Cold Little City... Montreal in the Winter

As the snow casts over this cold little city come Winter, I become dormant, not wanting to do anything that involves leaving the house post-work. My basal metabolic rate slows...and looking around as I sit in a mountain of down comforters and quilts, there lays evidence of my general laziness on crumble filled tableware squirreled around the bedside. "I don't want to go out, I want to sleep and watch movieees in bed" I lament, as my body collapses into fluffy linen goodness. Of course, how do you say no to a night of hibernation as the temperature plummets below -20 C on the Montreal streets outside? It takes a lot to make me layer up and trek fearlessly through waist-high snowbanks in freezing climates, but there are some places that make the adventure well worth it...here are some of my picks for 2013.

Art Exhibits Winter 2013

Clockwise: (1) Dominique Blain, Mao - Wei Wei, 2012; (2) Samuel Roy-Bois, Allusion, 2012; (3) Mike Bayne, Marina, 2012; (4) Laurent Grasso, Uraniborg, 2012; (5) Michael A. Robinson, the origin of ideas, 2012; (6) Exhibition view, DHC/ART; (7) Holly King, from the exhibit Grand Canyon: Unseen, 2012; (8) Jennifer Lefort, Message received, 2012.

Click here to read more about the exhibits and their galleries....

Big In Japan Bar

Having discovered ECC Chinatown last year and then sourcing out its Parisian outpost this past summer, I think it's safe to say that 2012 gave way to a healthy obsession for all things speakeasy. That is to say that I've fallen in love with this style of discrete nightspot, inspired by those from the prohibition era, when large quantities of (then illegal) liquor overflowed in clandestine bars hidden behind unmarked, concealed doors. (read more...)

Icehouse Montreal

One definitive highlight that stems from late afternoon walks in the Plateau has become stopping in at the popular eatery Icehouse, where Nick Hodge et al. has served up traditional Texan fare in close quarters since 2011. This 20 or so seat restaurant (which easily doubles in dimension come summer with its terrace) is, like its food, appropriately cool, casual, and fun; there are no reservations, no dinnerware, and usually no utensils, making ones dining experience slightly more feral, or at least more hands on, than you'd otherwise expect. (read more...)

Clock Tower Beach Old Montreal

Amidst sizzling temperatures and crowded highways, the best thing to come to Montreal this summer has been a preternatural strip of soft sand that reads high on the barometer of cool. Clock Tower Beach, so named because of its location adjacent to the forty-five metre stone tower, just opened this past June and has been buzzing with the kind of happy energy one can only expect from a place reserved for lying under the warm sun with friends. (read more...)