Montreal’s reputation as one of Canada’s great taste-making cities rests on two of its most sensory-coded scenes: music and food.
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reputation → make → scenes
The former has earned its hype via a bounty of crossover musicians.
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former → earn → musicians
Leonard Cohen distilled Montreal’s sultry allure into songs the world fell in love with.
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world → distil → love
Céline Dion crowned her hometown with the grandeur of power ballads.
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Dion → crown → ballads
More recently, Charlotte Cardin has been rendering Montreal into the sonic equivalent of quiet luxury with her downtempo chill, while jazz visionary Dominique Fils-Aimé has imbued it with layers of soul.
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Aimé → render → soul
All of these artists have represented certain points on the map for a town that holds many moods and flavours.
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that → represent → moods
Yet the coolness extends beyond French Canadian icons, the city’s stacked festival lineups or its acoustically supreme concert halls (think: Le Gesù amphitheatre).
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coolness → extend → amphitheatre
More of its greatest hits can be found poured, plated, fricasseed or spun into nights where music and food invention merge, as I discovered on a recent trip.
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I → find → trip
The 16-seat room that topped Canada’s Best New Restaurants list
A prime example of this is Sabayon, tucked in a modest, sparely designed corner property in the Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood.
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example → top → neighbourhood
Scoring a reservation for its $165 six-course tasting menu is almost as hard as landing tickets to Beyoncé: The Michelin-blessed restaurant, which also topped enRoute’s ranking of Canada’s Best New Restaurants in 2024, seats only 16 and books up months in advance.
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which → score → advance
On chef Patrice Demers’ modern seafood and veggie-heavy rotating menu, the offerings change with the season and sourcing possibilities, but dishes like the cucumber and green strawberry-cooked scallops from the Iles de. la Madeleine and the candied Arctic char have earned groupies.
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dishes → rotate → groupies
“The music played here isn’t a side dish or garnish,” says co-owner and sommelier Marie-Josée Beaudoin.
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Beaudoin → play → ?
“It’s an obsession and, in some ways, a devotion to something bigger.”
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It → ’ → something
She stays up late at night concocting fresh song batches for every menu, drawing deep cuts from Quebec artists such as Hubert Lenoir, Jean Leloup and Arianne Moffatt, which blend smoothly with her locally driven wine list.
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which → stay → list
“We play 95 per cent Quebec music because it matches the ingredients, the decor, the spirits and cocktails, and even the soap in the bathroom, which is made by someone from the province,” says Beaudoin.
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Beaudoin → play → province
“You can be anywhere and listen to someone like Harry Styles, but we want people to taste things they never tasted before and hear sounds unique to our lives.”
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they → listen → lives
Flat whites and evening acts in the Plateau
While Sabayon is an all-senses splurge, you don’t need deep pockets to appreciate Montreal’s music-meets-food world.
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you → need → world
TikTok-famous haunts include Crew Collective, where the DJs for Croissound have popped up for morning rave sets.
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DJs → include → sets
But a next-gen caffeinator, the recently opened Fine Fine Fine Café, is taking the concept further.
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caffeinator → open → concept
Fine Fine Fine’s owners Océane De Sève and Karolane Leroux spent two years in Australia educating themselves in beanology before infusing their French Canadian roots into seriously strong flat whites.
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Sève → spend → whites
This is a contender for Montreal’s best brews, giving institutions like Mile End’s Café Olimpico (a former hangout for members of Arcade Fire) a run for their espresso.
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This → give → espresso
A jolt of java isn’t the only draw; come evening, the ’90s MTV-video-ready stage within Fine Fine Fine’s café space welcomes emerging local acts, like Disorder and Distraction4Ever.
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stage → come → Disorder
Controlled chaos and punk-rock risotto in Little Italy
Harrison Shewchuk is another Montrealer remixing old-school ideas about the city’s food and beverage scene.
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Shewchuk → control → scene
, he splits his nights between crafting dishes in the open kitchen at Limbo and shredding with his decade-old band, Faze.
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he → split → band
The restaurant opened last year in Little Italy and has been attracting attention ever since.
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restaurant → open → attention
While I don’t hear Metallica blasting above Limbo’s burgundy banquettes and marble tables, Shewchuk sees plenty of overlap between his occupations.
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Shewchuk → hear → occupations
“With my band, we push everything to the limit,” he says.
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he → push → limit
“What I do in the kitchen is controlled chaos.
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do → control → kitchen
I always have menus on my mind, rethinking and improving them every day with a sense of precision.”
Shewchuk’s revolving menu (the best bet is the tasting menu, which starts at $99) is informed by his need to recharge ideas coming out of his bibles: books by Elizabeth David, the Bon Iver of unfussy British cooking, and Alain Ducasse, the David Bowie of haute cuisine.
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which → have → cuisine
Their influence has inspired him to push both the serviette and the envelope.
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influence → inspire → serviette
Take, for instance, his sunflower-seed risotto, which is fast becoming a house staple, alongside halibut from Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula and dishes enhanced with Le Fleur des Mont, a pressed Quebec sheep’s cheese.
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which → take → Mont
“The most punk aspect of the menu is the ingredients,” says Shewchuk.
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Shewchuk → say → menu
“I’m conscious about buying from as many local farms as possible.
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I → ’m → farms
I constantly ward off big businesses knocking at my door trying to sell cheaper goods.”
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I → ward → goods
His suppliers include Dom Labelle of Parcelles for vegetables, Ferme d’ORée for meats and Le Moulin des Cèdres for flour that goes into the einkorn bread.
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that → include → bread
Asked which following is more devoted — a rowdy front row or his dinner crowd? — Shewchuk doesn’t hesitate.
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Shewchuk → ask → ?
“Foodies,” he says.
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he → say → Foodies
“Not everyone enjoys hardcore punk, but everyone has to eat.”
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everyone → enjoy → punk
Audiophile brothers and a custom sound system in Verdun
In Montreal’s waterfront borough of Verdun, another ravenous fan base has been growing for Beba, owned by Canadian-Argentinian brothers Ari and Pablo Schor, audiophiles who also used to dabble in playing gigs years ago.
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who → grow → gigs
Named after what they lovingly call their grandmother, the intimate restaurant opened in 2019.
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restaurant → name → 2019
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
