Perles & Paddock Airs Above the Ground in Griffintown [Updated]

GRIFFINTOWN — After two years of renovating an old garage, Maxime Perreault (former owner of the student bar L’Abreuvoir) and Jessica Goulet’s new restaurant and brasserie Perles & Paddock has opened their doors this week. This new establishment rolled out its bar and snack menu on Monday, with its tasting menu unleashed upon the public on Wednesday night.

The space is the result of the architect Maurice Martel and FX Studio with many of its interior design elements coming from Perreault himself, from the sound-dampening lattices that run along the ceiling to the seating. Its name refers to pearls — something special and rare — and paddocks for horses, invoking the image of both a loyal animal and a nod to the neighbourhood’s history of housing the city’s horses. “I’ve spent some time researching the neighbourhood, from the Goose Village to the canal... it was a responsibility for Jessica and I to keep these urban legends and history alive, to pay an homage to that,” Perreault tells Eater.

This project embodies a new direction for the owner. “After (L’Abreuvoir), I really wanted to focus and recenter myself,” Perreault says. “I’ve been in the industry for 20 years. I wasn’t looking to build a club, but a restaurant that provides an experience where customers can learn from their bartender or waiter.”

The establishment chiefly identifies itself as a space for drinks, providing a full bar: Fourteen — with the possibility of as many as sixteen — taps for beer with a preference for Quebecois microbrewers kept at varying temperatures, extensive cocktail offerings and a very long wine list. The bar is headed by the beverage director Tao Zrafi from Toronto’s The Cloak, with Jade Labonté Harvey (Le Mousso) acting as sommelier for their extensive list of reds, whites, bubblies and macerated wines.

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• JP Karwacki
• Bar and dinner menu Perles & Paddock
• Cocktail menu 1 Perles et Paddock
• Cocktail menu 2 Perles et Paddock
• Wine list Perles & Paddock
• Beer menu Perles & Paddock
• Tasting Menu Perles & Paddock
• Forest Fire & A Night in Tunisia cocktails JP Karwacki
• Amuse-bouche of nordic shrimp JP Karwacki
• Sea urchin cavatellis JP Karwacki
• Arctic char with zucchini flower and roe JP Karwacki
• Blanc-manger with strawberry sorbet, hibiscus mousse JP Karwacki
• Quebec asparagus with lemon hollandaise JP Karwacki
• Duck breast JP Karwacki
• Mignardises: Strawberry jellies, marshmallow, macaroons and financiers JP Karwacki
• Maine razor clams JP Karwacki

Dining at Perles & Paddock is separated into two seasonal menus, all conceived by the chef Selven Mooneesawmy (Bistro Olivieri) and sous-chef Laurent Bouchard (Le Fantôme). The first menu — focusing on bar snacks, dinner plates and desserts — ranges from snack items such as buttermilk fried chicken, oysters and beets with goat’s feta and sea buckthorn to more substantial dinner plates of monkfish, deer heart tartare and whelk & scallops served in the shell with duchess potatoes. The second menu is for tasting, a crown jewel we’ve detailed in the gallery above; this option is best tried once a reservation has been made in their partitioned dining salon located at the back.

The restaurant currently lists itself as open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. from Wednesday to Monday, and is closed on Tuesdays. It’s located at 403 Rue des Seigneurs, (514) 931-0004. Click here for their Facebook page.

DOWNTOWN — Following its successful flagship location in the Old Port, the team behind LOV has opened its doors today at a new gargantuan spot on 1232 de la Montagne after a meagre six months. The vegan-vegetarian restaurant is set to ambitiously accommodate nearly two hundred people, numbering at one hundred and twelve on the inside and seventy-two on its terrasse. Its decor fits the brightly-lit and spacious milieu of the prior spot, with bleached brick walls and hardwood flooring designed by Jacinthe Piotte. Located in a historical building that dates back to 1893, LOV’s chef Stéphanie Audet will head the kitchen here as well, serving the signature dishes of salads, soups and burgers in addition to the likes of coconut ceviche and avocado mousse. As for beverages, Steve Beauséjour has put together a list of natural wines to complement the food, in addition to cocktails from Romain Cavelier that feature small-batch productions of liquor.

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• Patricia Brochu
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LOV’s two locations are open Sunday to Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Dial them up at (514) 287-1155; visit their website here and their Facebook page here.

• Perles & Paddock [Facebook]
• LOV [Website]
• LOV [Facebook]
• After Just Six Months, Vegetable-Loving LOV is Expanding [EMTL]