Oh Montreal... You got me again!

So my wife and I were moments from heading north to hang with friends in Montreal when she says, "Don't forget the passports.". Right, good call... wait, shit... mine just expired!  F***!!! I had known about the trip and my expired passport but had not put the two together. I always view Canada as VT North but I guess that is not the case. Anyway, there are all sorts of contradictory rules about crossing the border so we gathered up all of my documents pertaining to being alive and headed out. My wife was pretty mad at me the whole ride up but kept it together. At the border the guy basically intimated that I am a moron (true) and let us through. Jackpot!  The new interstate 35 is a nice ride, it saved about 25 minutes but felt like a much faster easier route into the city.

We stayed at the Hotel 10 on Sherbrooke. They make a point of telling you how loud the rooms are. Like they really make a point about it. We got one apparently as far from the club as we could. It was a nice room. Spacious, comfortable, clean. The bar/club on the other hand... We took a walk before dinner and then settled in for a cocktail. The bartender dismissed the drink menu and told my wife he could make her whatever he was the guy. He could make sweet drinks, something with cookie dough, cake batter, something sweet? No, how about a negroni. Well, they had just run out of Campari and bitter drinks are really hard. He wasn't sure they had anything comperable. I saw 5 bottles that could have made similar drinks. F*ing idiot. My lady had a Prosecco and I had a whiskey, can't f**** those up. We stopped at Benelux to meet the LBsquared contingent for a happt birthday beer before dinner. We were not cool enough for good service. We did have a good table by the window and the place had nice energy. Kind of hipster divey. They served up craft beers which after a trip back there after dinner we discovered you had to navigate around to separate the wheat from the chaffe. I did have a pretty decent saison and a good pale ale (it was really cold).

Next stop was dinner at Laurie Rapheal. I started with nice cold gin martini. So far so good. Next up the boys at the table fired up the "Hunter's Tasting Menu", featuring new menu items the chef was working out. The amuse bouche was a pulled venison if I remember correctly. Maybe the best thing we had, it was pretty solid. Next up were some high concept soups. Ours featured caviar, cucumber, and urchin with a creamy urchin broth poured over it. It was good. Could have been a little warmer but nice flavor and the urchin was really quite good (I am not always a lover). I will point out here that although it seemed like 48 people were "working" service was very slow. Our bread girl looked like she was on suicide watch. It was fun to try and determine if we were going to be charged by the slice as she was coming around quite often (we were not). The main course was a duck breast. It was tender and flavorful, It was a pretty solid dish. Desert was a chocolate mousse that was fine, nothing special. The whole dinner was fun for the company and a tasting menu is always kind of enjoyable. Overall the high concept high $$ scene demands something special and while this dinner was good it did not reach anywhere near special so I would only recommend LR with reservations and full disclosure. That said if you are looking for something a little spiffy check it out. They did not have Fernet Branca which would be a theme for the evening.

Back to the Benelux then the Hotel 10 bar. I ordered a Fernet Branca. Even though I could see the bottle on the bar the waitress was confused. Then the bartender was confused. It was like I was ordering unicorn tears?! I finally got my fernet and was satisfied. Still, it was a fun scene and we had some laughs.  The best part of the evening was when we retired to our room for a round of Alchemist Crushers. The Crusher is the higher octane relative of the Heady Topper. A Topper is already a giant F* you so the Crusher was an Oh Boy, Here We Go!  I liked it. Quite a bit. Needless to say, I trashed the mayor, we figured out the future political career for LB and talked and joked about a bunch of other nonsense before my lady shut us down at 3:30AM! Pretty solid right?

Sunday morning we found an Argentinian brunch spot near Old Montreal, L'Atelier d'Argentine. It was a cool space a really pretty good. Solid hangover fare. I rocked a ham and cheese grilled in duck fat and sauteed spinach. Yeah, I can't really breathe this week, and I may have a heart attack at any time. We also had some delicious tostados and donut holes (beignets). We wandered around town then tried to exit the city. The main bridge south was closed. I followed the detour signs which in typical Canadian style led in a circle to nowhere. They literally led in a circle around town with no exit to the other bridges. GPS and some sleuthing finally got us back on 35 after 45 minutes of hell.

Another disapproving head shake but otherwise smooth border crossing and we were home. It was a fun weekend and felt like a nice little oasis in the baby week. Go Canada!

**Apologies for the timing with the shootings in Ottawa. Seriously, WTF is wrong with people? Randomly spraying bullets as part of your Jihad? What is your little war against, common sense and decency?