It was a short night last night with the Don Henley concert, dinner after and the construction workers starting up at 6:40 am. When I’m foggy, I can’t plan, so I just pull one of my Shirley maxims out of the bag and let it guide me. The title of this post is a maxim I grab often and it has never let me down. As I open the door to Place d’Youville, this is what greets me.
Beautiful crisp fall day. Since my last post was about a rare day in Montreal that didn’t involve food, I intend this post to make amends for that. I want to start with, well… the first part of the day. As we can all agree, pastries are a very important start to any day while on a trip and I literally am smack dab between two of the best pastry shops in all of Montreal–Maison Christian Faure and Olive and Gourmando. The first is lovely, refined and quiet while the second is raucous, noisy and rustic. Both often have long lines, but the beauty of a month of Shirleyfest is I have psyched out the line timing and can usually time both just right for a fix any day I want.
The lead picture is from Olive and Gourmando, where a few days ago I had the most delicious breakfast, thanks to Benjamin getting me in and seated at the table overlooking Rue St. Paul, the oldest street in Montreal and one street from my apartment.
And on many mornings I face these choices at Maison Christian Faure.
But today, I want to try something different, so I head to the iconic Parisian style bistro L’Express. I take the metro 3 stops and walk a few blocks and am warmly greeted by Arryanne. I want to see what they do with something simple, so I pick the fruit plate and coffee. Well… this is what I get.
It is such a beautiful simple thing that I really don’t want to destroy it. So I decide to subject it to a layer by layer deconstruction which I photograph to be able to do this the next time I have house guests. I won’t include all the layers in this post, but just look at how delish this one layer is.
Fortified, I decide to stroll up Rue St Denis. The street, like many of the streets in Montreal, has little pedestrian areas every few blocks to sit and relax. Here is one I take a seat at for a while.
I stop to shop at a great place that features designers from Montreal and Quebec, called La Gamine. I have a most interesting conversation with the woman running the store today and when I ask her name, she points to the street sign–Denis–just like the street. I think Denise might just want to do a Denisefest after our long talk. I buy myself a few great things and then take a bike from the Bixi rack and bike over to Mile Ex. I was getting hungry–I mean it was fruit after all. I end up at Manitoba. The space is beautiful with two long bars, a few minimalist style tables, and tables both out back on a patio and out front in a parklet area. One of the owners, Simon, is there and he is so friendly, as is my server, Blaine, and the two chefs I end up sitting in front of (open kitchen)— Frank and Cedric. 
The food is fresh, local, organic ingredient, driven and as close to nature as possible. I decide on a salad of two kinds of greens, housemade aioli, roasted cauliflower and shallots and topped with fresh grilled sardines. Frank and Cedric tell me that the sardines, which are perfectly cooked, are female sardines that have the “caviar” in them. Seriously…this is a restaurant that gets the fine points down while being ultra casual and cool.
I end up talking to a fellow diner at the bar, Philippe, who is a photographer with his studio nearby. He confesses that this is his lunch counter several days a week. His dish looks amazing too!
I need coffee. I have made a point of trying as many locally roasted coffees as possible and the best by far is a company doing artisanal coffee called Dispatch Coffee. Their headquarters and roasting area, as it turns out, is next door to Manitoba. How convenient for me! I buy a bag of coffee and get a cup to go. I turn around to take this picture and the lovely lady who had gotten my beans gives a wave just as I snap the camera.
Pretty much epitomizes why I am loving Montreal–yes the food….but most importantly the people.
Time to rent another Bixi bike. It is so easy to hop on and off these bikes and walk or take the metro in between. The stands are everywhere. I ride over Pont du Cosmos to the Île Notre-Dame intending to circle that island and return my bike at the end. But the Grands Prix Cyclists is taking place today and some of the roads are blocked. I get almost to my return spot when I am turned back by an official. She tells me there is another Bixi stand up the road. I dutifully ride up and see this:
There is no one around and when another biker comes by I say–Pouvez s’il vous plaît dites-moi ce qui c’est? in my perfect French and he says “What?” In his perfect English he explains that it is the Casino–the former French Pavillion for Expo 67. I say it must be closed and he laughs. “It never closes! You are on the back side. Go around.” I do and it is like another world. Taxis are pulling up and loads of people are going in( I’m not going to judge their attire, but….). There to the side is a Bixi stand. I put my bike in and decide to go inside. There are so many things wrong with this picture but I just had to take it. What is mainly wrong with this is not that I am in a casino all sweaty in my biking clothes but….. as so many of you know…..SHIRLEY DON’T DO CASINOS. Well at least it’s not in Vegas. I still have some integrity. 
I get a few dumplings at the stand in the park, reverse the ride and walk home from Place des Armes. And that is a non food-related Montreal day. Next up…food, glorious food.
After hearing about the usually long lines around the block I assume they are closed, but no–there with his wood-fire paddle shoveling bagels into the oven is Joe Santa Maria. I asked for whichever bagel is coming out of the oven now and it is sesame. I tear into it and it is different–really crispy on the outside and chewy inside. Delicious! Joe and I have a great chat about the karma of coming when there is no line-(he has no idea why) and how people often mistake him for Adrien Brody. As I left, the line was quickly forming. I walk a few blocks and find myself at Fairmount Bagels
–only one person ahead of me. Sesame is also coming out hot and I take one and sit on a bench—hmmm–good–but no comparison to St Viateur. Or maybe it was just that Joe was so gosh darn adorable. 
You can go lean, medium or fatty and Helen says to go for the medium–great choice. So happy! 
But you expect a little more detail probably. I arrived without any problem to my lovely apartment in Vieux-Montreal–the old part of town near the water. It is always a bit scary before I open the door for the first day of Shirleyfest. Will it measure up to the pictures online? I am happy to report that this one exceed my expectations. It is a very old stone building and looks out on cobblestone streets and people riding by in horse and buggies. Inside tho it is very modern with a lovely kitchen.
Too early to cook for people tho and I head out for my first dinner—at Le Serpent– a walk away where I sit at the bar and enjoy conversation with Ann the bartender, a couple who left 6 kids at home and are in town for some ‘clubbing” and a very nice Parisian fellow on my right in town for business. Great meal and a good walk home. Day 1 not too shabby.
But I am here not to down prepared food, but to buy fresh produce so I stock up a bit. The market is beautiful and the produce perfect. Don’t you want to buy these?
Now I am ready to bike home on my Bixi bike. I put my purchases in my basket and head thru Little Italy and it is about a 45 minute bike ride home. Relax a bit and decide to try to go to dinner at Foxy– a very hot new restaurant that I am unable to make reservations in advance as they are “booked up”. Not to worry. I manage to get in and enjoy an Aperol Spritz and a lovely dinner of melon and tomato salad, smoked pork ribs and yams with cartelized red onions. The bartender is Renaud and reminds me of Elmer from Tony’s back home. He and the front of the house, Corinne, and I make plans to go to lunch this week at the sister restaurant Olive et Gourmando. Day 2 also not shabby.
Bon Soir until the next post.
I took a tram home, showered and he picked me up. It was great. It’s a real local hang out. Had a bar and tables in the front and a huge courtyard in the back. We had white and rose wine and lunch and I met the staff. One of the fellows, Adam, played football for University of Kentucky. The other owner, Andy, came and we sat around with him chatting. After lunch at Cru we went to a wine shop in South Melbourne. Peter toured me all around South Melbourne. That night I went via tram to North Melbourne and saw a play called Bronx Gothic. It was part of the Melbourne Arts Festival. I dutifully came 40 minutes early and was one of the only ones there for 15 minutes. People do not get places way ahead of time. They are too busy having fun up until they change venues. Also, I was impressed that no one rushed to get in when the doors were open. It was a very chill scene. Everyone had a cocktail when they came in and no one was in a rush to leave their cocktail to go sit down. Later I asked some locals and they said people in Melbourne have an innate sense of fairness. They know generally who was there before them and they would not try to get an advantage by going in ahead of those people. Another person told me –no it’s not that–we just like to drink up until the last minute. As we were led into the performance space we noticed it was a darkened room where the solo dancer was off in the corner. I thought she was warming up but she was really dancing to herself in the corner with her back to us. She was beautiful, tall and African-American and had a burnt orange halter dress on.
By the time the audience was entirely seated she was quite sweaty. Lamps were scattered around the stage–some were overturned. She danced and read aloud from notes as if she was an 11-year-old girl in the ghetto in New York. It was a coming-of-age sexuality piece. It was very very raw. It was very moving. It was disturbing. It was lots of things and I was so very glad I had come. I heard thunder during the play I thought it was part of the act but when I came out of the play it was lightning and raining hard. I considered staying in the area but given my recent accident and the throbbing of my leg, I hailed a cab and was quickly back to South Bank. I poured a glass of wine and sat looking at the Yarra River from my windows and couldn’t stop thinking about that 11 year old girl. I’m so happy I’m in Melbourne.
Two women from Estonia set next to me. They were very polite and very sweet. The pageantry of the ceremony was amazing. The athletes , many in wheelchairs, were down on the field. Coldplay was doing a performance and did song after song. After that balloon women came down from the sky. The volunteers were also there and they were in a play that was on the field and Kevin son Alex was part of the volunteer Corps. Rihanna then performed in an amazing orange dress. She was running from number to number putting on her fur coat in between songs and then she would swing out on a huge swing to the stage for another number. Wonderful fireworks after. Probably the best of Ive ever seen. At the end Kevin and I tried to catch up with Anna and Alex but we didn’t. I took the subway home with loads of happy people and got home at 1:30 AM.
Shirleyfest 