Aux Vivres May Be Making A Move On Westmount, And Other Intel

WESTMOUNT — News for vegans and the plant-oriented alike keeps on piling up these days: at an event over the weekend, owner of Plateau vegan hub Aux Vivres Michael Makhan reportedly dropped the news that a Westmount edition of the restaurant is in the works for summer. Specifically, it looks to be in where former Italian restaurant 11 Scalini used to live. Like the St-Laurent home base, it’ll be a restaurant with take-out counter; their second location like this (although there is already a wee Aux Vivres counter tucked in a building on Casgrain in the Mile End). Eater has reached out to Makhan for official confirmation.

VARIOUS — While we’re on the topic of vegan eateries, all-raw vegan restaurant Crudessence has a new chef. Ottawan Sarah Karook is heading up the mini-chain’s kitchen, and she’s promising a homey menu evocative of summer barbecues — although the menu is still keeping Crudessence staples like bowls and smoothies. Peep the menu below.

WESTMOUNT — And back to Westmount, fire-stricken Antonio Park restaurant Lavanderia is still a work in progress, and now isn’t expected to re-open on Victoria until May — but its weekend brunch is still taking place next door at Park in the meantime.

ST-HENRI — Hit opening of summer 2016 Arthurs is expanding the hours on its kind-of Jewish deli — they’ll be opening up seven days, starting next Monday, April 3 from 8 a.m.

MAGOG — A duo of rough reviews last fall isn’t stopping oh-so-Québécois brasserie Les Enfants Terribles from beefing up its operations: their first location outside the Greater Montreal area is set to open late May, in Magog.

DOWNTOWN — Montreal is getting another food festival-ish event: there’s now a Golden Square Mile Restaurant Week, comprised of a mixed bag of hotel restaurants like La Société and Renoir (the Sofitel restaurant), along with long-running downtown spots like Thursday’s — it runs from April 24 to 30, and the format is mostly special table d’hôte menus.

THE MEDIA — In case you missed it a little while back, CBC Montreal rounded up all the health code citations issues by the city last year, and Chinatown’s Cristal Chinois had the dubious distinction of being the most-cited restaurant or food retailed in town (but bear in mind another restaurant may have had fewer, more egregious infractions). The full list is over here.

ALL OVER — Fun fact: alcohol delivery is actually legal in Quebec, although services offering it aren’t terribly widespread in Montreal. Delivery service Foodora is taking advantage of this to start offering beer and wine delivery (no hard alcohol) from fancy grocery store Alexis Le Gourmand, as well as a few restaurants — you’ll pay store price from the former, and menu prices for places like Brit and Chips and Robin des Bois. This is probably not the cheapest method to acquire alcoholic beverages, but there’s no fee on the Alexis deliveries until the end of March.

• Salad Be Gone: Gusta Brings Vegan Comfort Food To Jean-Talon Market [EMTL]
• Organic Wonderland Fruiterie Mile End Opens Up A New Café, Délicieux [EMTL
• Antonio Park Restaurants Forced Shut By Fire [EMTL]
• Take a Tour of Arthurs, a New Wave Nosh Bar for Saint-Henri Fressers [EMTL]
• Bad Service Continues at Enfants Terribles [EMTL]
• Golden Square Mile Restaurant Week [Official]
• More Montreal restaurants, grocery stores cited for unsanitary conditions in 2016 [CBC]