I’m going to be visiting Quebec from the 26th of Dec through the 2nd of Jan for a quick holiday. I’ll spend most of my time in Montreal but might take a couple of day trips to Quebec City and Tremblant. I’ve had a pretty extensive look through the places section but have a couple of questions.
RB Places is limited in its usefulness by the site’s general lack of fresh ratings. Many places In Montreal haven’t been rated in years, thus the places leaderboard isn’t necessarily an accurate representation of the beer scene today. Are there any newer places worth checking out that might be easily overlooked when looking through the rankings? Also, I assume that ticking ice ciders will be pretty difficult - are there any bars that offer flights / smaller pours or should I consider driving down towards the border to get a fair understanding of the style?
Hey Jack, sucks that I’m already committed to family during that time. I’ll see if I can’t muster something for the 27th it’d be cool to meet up.
As far as places in Montreal go, the classics are still very much interesting. Vices & Versa, Dieu du Ciel, Siboire, Amere a Boire, Cheval Blanc are all great stops and make for a relatively easy pub crawl down St-Laurent/St-Denis streets. I would personally skip Benelux Sherbrooke (the Verdun one is great though!), Saint Bock, and Reservoir. Some places are slightly more outside center but easily reachable by public transit such as Benelux Verdun, Brouhaha (poutine here is solid), La Succursale, MaBRASSERIE. Isle de Garde is probably my favorite place to visit but it is always PACKED at peak times, early is your best shot. Pit Caribou also relatively recently opened a pub in Montreal, they have some really solid wild beers and hoppy beers as well as beers from other breweries from the Gaspésie region (a 12hr drive away or something, so better have the beer come to you).
Awesome info, thanks! Gaspe’s isolated location has intrigued me to learn more about it - will definitely be on the lookout for some beers from the region. Looking forward to the visit.
Wanted to report back on my Quebec vacation. Overall, I had a great time. Montreal has an impressively deep bar / restaurant scene that you should all be proud of.
Beer
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do as much beer stuff as I had hoped. Pit Caribou’s pub was fantastic - great ambiance and the beer they’re producing is definitely worthy of acclaim. Isle de Garde had some solid lagers (Svelte Vycepni was probably the best beer I had all trip) and a nice vibe, though I found the staff to be a bit standoffish.
Cocktails
Checked out Big In Japan and was suitably impressed.
Restaurants
Meals were cheap and generally of really high quality. HVOR is truly killing it and worth the splurge if you’re looking to celebrate a special occasion. Also, having sampled some Montreal poutine, I remain convinced that it’s a dish that is less than the sum of its parts.
