Dream Team Flirts With Perfecto, a New Bar and Restaurant in the Plateau

Perfecto, a new bar and restaurant, will soft open this week. The project is from noted restaurant and bar vets Éric Le François (Lorbeer, Laurea, Taverne Normand, Bar Courcelle, Philémon, Chez Victoire, Mangiafoco, Taverne Saint-Sacrement), Charles Vaillancourt (Taverne Saint-Sacrament), Joakim Morin (former manager at Rufus Rockhead, Rockette Bar), and chef Eric Rice (Fabergé, Roux food truck). Months after Perfecto was first announced, the restaurant will finally receive customers at 20 Duluth Est on Thursday, July 9. Rice took some time from the kitchen at Fabergé today to discuss the project.

"We soft open this week from Thursday to Saturday to test out some menu items. The space is very cool, very eclectic. One wall is backlit with LED lights, one wall is gold, and one wall is black [Pierre-Étienne Locas, a set designer with the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, created the look]. [Laughs] Call it heroin chic. Perfecto is ultimately the brainchild of Joakim Morin. The food is revisited pub food, a little bit fancier, but still unpretentious and served in baskets and cafeteria trays. It's more a bar than a restaurant."

The partners also want to target industry folk. Aside from beers and cocktails, Perfecto's kitchen will open until 3 a.m. and serve off-menu "staff meals" late—think gnocchi carbonara and panzanella salad with duck and smoked bread. All in a hidden boîte type of atmosphere. "There are a lot of windows at Perfecto but at night it has more of a dive bar feel, even though we hesitate to use that term. There's no sign. The space is a little tucked away."

The menu, relaxed and subject to unscripted changes, will give Rice a chance to branch off from brunch and poutine—the chef is largely known for both at Fabergé and on the Roux food truck. So while Perfecto has a bar and show permit you may want to save room for crowd-pleasers like a vegan Philly sandwich, edamame and wasabi dip with wonton chips, barbecue duck wings, mussels with blue cheese and beer sauce, and fried lobster ravioli. And, bonus, look for Rice's new project on the streets of Montreal soon: a food bike, Rouxtine, that will cook and serve poutine on a stick to order.

Status: Perfecto, 20 Duluth Est, soft opens this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.