After a quick stop off at Timmies we were on our way. The traffic was light, and no cops in sight. Only pocket of traffic was at the Decarie ramp which we missed .. no biggie I have a backup plan. My internal boussole, and the one on the dash got me to Eva's friends place at 10:00 on the dot. She happened to live in a really cute neighborhood with crazy stairwells. Just around the corner was a little dessert shop that Anne knew about so the girls picked up a few things (Anne got Macarons, and Eva picked up Madelaines)
We got to the Hotel at 11am not sure if both rooms would be ready, but they were. We stayed at the Sofitel on Sherbrooke, and at first impression the convertible Ferrari and the Mercedes in the valet driveway told me I wouldn't normally be able to afford staying here. We were able to get our rooms early, both on the 11th floor side by side with a view of an apartments. We checked no naked people, only an old man passed out Sunday morning.
We took a ride to old Mtl and found out where the Cirque show was, and saw a few ideas of places we could have supper. We then made it up to St Catherine, parked just behind The Bay. I have to mention the shit mobile we saw in the parking lot. I think it was parked there circa the last time the Maple Leafs won the Stanley cup. The mirrors are busted and I don't recall any tires having air in them. There was "Help me" written on the windshield only to have another 2" of dust cover it up.
We decided to have lunch at the 3 Brasseurs, but on the way there the girls stopped off at a few stores (Banada Republic, Simons, and les Ailes de la Mode) Rob and I went to the SAQ Signatures on St Catherine and drooled over a $11000 bottle of red wine.
Les 3 Brasseurs was nice, kind of like a Kelsey's feel to it, but with more beer. Rob and I tried the sampler. There were 4 glasses of (Blonde, Blanche, Amber, Noire) I will get to the beers in more detail further on. After lunch we dropped the ladies off in old Mtl about an hour before their show. Our plan was to go to Mcaulsan's (St Ambroise) and the "Cheval Blanc" which was featured on the Food Networks Thirsty Traveller. We drove about five minutes out of Montreal to an area resembling the worst parts of Vanier in Ottawa. The streets were uneven, boarded up windows all nicely wrapped in an industrial park. There were no cars in sight of the warehouse, and the terrace was obviously closed and had been for a while.
Back on the highway to valet park the car at the hotel, because when we travel with Eva that's how we roll. I checked real quick on the trusty blackberry and our 2nd choice Brutopia was listed as 800meters away, so we decided to trek over there and see what it had to offer. 800meters my ass!!! was more like 1.5kms. We lucked out there was a lot to sample, too bad the 2 tables on the patio were taken otherwise it would have been perfect. Rob and I split 10 1/2 pints which included (Red, Xtra Blonde, Blanche, Java Stout, Smoke House Porter, Honey, Honey Brown, Nut Brown, Belgian and a Raspberry beer) We took our time and sample each one in depth, with several of the patrons wondering what the !$@! we were doing. I admit it must have looked a little funny jotting down notes on Sofitel stationary. In all we spend a good two and a half hours there. The bartender working the bar was helping and friendly, we asked where we could go to fill up Rob's keg, he gave us the name of two places and both ended up not being listed.
We intended on saving the best for last. Back on the blackberry Cheval Blanc was listed as 2.4 kms and a nice distance to walk off all the beer. After walking a kilometer, something wasn't adding up. The application I used to find the pub was tagging us with a cell tower not the GPS. So in essence we had no real way of knowing how far we were. I flagged a taxi good thing too because it took us 15mins by taxi, and it wasn't due to traffic.
Once there the Cheval Blanc looked more like a former dinner then a brew pub. After all the drinking we had done, Rob needed to use the facilities and from my angle I could only see a door marked H/F. I was wrong in thinking it was the door to the hallway with the bathrooms. I was embarrassed sending my good friend to a coed bathroom :$ I didn't see there were 2 more doors for regular male and female bathrooms. We each sampled the Black India Pale Ale or IPA for the beer newbies. Then a 1/2 pint of maple beer for me, and imperial stout for Rob. The bartender there was extremely pleasant and mentioned we could have been given a tour had we been there 15mins earlier. Seems we missed the brew master by a few minutes.
Holy crap!! granted this is only my 2nd post but I get the feeling blogging shouldn't be this long.
So I will sum up the rest real quick .. met the ladies at the vieux port restaurant, food was good, air blower in the bathroom was uber power full, and we cabbed it back to the hotel. Sunday we went to a busy bagel place on Fairmont st that is suppose to be open 24/7, when we got there. There was a lineup passed the door. Drive back was fine, we stopped at Rigaud for beer and wine and french crossword puzzles.
I will add photos shortly, and also a list of the beers we had with our impressions :)
I had a great time with you and our friends in MTL!!
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