Obama and Trudeau Have A Liverpool House Dinner Date in Montreal

Former US President Barack Obama made his first visit to Canada since leaving office Tuesday afternoon, and while his convention centre speech was the big headline, the internet and local media seem more enamoured with his dinner at Little Burgundy’s Liverpool House than his words.

It started early evening when Burgundy Lion, across the street from Liverpool House, dropped a photo of Obama’s hefty security detail on Notre-Dame, with the president waving.

The internet hivemind initially suggested he’d be dining at Joe Beef, the older and most prominent of David McMillan, Allison Cunningham and Fred Morin’s neighbouring restaurants on the street. Perhaps because Joe Beef is booked solidly for months and it would be not ideal to turf out those diners, the President turned up at the slightly more casual Liverpool House.

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasn’t snapped going inside, he made his status as Obama’s dinner date known not long after.

The dinner was a private affair with no media presence (inside the restaurant, at least), although that didn’t stop the CBC from dubbing it “The Liverpool House Summit”. They extrapolated plenty of ideas about what the two talked about over their oysters and lobster spaghetti (disclaimer: it’s not known that they actually ate this, despite what some local publications claimed), and what it means for Canada-US trade policy.

Meanwhile outside, a crowd quickly gathered to gawk from the security perimeter around the restaurant, and both Obama and Trudeau emerged a couple of hours later to raucous screaming.

There was no shortage of approval for the President’s choice of restaurant — McMillan has become an icon for Montreal’s food scene beyond the city, so commentators and the internet at large suggested it was a stamp of approval for a beloved chef-owned restaurant in the city. Montreal Gazette critic Lesley Chesterman also appeared to subtly highlight the fact that the two didn’t head to the city’s latest big-banner, big-money addition to the restaurant scene, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. As quoted in the Gazette, she tweeted “Nice to see President Obama visiting our best local restaurants” with the hashtag #eatlocal, although the tweet appears to have been deleted.

And the night ended with McMillan getting a snap with the power duo.

So, there it is — if you want to dine like a President (or Prime Minister), Liverpool House is a good bet.

• All Liverpool House coverage [EMTL]
• How Hard is it to Get a Table at Joël Robuchon’s Montreal Restaurant? [EMTL]
• The Liverpool House Summit: What did Obama and Trudeau talk about? [CBC]