Old Montreal Gets Not 1, But 2 Drag Brunches This Weekend

OLD MONTREAL — Montreal’s Pride festival kick off this week (although the main parade is not until August 18), and two Old Montreal restaurants are throwing drag brunches to celebrate it this Sunday (August 11). In short, drag brunch is brunch that comes with a drag show — many other North American cities have restaurants that offer them on a regular basis, but in Montreal, it’s rather novel. St-Paul Street steakhouse Méchant Boeuf is inviting drag queens Miss Butterfly, Gisèle Lullaby, and Frankie Dee to perform — it’ll cost $40 with meal, a mimosa, performance, tax, and tip all included; for an extra cost, you can make it a boozy brunch with bottomless mimosas. There will be two seatings: 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with tickets available online; some proceeds will go to LGBTQ advocacy group Gris.

Then, just down the street, Restaurant Épik (part of Hotel Épik) is also hosting a drag brunch, salaciously titled Eat It & Beat It, featuring drag queens and kings including Uma Gahd, and benefitting HIV-AIDS care group ACC Montreal. It’s already sold out at this stage, but it can’t hurt to keep an eye on the Facebook event in case tickets become available.

PETITE-PATRIE — Portuguese bakery Pâtisserie du Rosaire has moved away from its longtime location on Rachel Street at Laval, bringing its pasteis de nata (and other treats) up to the St-Hubert Plaza. The new address is 6805 St-Hubert, between St-Zotique and Bélanger streets.

GROCERY STORES — Fake meat products like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers have been all the rage lately, and now there’s a Quebec-made version on the market. Pea-based Vegeat is now on shelves at IGA, Rachelle-Béry, and other chains owned by Sobey’s.

Café Souvenir/Supplied

OUTREMONT — Bernard Street institution Café Souvenir has a new chef — New Brunswicker Tom Allain is in charge, bringing experience from Hôtel Herman, Nora Gray, and famed Melbourne, Australia restaurant Attica. His mission? Modernizing the French bistro’s menu.

Madre/Facebook

ROSEMONT/AHUNTSIC — Peruvian-slash-Nuevo Latino restaurant Madre is getting liquored up: chef Mario Navarrete Jr’s Rosemont restaurant now has a wine list, courtesy of sommelier Joannie Levesque (Chez L’Épicier, H4C). That means as of this week, the restaurant is no longer BYOB — the Fleury Street location in Ahuntsic is soon to follow suit, and will start selling alcohol August 19 (it remains BYOB up until then).

CÔTE-ST-LUC — Are you a vegan who likes movies? Here’s an event for you: the Ottawa International Vegan Film Festival, which started this year, is bringing a best-of selection of films to Montreal. Most are documentaries, and they’ll be screened Thursday August 29 at the Dollar Cinéma on Décarie. Tickets are available online.

DOWNTOWN — Speaking of veganism, the Festival Végan de Montréal returns to the Palais des Congrès this year — it happens September 21 and 22, admission is free, and it features former Alouettes star Marc-Olivier Brouillette as its spokesperson.

• Boozy Brunch x Drag Queen Brunch au Méchant Boeuf [EventBrite]
• Eat it & Beat it: Anti-Stigma Drag Brunch [Facebook]
• Quebec’s vegan Vegeat burger hopes to compete with Beyond Meat [Montreal Gazette]
• Ottawa International Vegan Film Festival [Official]