It’s starting to feel like that time of year when it’s real nice to curl up in a warm bar/pub/restaurant with a glass/bottle/snack of something of warm and delicious. The problem is deciding where to go and having the pocketbook for it. That’s why these carefully-chosen categories are here to help you figure it out. Much like for Montreal’s Best Desserts, this was a tough assignment. My liver was a lot less happy about it than my taste-buds.
Best Seasonal Cocktail and $5 Special:
Kafein
This relaxed downstairs lounge on Bishop Street has the best $5 special from 5pm-8pm. Around Hallowe’en last year I was impressed by their pumpkin spice cocktail with spiced rum, Disaronno, and house-made pumpkin syrup (real pumpkin cooked down with sugar syrup, puréed, and sieved into dessert in a glass). Getting into the Christmas season, I was wooed by a sweet vermouth, red wine, cinnamon, and house-made (it’s a theme, this house-made syrups and infusions things) ginger-honey syrup creation that tasted like mulled wine but better. Fresh ginger for kick, vermouth for purity, and they actually used a decent red wine. Want to bet your favourite sangria place or that cheap glass of mulled wine doesn’t use something only sort of red and wine-ish from a box or an extremely low-quality bottle?
So you can’t bank on either the pumpkin or mulled wine cocktail being available, but the special of the day is a safe bet. The regular cocktail menu is also generally stellar, though a little pricier ($7-$9). Their margarita comes with orange blossom water (though I couldn’t taste it), the Aviation comes with Elderflower syrup, and the sour comes with your “poison-of-choice.” Hopefully, soon to be hard-to-find pisco. They also do a stellar Manhattan for all the Cinzano snobs out there.
And $14 pitchers of Boréale for all the definitely-not-Cinzano-snobs out there.
Peanuts are free during happy hour at Kafein, but the house antipasti board ($15) is perfect for the slightly classier days and is more than enough to share. Heaps of Italian salumi (like salami, but involving more kinds of cured meat than just the one), Quebec goats milk cheese, not-from-a-can olives, grapes, pistachios and walnuts with onion jam, Dijon mustard and grilled focaccia.
Runner-Up 1:
Bar de Courcelle
Cheap drinks and beers for happy hour. The cocktails are heavy on the booze and light on balance, but…did I say they’re very heavy on the booze? Which is, for some, what happy hour is all about. Especially in St-Henri. Occasional live music to boot, so loud that you don’t have to converse. Yay?
Runner-up 2:
Plan b
From the owners of Bily Kun, this is a cool place for a cocktail, glass of wine, port, or a pint. Everyone’s welcome, but it’s like the cool kids didn’t get the notice that less cool people were welcome too, so we’re all free to cavort with the beautiful local celeb-types. It’s not cheap, and there’s not really a happy hour special, but you’ll find the place packed every weekday with young professional type’s of all sorts. Bitburger JR and Scottish Black Watch on tap next to Cheval Blanc and the usual Ste-Ambroise and Griffon suspects.
Best Mason Jar of Booze
La Distillerie
Super expensive, but the kind of place where you drink one mason jar of mojito, wince when you see the $17 price tag, love it, think you can handle another drink…(you don’t wince the second time at the $8.50 price tag on the Sailor’s Wet Dream – Sailor Jerry, Kahlua, Crème de banane, pineapple juice, cream, and allspice)
…and another ($17 Trempette Flamande du Dr Terreur – “Flemish Dip of Dr. Terror” with whiskey, Amarula cream, egg white, bitters, Orgeat syrup – almond, sugar, and rose or orange flower water – and enough black beer to knock you on your ass all by itself without the first cocktail and the second martini thrown in). Noy were you wrong. It was all the fault of that menu that was like a newspaper, all wholesome and quaint, enticing you into believing the drinks weren’t dangerous. Hopefully you get home or grab a burger and a glass of water at La Paryse next door before the sugar headache kicks in. I dare you to not enjoy yourself at La Distillerie, though. There are a lot of happy people. And stuff gets lit on fire. And that’s always fun when it involves the bartenders and it’s intentional, not accidental.
Best New Cocktail Mixology Dive
B1
From cocktail wizard Sam Dalcourt comes a basement of some of the most interesting cocktails in town. Sam’s usually around, but there’s also the occasional guest tending bar for the evening. They bring their own signature drinks so customers taste different cocktail styles. From smoked cinnamon to homemade chai tea syrup to high end alcohols (Massenet ginger brandy in the “Pop My Cherry” and a whole lot of Chartreuse going on in the “Debarquement de Normandie”), this UQAM haunt has a young vibe. The mismatched furniture and shoebox of a back terrasse emphasize that point.
THE WINE SECTION
Best Glass of Wine (Quality vs. Price):
Vin Papillon
New and cool and great, sometimes vegetarian-friendly small plates to share with the natural and mostly biodynamic and natural wine list from one of the city’s best sommeliers, Vanya Filipovic. Definitely the most interesting selection of glasses that pair perfectly with a turkey Ballottine with Madeira, rotisserie cauliflower, or all on their own. No discount on Happy Hour, but if you manage to get a seat, you’ll feel like you won something.
Runner-Up 1:
Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins
There’s no discount for happy hour here but the prices are so good anyway that I’m perfectly happy to drink a $6 glass of delicious, natural, low or zero-sulfite wine knowing that I’m not pumping myself up with added sugars, preservatives, and other chemicals. $10 for a small plate of salty and delicious charcuterie platter made in-house to go with it isn’t a bad option either. Bring on the bread!
You’re going to need a reservation; this place is popular, especially the bar overlooking the open kitchen. Foodies, cooks, and hipsters unite.
Runner-Up 2:
BU
Daily happy hour specials mean $5 on those above-mentioned natural wines (it’s almost healthy), or trios of tasting selections. Best deal: $15-$24 for three 2 oz. glasses chosen by the sommelier for a mix of white, red and maybe sparkly or sweet all either from the same producer or the same area or the same type of grape. They have a snack menu too, and while $8 is a bit much for simply grilled vegetables, these are at least very good vegetables.
THE BEER SECTION:
Best Beer (Quality vs. Price):
Dieu du Ciel
There’s just no competition here. I think there used to be a special here on glasses and pints at happy hour, but now everything’s regular price all the time. Maybe I just imagined the discount because I always left so happy. So many delicious Belgians. Better on tap than from one of the fine Montreal depanneurs that sell the DdeC bottles.
Runner-up:
La Succursale
Why? Tasting quartet of the house options for under $10. They do fancy food stuff too – gastropub-y options – but it’s discovering the the Petite-Cote (a Kolsh-style German blonde), the Succursale (amber, caramel-y), the Blanche (it’ll make you cry for summer, but maybe you’re not as emotional as I am. Many a strong beer-drinker has fallen victim to a good blanche, though), and the Angus IP “AAA” (IPA to the max – beefy, I guess, is a decent way to describe it).
2nd Runner-up:
Le Cheval Blanc
You know this is a friendly place to come for beer because their website cheers-es you when you enter. Super bitter, dark India Noire Harvest or fruit sour cherry porter. Plus savoury popcorn for $2.50 – definitely the cheapest brewpub snack around 2nd to Les Trois Brasseurs’ free peanuts.
Best Gastro-Beer (Non-divey with food):
Reservoir
Reservoir is a packed restaurant at lunch, dinner, and brunch, but come 5pm you can actually snag a table at this cosy nook on Duluth. It’s also a micro-brewery, which is unique for an upscale kind of place, and starting at 5 each day there’s very affordable snack menu to go with your pint: fries with horseradish sauce ($4), grilled cheese sandwich with gruyère, apple butter, and marinated onions ($7 – add $1.50 for extra lard…) Perfect with a pint of Noire (barley and coffee) or the bitter, malty and fruit-finished Scotch Ale.
FOR THE SERIOUS DRINKER
My Irish Roommate’s Favourite Place to Drink like an Irishman (Best Irish Pub Happy Hour):
On Crescent, he votes for the Irish Embassy or Hurley’s. I remember him coming back pretty happy from a good few nights at those. But he also says they’re kind of expensive for a pint, which is “very important to an Irish room mate, though its easy staggering distance home.”
Honey Martin’s on Sherbrooke was his best pint of Guinness in Montreal, he says, noting that they also have Smithwicks, a “nice red Irish beer”.
My Irish Roommate’s Favourite Place to Drink (Best Cheap Beer and Music):
Keeping in mind the distance/price rule of my Irish roommate’s drinking experience, he says he likes Piranha Bar on Ste-Catherine by the Eaton Centre. It’s a dive, but there’s cheap beer (often 2-for-1 Tremblay during the hockey games) and loud, energetic music – anything from punk and rockabilly to metal and goth.
On another music-related note, his favourite bar in general is Foufounes Electriques since the beer is ridiculously cheap always and the sound system is class.
FOR THE DRINKING MULTITASKER
Best Place to Pick Up a MusiquePlus VJ:
Nyk’s
$4.75 pints of Belle Guelle, Cheval Blanc and the house beer from 4pm-7pm Monday to Friday. It’s also a good after-concert place to go. Might work out for you better than it did for me. At least I have the memories AND at least there was good beer involved. That’s the less sappy way to say I support this place and its pick-up power.
Best Romantic Happy Hour:
La Buvette Chez Simone
It’s kind of impossible to see the sign for this place, so just go into the place on avenue du Parc with the full tables and happily drinking and eating people. Affordable (good) food, affordable (very good) wine, a packed house, and ambiance to boot.
Runner-Up:
The Burgundy Lion
Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s a rowdy pub, right? It’s all about the timing. Turns out they do a respectable, bring your parents-type brunch on the weekends where pints are encouraged, and the place turns into a mad house in the evening, but around 5pm it’s a relatively calm, post-work or post-class beer/date spot. Expect a waiting list for a table and a very friendly crowd at the bar. Hey, if your date doesn’t work out…
Best. Cheap. Date. Ever. (aka nachos and beer):
Maybe not everyone’s best date ever, but you know she or he is a keeper!
L’Escalier
Student-friendly, vegetarian, sometimes organic bar and restaurant with floor cushions, rugs, and quasi-bedding that desperately needs a washing machine. Live music most nights with free cover – just what every UQAM student wants. What more could you ask for? Oh, cheap beer. Yeah, they have that. Nachos? They have those too.
Best Fancy Hotel Bar and Celebrity-Watching Happy Hour:
The Hyatt Regency
You generally wouldn’t think of going to a hotel bar for a night out, but come summer, especially in Just for Laughs season, the Hyatt Regency Bar is the place to be. Mostly it gets hopping late at night, but the drinks are potent, fancy, and expensive at all hours (thus delicious). It’s worth it for the free flaxseed-studded super salty crackers that are impossible to stop shoveling into your mouth. One drink here and I spent the whole evening wondering why my head hurt but also being amazed at how delicious Chambord and Prosecco are together. Chic-chic? Yes, but if the crackers don’t do it for you, the service will. But seriously, who isn’t sold on the crackers? Oh, and the celebrities. I met a comedian in an elevator here once. It went a little something like this:
So I get into the elevator up to main lobby from the entrance in the parking garage with this guy with a guitar on his back. Like two polite total strangers we awkwardly avoid eye contact for the excruciatingly long one-floor trip. Since he has a guitar I think about starting a conversation because he’s clearly from out of town and probably a nice person, what with being a musician and all, but then I remember that I’m polite and Canadian and it’s my job to keep my mouth shut and follow elevator etiquette rules and not disturb anyone in the slightest. That is, until he mumbles something unintelligible and we get into one of those conversations that have clearly started but neither person knows if those were actual words or some strange sort of strangling/throat-clearing, and neither person involved knows where to take it. Anyway, much foot-in-mouth-putting later, he turns out to be a comedian and he was probably so embarassed about the throat-clearing start to the conversation that he gives me two free tickets to his comedy show later that night. Which just goes to show…well, I suppose it just goes to show that even awkward people have good things happen to them all the time, and sometimes those things happen at the Hyatt Regency bar or elevator. Your choice. And odds are you’re less stupid than me, and as my mom would say: “Stupider people than you have done it.” So go drink an $11 cocktail and stumble upon some celebrities.
Oh, and they have a gorgeous outdoor terrasse that makes you feel like a rockstar even though you didn’t just meet one in the elevator.
Runner Up:
Terrasse Nelligan
Sure, the drinks are fruity and sweet and come frozen, the menu is huge, nothing is “classic”, and the crowd can be a bit sleazy after-work, but if you love that sleazy after-work feel accompanied by a so-so view (who doesn’t?), this is the place for you. In a city lacking for a top-of-the-world feeling terrasse (no one over the age of 20 going to Hotel de la Montagne, do they?), here’s the place for you. It gets packed in summer, but that’s all the better for wedging yourself between the suit sipping whisky and the heels sipping iced coconut cocktails.
Kafein
Where: 1429a rue Bishop
When: Mon-Thurs 9am-1am, Fri 9am-3am, Sat noon-3am, Sun noon-6pm
Bar de Courcelle
Where: 4685 Notre-Dame West
When: Daily 3pm-3am
514-382-4685
Plan b
Where: 327 Mont-Royal East
When: Daily 3pm-3am
La Distillerie
Where: 300 Ontario East, 2047 Mont-Royal East, 2656 rue Masson
When: Daily 4pm-3am
514-288-7915, 514-523-8166, 514-528-9846
B1
Where: 2021 St-Denis
When: 5pm-3am daily
Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins
Address: 4807 boul. st-laurent
When: Daily 5pm-midnight, lunch Tues-Fri noon-2pm, brunch Sun 10:30am-2pm
514-844-8467
Bu
Where 5245 boul. st-laurent
When: Daily 5pm-midnight
514-276-0249
Dieu du Ciel
Where: 29 Laurier West
When: Daily 1pm-3am
514-490-9555
La Succursale
Where: 3188 rue Masson
When: Mon-Tues 3pm-1am, Wed-Thurs 3pm-3am, Fri-Sat 1pm-3am, Sun 1pm-1am
514-508-1516
Le Cheval Blanc
Where: 80 rue Ontario East
When: Mon-Sat from 3pm, Sun from 5pm
514-522-0211
Reservoir
Where: 9 Duluth East
When: Mon from 3pm, Tues-Fri from noon, Sat-Sun from 10:30am
514-849-7779
Hurley’s
Where: 1225 rue Crescent
When: Daily
514-861-4111
The Irish Embassy Pub & Grill
Where: 1234 rue Bishop
When: Daily
514-875-8777
Le Piranha Bar
Where: 680 Ste-Catherine West
When: Daily
514-996-0761
Foufounes Electriques
Address: 87 Ste-Catherine East
When: Daily 4pm-3am
514-844-5539
Nyk’s
Where: 1250 Bleury
When: Daily
514-866-1787
Vin Papillon
Where: 2519 Notre-Dame West
When: Tues-Sat 3pm-midnight; Mon noon-midnight
514-
La Buvette Chez Simone
Where: 4869 avenue du Parc
When: Daily from 4pm
514-750-6577
The Burgundy Lion
Where: 2496 rue Notre-Dame west
When: Mon-Fri 11:30am-3am, Sat-Sun 9am-3am
514-934-0888
L’Escalier
Where: 522 Ste-Catherin East
When: Daily
514-419-6609
The Hyatt Regency SIX Resto-Lounge
Where: 1255 rue Jeanne-Mance
When: Daily from noon
514-841-2010
Terrasse Nelligan
Where: 106 St-Paul West
When: Daily, but closed in winter
514-788-4021