NDG Gets A Promising New Option For Baked Goods — And Other Openings

NDG — A co-owner and baker from Villeray’s Le Pain Dans Les Voiles has made a move on Monkland Village, with new bakery La Meunerie opening over the weekend from Martin Falardeau. Falardeau has serious baking chops: in 2011 his baguette came second in international baking competition Le Mondial du Pain. Little surprise then that La Meunerie is doing baguettes, but also croissants, chocolatines, praline millefeuilles, and Nutella rolls, to name a few. Le Pain Dans Les Voiles is very well-regarded, and early reports from eager NDGers who visited La Meunerie have been almost uniformly positive. The bakery has an extremely low online profile, but it can be found at the corner of Monkland and Beaconsfield.

NDG — There’s also a new vegan dining option in NDG, with Ashley’s Health Bar now open. The menu mixes health conscious items (from bowls to nachos and pizza), including matcha lattes, brownies, dumplings, and they’ve got an alcohol permit — it’s closer to a bistro than a grab ‘n’ go kind of place. It’s open lunch and dinner, seven days.

OLD MONTREAL — Opening a jazz-oriented cabaret restaurant in the year 2017 seems like a bold move, but if anybody is well placed to pull it off, it’s a relative of Philadelphia-via-Quebec jazz great Charles Biddle. Biddle’s son, Charles Biddle Jr., opened up Biddle’s Jr. on Notre-Dame a few weeks back with a mix of cocktails, food, and plenty of live music. It’s not the city’s first Biddles — that was the jazz club on Aylmer and President-Kennedy downtown, although it’s now named House of Jazz.

LASALLE — Portuguese restaurant Viana is now open on Lapierre — they’ve got Romados-esque barbecue chicken (in sandwich and plate form), but go beyond that with oh-so-Portuguese cod fritters and grilled sardines. Peep the full menu below.

PETITE-PATRIE — There’s more banh mi available on Beaubien right near the St-Hubert Plaza — sandwich shop Madame Ly is now open at 766 Beaubien E.

• Le Mondial du pain de Martin Falardeau [Le Devoir]
• NDG is Getting a New Vegan-Vegetarian Restaurant [EMTL]