Chef From NYC’s Famed Gramercy Tavern Will Plate up Classics in Montreal Next Month

OLD MONTREAL — Montréal en Lumière is coming up, and one of the festival’s most exciting food events has just been announced, as chef Michael Anthony from New York City’s Michelin-starred Gramercy Tavern will cook two meals in Montreal. The James Beard award-winner (also known for his work at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, outside New York) is joining forces with notable Old Montreal restaurant Monarque — he’ll be preparing some Gramercy Tavern classics, to be served à la carte in Monarque’s brasserie section. Anthony will also work with Monarque chef Jérémie Bastien to do a six-course menu for $140 plus taxes and service, served in the restaurant’s main dining room — tickets are available online for the degustation, which happens on February 28 and 29, or the brasserie option can be reserved via Monarque.

(In other Montréal en Lumière news, the festival has picked the Magdalen Islands as its focal point for 2020, meaning there should be plenty of seafood options on offer at other special events.)

Time Out Market/Supplied

DOWNTOWN — Two months after opening, Montreal’s Time Out Market in the Eaton Centre is getting into the brunch game. Every one of the 15 restaurants in the food hall will serve a brunch option on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Options include a panettone French toast from Hof Sucrée (a spin-off of Mile End’s Hof Kelsten), and chilaquiles from Grumman78. It’s also an opportunity to get a take on brunch from excellent restaurants that have never served the weekend meal, like Le Club Chasse et Pêche (doing grilled octopus with hollandaise) or Foxy (serving a shakshuka).

QUEBEC AT LARGE — Les Lauriers de la Gastronomie, a culinary award ceremony for the entire province, will return for its third outing this April. It’ll follow a pretty similar approach to before, with categories like restaurant and chef of the year, plus a new category for brewer, winemaker, or distiller of the year has also been added. The ceremony will take place April 16.

Le Poutine Week/Supplied

ALL OVER — The annual Poutine Week returns from February 1 to 7 (Saturday to Friday), with 55 Montreal restaurants putting on special poutines for the week, with a dollar from each going to a charity focused on eating disorders. Among the notably out-there poutines this year are a galvaude from Poincaré Chinatown that can be served with flambéed cognac on top, a mapo tofu-inspired poutine from Ho Lee Chix in food hall Le Central, and one that’s topped with an Australian meat pie at Le Birdbar.

@eonnigiri/Supplied

OLD MONTREAL — In other food events, Happening Gourmand is continuing across Old Montreal until February 9, meaning that a host of restaurants under the Antonopoulos Group umbrella (such as Maggie Oakes, Bevo Bar, Méchant Boeuf) are putting on three-course table d’hôte menus, plus brunch and 5 à 7 deals.

ALL OVER — That’s not all of the ongoing food events — there’s also a new arrival on the scene, Le Tour de Tables, which means special five-course tasting menus are on offer at restaurants like Ikanos, La Chronique, and Chasse Galerie up until February 9, for either $65 or $75 each.

• Monarque welcomes Gramercy Tavern [Le Pointe de Vente]
• Le Poutine Week [Official]
• Happening Gourmand [Official]
• Tour de Tables : 6 restaurants s’unissent pour ce nouvel événement gastronomique à Montréal [Nightlife]
• Mon Lapin Wins Quebec-Wide Restaurant of the Year Award [EMTL]