One Year In, Majestique Makes Magic on the Main

With the Gazette down to a lone critic now, Lesley Chesterman works the casual beat for her review of Majestique. Chesterman sees the Main wine and cocktail bar from Richard Holder, chef consultant Charles-Antoine Crête, and others, as a paragon of Montreal's current high-low culinary zeitgeist: "So we have another example of the fancy casual merge: a consulting chef who made his name at the poshest restaurant in town created Majestique’s menu, where no dish costs more than $22. And that $22 dish is, get this, a hot dog. More on that later."

The critic orders 11 plates for her table and most score well. Especially that hot dog: "The hot dog was a masterpiece. Imagine a foot long hot dog made with Gaspor pork meat snuggled in a sesame-seed crusted hot dog bun (custom made by baker-du-moment Hof Kelsten) and topped with a red cabbage, apple and fried leek slaw. Finish it off with a bit of that lemony mayonnaise and plain ol’ yellow mustard and you have the hot dog to end all hotdogs. Three of us split one, but I’ll be back to scarf back one of these babies solo." With polished service, cool cocktails and mostly terrific food, Majestique earns a coveted 'Good to great bet.'

In related news: for Majestique's first anniversary, Au Pied de Cochon alum Mehdi Brunet-Benkritly, of New York's Fedora, will be in the house. It all happens on April 11.