Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Burgundy Lion


This pub, being a 10 minute walk from my place was on my must eat list, but after 1 year and a half of living in close proximity, I still hadn't gone. Damn it! So, a couple weekends ago, it was time. I mean, when I go out to drink in my neighborhood, it's either there or at La Drinkerie but this is brunch we're talking about. Brunch people! English brunch :)


This place runs like there's no tomorrow; a must go in Griffintown with two stories, a terrasse on Notre-Dame, an interior courtyard and lots of cleavage. LOTS and lots of it. Ok, some times too much, even for gay ol' me! But that's neither here nor there. Let's talk boobs. Shiz, I mean brunch!

I knew what I was getting, duh. This is what happens when I get really excited about a place. I wanted the whole English breakfast experience. I wanted the whole shabang. I wanted...blood sausage!
But first, a morning drink shall we? Oh, we shall! Recently my brunch drink is a good Bloody Caesar instead of a mimosa. I believe the spices and all that jazz is better for one's hangover. So I had two :)


Alright, so, y'all know my number one rule: always get the biggest breakfast. Oh and I did. Let's begin. The beans were a little piece (or tiny pieces...) of heaven IN my mouth. Heaven in my mouth I say. And I know my beans. They were amazing: just salty enough, well cooked but not mushy, great tasting overall. The eggs were good and again, well seasoned, but a tad cold. The tomato was the disappointment of the plate. It tasted as if they took an old tomato and cooked it with lots of spices. Which is probably exactly what they must do. Meh. Didn't taste fresh at all. The potatoes were yummy and crispy with a nice moist interior. Ps, you guys know I HATE the 'm' word so it's a big deal if I describe something by it. The ham was nice and maple-y but sadly, a tad on the dry side. The pièce de résistance, the boudin noir, was amazing. A-mazing. It was onion-y (hello is it me you're looking for?) and well seasoned and lovely and had a great texture. So basically, perfect. Oh, and the bacon was so thick and fatty that I felt like I gained 300 calories only by tasting it. But that too was oh-so-good! Mmmmmmm....faaaaaaat!



Service was great. Quick and efficient as any good service in any good pub should be! We had our water glasses refilled and were asked if we were satisfied with our food. Plus, I got a boob or two near my face...I was a happy camper. ;) The only thing that was kinda meh is that it took a while to get my second drink. It's ok, I forgive you.

And now, the scores!!!

Food: 7.5
Service: 8

Well, let's do the math: 1 huge breakfast and 2 caesars cost me 35$ including tip. Yes, yes I'll be going back.

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Friday, June 5, 2015

Terrasses Bonsecours

I was invited to attend the Summer opening of Les Terrasses Bonsecours in the Old Port a couple weeks back. It was beautiful and sunny and rather hot, basically the opposite of the crap we've been having in the passed couple days (read: weeks). It was hosted by Jillian Zrihen, the grand master of huge openings. Oh and it was. Huge.

I was going with my friend Jer and obviously we got there at 4h55 for 5 o'clock. You know me, I hate being late. Anyhoot, we were given selfie sticks... whatever those are... We never really were able to take an actual pic. Maybe we're just retarded. Or maybe they just work on IPhones.

First off, we could not have asked for a better day: it was warm, like, only wear-a-t-shirt-warm and even as the evening got colder, we just got drunker so it equaled itself out. This was to be a 5 à 7 with free booze (hello!) and free bouchées (well hello!). There was a lot.... a LOT of free booze, but the food was practically nonexistent or just really bad. I'm sorry, but when you are serving obviously-straight-from-Costco-frozen food, it ain't restaurant food. Therefore, this will be short and sweet.

I would like to give a shout out to all (and I think there were about 8000 of them) the girls that were working in super high heels (I do not know how no falling occurred) and super high skirts. I mean thanks but oh poor you! I just felt like petting them and telling them it would be ok. Hahaha. No but I'm pretty darn sure they got good tips out of it. 

Anyhoot, we started off with rum and cokes or, you know, vodka cranberry. And then we discovered that we could just take these...
Shots! Oh. God. Vodka anyone? Best and worst decision of that week. THIS is the reason why I was hungover the next day...although in my defense, the hangover wasn't AS bad as I thought it was going to be. Anyhoot, we had many of these. Many. And when the 5 à 7 was done, I heard Jer say to the waitress: 'open a tab with this card'. And then, it was over. Donzo. 

I won't speak of food because in my opinion, there wasn't any: dry chicken on skewers, bruschetta on a cracker or tasteless meatball on a stick.... it was all bad food. Kinda just there to say 'hey, we have food' (but not really).

Service was obviously good. I say 'obviously' because, well, I likes the ladies. And there were a lot of them. In short skirts. And quite tall. Yes. Seriously, they were very attentive to our demands and drunken orders... and drank lots of shots with us. Which we all know is very important.
The venue itself was wonderful. This picture was taken when we arrived (the first ones) but when it was full, people looked oh-so-comfy on those couches. We were sitting at a more modest table ;) Seriously, the outside portion could easily sit at least 100 people and I don't even want to venture a guess about the inside which boasts two stories. The view was nice all around: Old MTL, Old Port, the St-Laurent. This is the real deal, guys. THE partay place. Seriously, if I had the money, I would bring my friends there every Friday evening to have 2 or 8 drinks. And ps, they did have a menu... we just were too cheap to actually BUY food from it. Ha. Ya, joke's on us.

And now, the scores!

Food: 11 for drinks (but really, 9)
Service: 8000 for short skirts :p (but really, 9)

As I said, once I win some kind of amount of money OR I become a jet setter, I'm there!

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