an amazing counterpoint to the more classically cooked birds we had the night before at La Lune. The breast was cooked to a crisp with the area between the meat and skin stuffed with a farce of dark meat as well as herbs, giving it a striking green color as you pulled the slices apart. The dark meat of the bird was cooked into a roulade stuffed with a farce of truffle. The dish was really well done and seasoned with a thick jus and served with salad and insanely creamy mashed potatoes. It was a really special dish and made me want to make sure to come back and try the rest of the menu.
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