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Hot on the heels of the sleek and modern Arthurs, there's even more good news for Montreal's evolving Jewish food scene. Espace Culinaire Fletchers, a café and cultural food space, is open in the brand new Musée du Montréal Juif (Museum of Jewish Montreal) at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Duluth. Kat Romanow, Jewish food historian and co-founder of The Wandering Chew pop-up dinners and food events, is the museum's director of food programming and will be cooking and creating the menu for Fletchers.
"I'm taking inspiration from the food of the Montreal Jewish community, from both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities"
"I'm taking inspiration from the food of the Montreal Jewish community, from both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities," says Romanow. The bagel board diplomatically features Fairmount or Saint-Viateur sesame bagels with homemade salmon gravlax, served Moroccan-style with berber spice and arak gravlax or Ashkenazi-style with beet-dill gravlax and toasted caraway cream cheese. Also on the opening menu: gelfite fish and open-faced chopped-egg sandwiches, snacks like Montreal-style knish, pizza bagels, Iraqi Sambusak with Amba (a baked turnover filled with curried chickpeas served with a pickled mango dipping sauce) and cold borscht. There's black cherry and vanilla soda, of course, and the less-traditional strawberry and cardamom soda. Desserts include an elevated ice cream sandwich made with rose water ice cream.
Fletchers operates as a café on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and and will host additional workshops, pop-up dinners, tastings and cookbook launches during the week. The culinary space takes its name from nearby Jeanne-Mance park, formerly known as Fletcher’s Field among the Jewish community living in the Mile End and Plateau in the early 20th century. The museum will also run Beyond the Bagel food tours of Montreal's Jewish food history and culture.
Espace Culinaire Fletchers
Museum of Jewish Montreal
4040 Saint-Laurent #R01
(514) 840-9300
Opens early July