Jellyfish Jolts Old Montreal's Restaurant Row

After a significant refurb, the Old Montreal space that formerly held Aziatik has new life as Le Jellyfish crudo + charbon. The new restaurant in the Nouvel Europa development soft opened over the weekend, and will introduce full-blown lunch and dinner services next week. Principal Francis Rodrigue co-owns Longueuil restaurants Madame Thai and Magia, and was also implicated in the Hôtel St-Paul restaurant Vauvert. Rodrigue's kitchen at Jellyfish will be run by Mathieu Masson Duceppe, his chef at Magia. The 23-year-old may be familiar to some for his triumphant stint on Chopped Canada. "Mes nombreux stages internationaux et mon expérience comme chef dans les caraïbes me donnent beaucoup d'inspiration. Le crudo + charbon, c'est la dualité du cru et des arômes du grill. Je vais me plaire à jouer avec les différentes saveurs et de les partager avec la clientèle," Masson Duceppe revealed in a prepared statement last September.

Other key contributors at Jellyfish include Roberto Pesut, of the Buonanotte Group, who will take on a consultant/management role, sommelier Simon Duval, late of L'eau à la bouche and l’Auberge Saint-Gabriel, and bar manager and cocktail maven Brynley Leach, ex of Monkland Village's Le Slang.

Status: Le Jellyfish crudo + charbon, 626 rue Marguerite d'Youville, (514) 303-0908. Now open 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, and 5:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday. See menu below.