Bonjour tout le monde! [French: Good day, everybody!] Welcome back to Vagabrothers.
This is the second video in our 6 part series on Quebec and we're in Montreal.
Yesterday, we checked out the old town and today we're checking out Mile-End, The Plateau and Igloofest.
Allons-y! [French: Let's go]
Where we at, bro?
Okay, so it's lunch time, it's Poutine Week and we are at La Banquise
which is a 24-hour Poutine joint.
It's supposed to have the best in town, so…
In Quebec there's never too much Poutine and we're gonna have a little bit more.
People have always tried to, like, manipulate Poutine and make it bigger and make it different
We always stuck to what it really is:
Potatoes, cheese, gravy.
We use all local products, we don't use anything from anywhere else
but that is made in Quebec, and for 24 hours and we accommodate any type of client
Check this out!
Curd, gravy, bacon, beef, chicken balls, sour cream, grilled onions, and more gravy
So good!
These are like nachos québécois style:
We got guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, it's kinda like a Tex-Mex take on Poutine.
And being from California, you might like this one.
Thank you!
Dude, that was such a feast! I think we need to walk it off, though. Too much Poutine.
We definitely do, so we're meeting up with Danny from Spade and Palacio.
He's gonna show us around the rest of Le Plateau and also the Mile-End.
Sweeeeet! Let's go!
So, right now we're in the Plateau and it's pretty cool
Like, Montreal is a city of boroughs, there's 19 different boroughs in the city.
And, you know, each one is different and has its own distinct identity
Right now we're on Montreal Street, which is kind of the main street of the plateau.
And there's lots of cool little, like, shops, bookshops, clothing, coffee, art, tons of street art,
Diggin' it!
So, there's, like, murals all over this place and Danny is telling us that that's for a reason, right?
Here in the Plateau it's one of the most high concentration of artists
We're saying in Canada, maybe even North America
So, we estimate that about 1 in 10 people make their money off of art in the Plateau
Whether it be visual or classical or music or what so be it.
So, high concentration.
Not just starving artists, thriving artists.
Uh, a mix of both because it's gotten a bit expensive to live here, so…
Starving artists and the ones who are making it as well.
He's one of my favourites. Manu.
But unfortunately when I'm travelling, I cannot pick up vinyls, I don't have any room in my backpack.
Alright, we're gonna check out this neighborhood spot, which is called "Dieu du Ciel"
which means, uh, "God of the Heavens"
They're a microbrewery, which won Best Brewery in Canada.
And what I want you to get your hands on, is the Espresso Stout
We cannot say no to beer!
Especially, if it has coffee in it. If it's a beer and a coffee, we're sold!
Okay, well, cheeky little day beer.
But now we are officially in the neighborhood, the borough of Mile-End.
Marko and I are always curious to see local producers, people who are making their unique take on style.
So, we're gonna go check out this little clothing shop
Vagabrothers in a menswear store with serious style? Dangerous.
I stuck to the two things that I did not bring on this trip: a beanie and some notepads. The essentials.
Alright, where to, Danny?
We're gonna head to get some bagels right now.
So we're on our way to a bagel shop and that's 'cause, like, Montreal I think has the biggest Jewish
population of any city in Canada, right?
A huge Jewish population, definitely, and a lot of our food scene is
brought to us by or influenced by Deli style and Jewish tradition, basically.
Cool, so, we're gonna go check out… what's the name of the place we're going to?
So, we're going to St Viateur Bagel, which is one of two in the Mile-End.
They're letting you taste why Montreal's bagels put New York's pieces of bread with holes to shame.
Boom! That's just got laid down.
So what makes these different to New York style bagels?
Because they're better!
Haha! How so?
How you guys have a reputation for making big apples, we make great bagels.
There you go!
Are you guys seeing that?
Smoked salmon spread, fresh warm sesame bagel
After a night partying: Poutine or bagel?
For me definitely bagels. When I was studying, I would wake up every morning
with sesame seeds in my bed.
One of those nights, when you wake up the next morning covered in sesame seeds,
and you're like "What happened?" –bagels. Duh.
I don't wanna leave this neighborhood, I don't wanna leave Montreal
We're staying in Quebec, but…
These guys are moving here with me to Montreal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're gonna be here this summer.
Seriously, pour practiquer le français [French: to practise French]
So, we're in the lower side of the Plateau, but our fun has not plateaued yet!
I'm so sorry for that bad joke.
We're gonna meet up with Pierre-Alain from the Mural Project
before we go to dinner and then to Igloofest, so, let's go check it out.
It's actually the Mural Festival, but it's a pretty cool project.
So, just kinda taking a look around this parking lot, you can see so many different
like artistic influences and lots of different cultures.
Can you kinda talk about how this parking lot and all of these murals are representative of that?
Yeah, well, first of all, we always try here at Mural to have a mix of international artists and local artists.
So, that's the diversity in itself.
And then we try to represent the different styles that compose street art now.
But we really give them a carte blanche. [Alex] Yeah, like a free reign.
And so how long do these installments stick around for?
We try to always make them permanent.
Basically, in three years we did 60 and then we have 47 still standing.
Very legit Chinatown here in Montreal.
Smells good, but we're not having Chinese. We're on our way to the Foodlab.
And we have no idea what's on the menu.
So, Foodlab is located here in the Société des Arts Technologiques, the society of arts and technology.
You got, like, all these changing menus, got different themes each time you go there and
natural wines. So we're gonna see what the menu is now and drink wine!
Naturellement! [French: Naturally] Après vous! [French: After you]
Everything is super wintery and all the food right now is, like, thick, heavy, rich and absolutely delicious.
I've never had this before. It's oat soup with a chicken broth and bacon, a poached egg and croutons.
I'm Michelle Marek, I'm the chef at the SAT Foodlab and I run a restaurant with a very small team
You guys are gonna try the polenta dish that we have.
It's, like, a ton of different garnishes, a poached egg in the centre and you're meant to mix it all up and
kind of have different flavours with each bite.
Wow!
Wow wow wow!
Well, dinner was delicious.
And now we're gonna top off the night with Igloofest,
An electronic music festival here in the old port and it's supposed to be really good.
Best way to warm up in the middle of winter.
Mulled wine!
And dancing!
Dancing with mulled wine!
Let's do it! Let's do it!
Whop whop whop
To the Igloofest [in French accent]
Jägershots!
Always a good call!
We're in Igloofest, we're backstage
We're sitting with Nicolas, the founder
He's gonna tell us a bit more about how this whole thing got started and what it's all about.
The vibe behind this it's like bringing people outside, making them enjoy the goodness of winter, right?
Yeah, or tame the winter because it's national sport in Quebec, people complain about the weather.
So, we decided to just give them a good reason to go out and do the partying, enjoy themselves
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Today has been especatulaire! [French: spectacular]
So tomorrow is gonna be also very fun!
We're going to another festival, the Carneval, in Quebec city so make sure you stay tuned for that.
If you enjoyed the video, share it with your friends, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to Vagabrothers
by clicking the link down there for travel videos every Tuesday and sometimes Thursdays and more.
In the meantime, remember to stay curious, keep exploring and we will see all of you Vagabuddies on the road!
Á la prochaine! [French: Until next time] Peace!