Second Take

explorecities

Second Take

Jacquelyn Francis steps out in Montreal’s up-and-coming Griffintown.

W

hen you really like a city, half of the joy in returning to it is finding your haunts exactly as you left them. While I was visiting Montreal last year, at the tail end of its 375th-anniversary celebrations, it dawned on me that over the years, all I’ve done is retrace my footsteps in this town. This time, as I wander the streets of Griffintown, on the banks of the Lachine Canal, I find an environment with little room for nostalgia. This part of Montreal is in the thick of a construction, retail and restaurant renaissance, and it feels different. Over drinks at the Lord William Pub on Des Seigneurs Street, René, my veteran city guide, says he’s never been busier and wonders aloud if the “Trudeau Effect” is at play here. “I have many people asking for tours of Justin’s hometown,” he tells me, referring to the country’s telegenic prime minister. It’s an interesting theory but one that I’m sure has been helped by the

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nearly $1 billion reportedly spent on Montreal’s 375th-anniversary celebrations. The city’s estimated spend was roughly double what the federal government spent on Canada’s 150th anniversary, and Tourisme Montréal predicts that Montreal will earn approximately 4.3 billion in tourism dollars this year, which it is attributing to the projected 6.1 per cent increase in tourists visiting from overseas. Before walking into Le Richmond, one of Griffintown’s “supper club” destinations, I see plenty of construc-

tion cranes and storefront condominium showrooms. Inside the restaurant—a converted theatre space—I enjoy a rustic Northern Italian appetizer of grilled octopus on a bed of borlotti beans that is so flavourful, the insides of my mouth almost hurt. I savour the natural light pouring in from the floor-toceiling windows. But judging from the scaffolding across the street, a new build might soon obscure that gleam. Griffintown is bordered by NotreDame Street West to the northwest and the once mighty Lachine Canal to the

photography: main by Taki Eddine Alimat, Pixelmontreal.com; street view by SDC - Les Quartiers du Canal; pittsburgh by istock.

MONTREAL

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southeast. Throughout the 19th century, Griffintown saw waves of Irish immigrants who worked on the canal, the Victoria Bridge and the Grand Trunk Railway lines and eventually in the factories that overtook the neighbourhood. Then, when the nearby St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, the area de­industrialized quickly, forcing residents to find work elsewhere, until Griffintown became practically a ghost town in the 1970s. Today, the canal is managed by Parks Canada and is a picturesque route for pleasure boaters on the water and pedestrians and cyclists on the 13.5-kilometre path between the borough of Lachine and Montreal’s Old Port. (Griffintown is closer to the Old Port.) These days, the factories have been replaced by townhouse communities, interior-design stores and coffee shops, while the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) adds a welcome student vibe to the area. One of the more impressive conversions in Griffintown is the massive Arsenal Art Contemporain. The contemporary gallery (with satellites in New York and Toronto) is located in a 7,400-square-metre former shipyard. This imposing symbol of Griffintown’s aquatic past is also a hub for the city’s wild, if not under-the-radar, C2 (Commerce + Creativity) conference, which brings creatives from more than 50 countries to town each year (May 23 to 25 this year) to talk opportunity, the future and disruption. After a light meal at the familyfriendly Meatball House on Notre-Dame West, it occurs to me that I haven’t had a Montreal bagel on this trip. It’s 10:30 p.m., and I’m ready to head back to my hotel, The Queen Elizabeth, but my guide commandeers a taxi and points us northwest toward Fairmount Bagel. The 24-hour bakery is located in the familiar Mile End, where I spent many lost weekends as a 20-something escaping a dead-end job in Ottawa. Within minutes of my arrival, my arms are laden with dozens of fresh bagels bound for my train ride home. They’re piping hot, so I leave the bags open to allow steam to escape. I’m still full from dinner but can’t resist eating one right out of the bag. The bagel is delicious and, in this instant, tastes exactly like the ones I remember.



While in YUL

S tay The Queen Elizabeth The grand Fairmont hotel on René-Lévesque Boulevard West reopened in July after an exhaustive year-long renovation and closure. Our dream stay would be Suite 1742, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their famous Bed-In for Peace in 1969. The redesigned room can be booked for about $2,000 a night.

experience Maison Christian Faure’s École de pâtisserie Take a short bike ride along the Lachine Canal to find this stone-house-turnedpatisserie-and-school. Learn how to whip up a traditional French apple galette or macaron under the watchful eye of Christian Faure himself. Alternatively, the sunbathed café offers sandwiches on the best bread this side of Le Marais in Paris.

B uy Ludovik This adorable design shop stocks chic Montreal-related gifts like pillows in the shape of vintage bus transfers and retro Montreal Royals baseball tees.

pittsburgH Under-the-radar Pittsburgh is off-the-chart good with its art, food and stunning cityscape. If it isn’t already, The City of Bridges—a.k.a. Steel City or the ’Burgh—needs to be on your list of places to visit. A pleasant five-hour drive from Toronto, this under-the-radar gem is more than just the birthplace of Heinz Ketchup, bingo and Andy Warhol. Tourists come to Pittsburgh for the art and the incredible restaurant scene, but lowering pollution rates and a booming tech economy are drawing young, educated residents as well. It’s also a great walking town, with scads of riverbank and green space to explore, more than 400 bridges to cross and two of the country’s oldest funiculars to ride. And there are stairs to climb: A wander through the South Side Slopes district, where staircases often take the place of streets, delivers both a history lesson and a leg workout. Your weekend-stay activities are a nobrainer when it comes to art. The Andy Warhol Museum, with its thorough collection of paintings, prints, drawings and films, should be at the top of your list. Meanwhile, the Mattress Factory celebrates four decades of mind-bending creativity with its succinctly named New Installations: 40th Year. On display until the end of July, this exhibition pays homage to artists like David Ellis, Vanessa German and the late Greer Lankton, who helped shape the museum’s renegade spirit. Wood Street Galleries and nearby Space are also worth a visit. With regard to your stomach, make restaurant reservations before you leave home and let the dinner plans roll out. Cure is one Pittsburgh eatery that has enjoyed write-ups in The Wall Street Journal and Bon Appétit since putting down its roots in Lawrenceville in 2011. Anchored by a stellar charcuterie board, the menu at this cozy space highlights local flavours with a modern Mediterranean hook. At Speakeasy in the Omni Hotel, the cocktail menu favours Prohibition-era concoctions that perfectly suit the room’s dark and sexy 1920s-style decor. But back to the bridges. There are indeed 446 of them. When you’re situated at the junction of three rivers—the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela—and you have steel coming out of your ears, you build bridges...and make new friends. —Doug Wallace

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