Le vieux Vélo

The 411

Le vieux Vélo, has been on my list of spots for a while and there has been talk about it on various sites and forums. The reviews have always seemed positive. It is situated in the meeting point of little Italy and Rosemont/Petite Patrie (well technically it’s in Petite Patrie), which are two spots with a need for more quality brunch places. To date, everything I had heard had mentioned good eggs Benedict. As you may know, that is my favourite dish. I will often try other dishes and try to get as many different ones as possible but I keep coming back to eggs Benedict so when people tell me I need to check out the eggs Benedict at a new brunch locale, I get curious and hungry.

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Bistro Lustucru – A rare treat

The 411

Over the years, I have reviewed 175 brunches and I have likely eaten at over 200 different spots. In fact, my blood hollandaise levels would likely put fear in the hearts of any doctor. I find that, at some point, my pace of reviews will exceed the available amount of decent brunches. So, in a hope of offering you something a little newer and fun, I will try to review some pop up brunches. Pop up brunches are brunches that are not offered regularly that can be special events or rarely occurring events. The hope is to offer you something very new and interesting that you may want to try. I initially had something like this when I did the brunches at festival de lumieres back in 2011. I realized that there are some spots that I was curious to see how they handle brunch. When one of my friends told me about Caroussel events , I looked into it and saw that there was a brunch at Lustucru, which is a spot that I had eaten dinner at a while ago and was curious on what sort of brunch would appear on their menu.

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Happy 2012 to all. With a new year ahead of us we look back on 2011 and take a look at the state of brunch in Montreal. We look at the new spots we discovered, some dishes we remember and we look ahead to see what new discoveries await us. Before we get started, let us take a moment to remember two brunch spots that have left us this year. Sadly, we’ve lost McKiernan and Montée de Lait this year, both of which were on my list of favourite spots and had some really creative dishes that were rarely found elsewhere. Fortunately, we added some new quality places on the list this year but these two favourites will be missed.

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La Bêtise – No lies on a solid meal

The 411

Villeray is an area that has been expanding recently. It’s an old neighbourhood, which, only as of recently, has started changing – new bars, restaurants popping up, and a slew of condos. With the Jean Talon market nearby and metro access, I’m sure you can understand why people are making the move here. If you had asked me when I started this site years ago what there is to eat for brunch, I would have said almost nothing. But now, it’s a whole new scene. Betise is one of these recent additions to the brunch scene. Situated on St Hubert it, as well as other spots, breathe new life into a previously dying street.

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Marchigiani – An Italian take on your morning

The 411

Ville Lasalle is a part of town that generally does not show up on my brunch radar. Of the places I have seen, they have been more of a traditional breakfast theme and there are so few compared to the amount of people living there. Lasalle also has the benefit of having a variety of ethnic groups giving me the hope to find some funky ethnic inspired spots, but as of now nothing has shown up. When meeting up with a friend of mine and fellow blogger Optimus Mastro I asked him to find something in Lasalle that is yummy and new to me. Marchigiani hit the table and away we went.

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Delta Tour De Ville – Brunch with a 360 degree view

The 411

All-you-can-eat Brunch Buffets, those few words can bring joy and pain to different people. Joy, because it’s all you can eat as much as you want, and you get value on food; pain because the quality of the food can take a back seat depending where you go. Delta’s has been offering brunch for as long as I can remember but I never had a chance to try it out since I generally needed a reason to go to an all you can eat brunch on account of the price being more than a normal brunch at a regular restaurant.

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Le Jurancon – A Marseille inspired brunch

The 411

Fine French dining meets brunch – often a pairing you don’t see on a regular basis. Interestingly, brunch is not native to France and although there are more and more spots that offer brunch nowadays you would not associate it with a small little French bistro. So, when I heard that Le Jurancon was offering brunch, I was quite curious. How would it pair French dining with brunch? What ingredients and what surprises would we be in store for, and how is it that a French restaurant finds itself in the eastern part of the city? This and many more we hope to answer as well give you some idea of what Le Jurancon has to offer.

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Vic Market- A great post workout brunch

The 411

Every once and a while we hear of a spot in Westmount that offers brunch. This is a treat because Westmount is so small and has limited areas where there are restaurants, since the rest is primarily residential. In this case, it helps that our editor extraordinaire Kara takes works at the gym in Victoria Park and told me that they opened a café downstairs that does brunch. I had stopped in for a snack at the café before and liked its décor as well as the food so I was curious to see how a café tied to a gym would handle brunch since it’s generally not the healthiest meal of the day.

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Mitzi’s – A Toronto Memory

The 411

While on a recent trip to Toronto, we ended up visiting a friend who was living near High Park. I was winding down my Toronto trip so when we met up, I asked him what spot he recommended and he suggested his favourite childhood spot: a place that serves brunch 7 days a week and was hands down his favourite place to go in the city. The thing I love most about brunch is that there is always that one spot that everyone has that is a mini secret and that you have always loved. This place is in a residential neighbourhood and has been around for a while so it is tied to cherished childhood memories.

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Chez Gauthier – A gem hidding in plain sight

The 411

Hidden in the McGill ghetto Chez Gauthier has been around since the 70’s yet few people would know that it serves up brunch. In fact, while I was at McGill most people living in the ghetto would go to the same spots and likely walk by this place countless times. Little did I know then that there was brunch to be had here, and not only is it a good deal, it is a very enjoyable experience both for food and dining.

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