Tire érable from outside Mont-Royal Métro station

It was our first full day in Montréal, so we needed to start our day with some carbs and caffeine.

We Métroed it to Mont-Royal station and walked out to Boulangerie Kouign Amman (322 Avenue du Mont-Royal Est, Montréal).  Fortified with a croissant (decent, needed more butter) and 2 allongés, we were ready for the walk to our next stop.

Can I just ask what’s up with this city and the allongés?  I prefer my coffee non-overextracted, I just like having a lot of it to sip on as I go about my business.

Asides aside, our next stop was supposed to be Bouchonné (9 Avenue Fairmount Ouest, Montréal) for lunch.  But when we arrived at the wine bar, it was completely closed.  Whoops.  Thwarted, we resolved to find whatever random lunch we could in between stops, as we had a few more in the immediate area.

On a recommendation, we walked over to Super Marché Rahman.  Outside, Jen stopped, confused.  “Why were we supposed to come here?  It just sells beer!”.  Fine by me — we went in.  They had a huge selection by the 341ml bottle, mostly local stuff by the looks of it.  I picked up with Éphémère Framboises, the raspberry version of Unibroue‘s seasonal line, and McAuslan‘s St. Ambroise Citrouille, “The Great Pumpkin Ale”.  The pumpkin in particular had sounded interesting; unfortunately, both were unremarkable.

Next, Fairmount Bagel (74 Avenue Fairmount Ouest, Montréal).  This was more of a requisite stop for me than something I was specifically interested in.  I do like Montréal-style bagels, but I’m not one of those people who buys 4 dozen to take home to freeze.

Speaking of requisite stops, we won’t be going to Schwartz’s or Snowdon Deli this trip.  We’ve both had the full experience and didn’t think it was worth repeating.  Sorry Montréal, but we’re going to take advantage of your better offerings.

We capped off the afternoon with a visit to the (tourist-trap version of a) cabane à sucre outside Mont-Royal station, which we’d noticed on the way out in the morning.  They poured a strip of maple taffy onto a bed of ice, handed Jen a popsicle stick, and she went to work rolling it up.  That, combined with a really underwhelming lunch at Première Moisson, was enough to last us until our late dinner reservation.