The 411 While Montreal is known for some stand-out restaurants, often there are places that will do a diner service but not be open for brunch. I often wondered how they would approach a brunch menu, and am glad to see Restaurant Les Cavistes has taken up the challenge. Best described as a French bistro placing an importance on wine, I have been following Les Cavistes for years. They even temporarily tried out brunch during the Festival en Lumière and I was quite pleased. So when I heard that they were bringing it back I felt it would be interesting to see how a French bistro handles brunch.

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The 411 Foodies…we come in all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, all with different preferences. Our preferences differ from person to person, but at the end of the day we all love good food. A while ago I contacted a fellow blogger from The Butter Melts out of habbit, whose site I have been following as of recently. We spoke of doing a brunch rendezvous and managed to meet two other bloggers, Gluttoners and the sassy foodophile . Now we have four foodies and need to find a new brunch spot that no one has been to… so, no pressure whatsoever… So, when all else fails I go to my handy list of spots and go over every one and see if it’s foodie enough. Now, the risk of having a foodie brunch is that you may end up with something that resembles lunch, so after some research Le Comptoir made its way to the top of the suggestion pile.

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The 411 The old port has a variety of brunch options, many of which are quite nice. You can find brunch buffets, nice sit down places, some small, and others large. The menus are quite varied and although you will not find many classic style places, you know the eggs and bacon ones simply put, doesn’t really fit. Then comes along the Gros Jambon, which is a lovely little gem in the old port. The menu itself is not a classic bacon and eggs menu, but rather has a twist, it’s kind of like a luncheonette meets small town USA diner with the expected Montreal flair.

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The 411 – For those of you who have been following my reviews, you may know that the Villeray area has been expanding on their brunch selections. I have recently posted a few of the more recent additions to the area. L’institut de sculpture culinaire is a school for fruit carving and presentations. By carving I don’t mean carving a thanksgiving turkey, I mean carving fruits and vegetables; you know those large displays at special events made of fruit? Well this school will teach you that. Besides teaching, they recently opened a restaurant that started to offer a weekend brunch.

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The 411 – The Old Port has, over the years, brought the city a resurgence in good food. Historically known as a tourist trap, it has shaped its own identity among locals who have moved into the area drawn by new restaurants. When one looks back a couple years ago, one would not see that many fine dining spots but now things have changed for the better. There are finally new, hip and unique spots opening up and they offer food you will enjoy. So, when my friend told me that a new place opened up nearby, I was excited.

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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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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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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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Grey Dog – NYC trip part II

The 411

As part of our weekend New York city trip we got to check out some neat little brunch spots. In fact, we made it a point to get up and eat in the morning no matter how little sleep we got from the previous night’s excessive partying. We heard of Grey Dog from one of our friend who had been here before. They swore by it and we needed to check it out to see if it lived up to the hype..

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