Prince of Pop-Up, La Porte North, Notkin's

POP-UPS— Until he opens his own restaurant, call John Winter Russell the prince of the pop-up. The former Van Horne chef will prepare a Québec/Sicily dinner with Scarpetta chef Monick Gilles on Wednesday, June 25 at the popular Mile End restaurant: "We're taking traditional Sicilian preparations and doing the whole dinner with local ingredients. The flavour profiles on the dishes we've tested are really cool so far. We're also grilling a whole deboned goat for the fourth course. It's going to be awesome." [Wire]

PLYWOOD REPORT— La Porte may be done on the Main but management is busy with a new restaurant up north. [Facebook]

SUMMER TRACKING— Emilie Rainville, a principal in Notkins - the first restaurant from Oysterfest founder Daniel Notkin - tells Eater Montreal today that the Downtown spot is almost set: "Things are good! Lots to do still but we are moving along and getting very excited to open. Just a few more weeks..." [Wire]

CHEF ADVENTURES— Garde Manger and Le Bremner pals Chuck Hughes and Danny Smiles have been on a major food crawl in Italy this past week. The grand tour comes on the heels of Smiles' involvement in the S. Pellegrino Cooking Cup in Venice. [Instagram]

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