I try to actively search out places that offer unique dishes and thoughtful mid-morning meals. Too many are the places that serve up griddlecakes that resample rubber mouse pads and overcooked fried eggs encompassed with crispy inedible bits that look like the dry sheets of white glue you let dry on your palm in grade-school. For example, instead of offering inspired menu items like that ones seen at Biarritz (homemade corned beef and patatas braves hash) or Régine Café‘s “Un Peu de Tout” (a little bit of everything) a platter of homemade pastries, crème brulée made with yogurt, homemade compotes and jams, my local cookie-cutter breakfast joint is now offering VALET service… please, try not to be too obvious by making up for your menu shortcomings by offering to park my car for free.
Lunch
In recent years, restaurants around the city are opening their doors on the weekends to facilitate everyone’s favourite weekend pastime – bitching about a hangovers over food. Besides the hoopla of publicly outing and blacklisting no-show reservation-makers, the other current trend in Montreal is the brunch service. Serving up classic and fun signature twists on typical mid morning dishes, only a handful or restaurants dedicate themselves fully to breakfast, brunch and lunch.
Feeling like I’ve just swallowed a starch bomb that will just tick away at my waking consciousness for the rest of the afternoon before I succumb to an afternoon droolfest or fighting off the cobwebs struggling to stay awake after lunch is something I’ve come way too accustomed too. Praying for someone to roll me to my car or asking myself why I’m out of breath is a common occurrence for me after my midday feeding and is something I’m trying to learn to avoid. Being said, when was the last time you had lunch that was filling, satisfying, healthy, but also left you energized and feeling pretty as fuck?