Village Fave Agrikol to Start Serving Haitian Brunch This Month

VILLAGE — After three years in business, Amherst Street Caribbean hot spot Agrikol is finally introducing brunch. Chef Paul Toussaint will cook up Haitian classics — think giraumon soup (a meat and pumpkin soup), seafood plates and Haitian spaghetti with smoked herring. Also new at Agrikol is an ancestral white Haitian rum, clairin — that sugarcane spirit will be available in new cocktails at the restaurant, across brunch and regular dinner services. Brunch starts on Easter Sunday (April 21) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., then will be served on a permanent basis every Sunday from May 5, with the final Sunday of each month featuring a guest chef.

Patricia Brochu/Soubois

DOWNTOWN — Trendy de Maisonneuve supper club Soubois was hit with a possible arson attack early on Monday morning. An alarm was triggered by a suspected molotov cocktail around 2 a.m., drawing police and the fire department. Nobody was injured, and despite reports that the restaurant was “gutted”, damage was superficial, and mostly on the restaurant’s facade — it will be open again later in the week, with no closure required.

LATIN QUARTER — Young Bouillon Bilk chef Andersen Lee has beaten out over 1,000 chefs for a scholarship with the World’s 50 Best Restaurants organization — it’ll see the 20-year-old completing stages at restaurant such as Quintonil in Mexico City and Core by Clare Smyth in London.

OUTREMONT — Staple Bernard Avenue bistro Brasserie Bernard has jumped aboard the late night special train, with a two-course meal (entree and main) available for $27 after 9 p.m.

NDG, ETC. — Now that she isn’t bound by food critic rules any more, ex-Gazette critic Lesley Chesterman can do things like...create a burger for chainlet Notre Boeuf de Grace. A noted burger fan, Chesterman is keeping things pretty simple with aged cheddar, tomato, red onion and lettuce, but also a honey mustard-glazed patty and barbecue chips. It’s available all month.

• How Italian Spaghetti Became a Haitian Breakfast Staple [E]
• Arson suspected after supper club gutted by fire in downtown Montreal [CTV]
• 50 Best BBVA Scholarship winner Andersen Lee to work at Odette, Quintonil and Core by Clare Smyth [World’s 50 Best]