Montreal: Random pics

This past August, Abby and I took a mini-vacation to Montreal, where we got to try out all sorts of great restaurants and test out Abby's new camera - a Canon 5D Mark III.  We had been wanting to visit the city ever since we saw a No Reservations episode filmed there, and when a friend of our recently moved back there, conveniently, we were able to have a local guide show us around.  Between all of the amazing food and the public art, Abby was able to get some pretty good pictures.  Above and below are two of my favorites.  We spotted the Batman poster in an alley we walked by, and the mural below takes up the entire side of a building in the Plateau neighborhood where our friend lives.

Walking around Montreal, there were a few things that reminded me of other cities I had been to.  Something about the style or vibe of the city reminded me a lot of places like Portland and Austin...only French.  Other things were sort of like New York, only different.  For example, Schwartz's is a Jewish deli that makes a version of a smoked meat sandwich that is sort of like the pastrami sandwiches at Katz's,

and Montreal also has there own version of bagels that they contend is better than any New York bagel.  Personally, I thought Schwartz's was over rated.  The line to get in took 30 to 45 minutes, and I don't think I would wait in line for it again.  It was good, but not great.  The bagels were really good though. I don't know if they are better than the best NewYork bagels, but its a valid argument.

Montreal is also filled with all sorts of cool little restaurants and bars like the Reservoir, which makes their own beer

and had a pretty good looking menu.

There were also a bunch of little cheese shops, butcher shops, and places like this chocolate shop that we walked past

Probably the most famous Montreal export, though, is poutine, which you can find all over the place.  On our first night in Montreal, we tried out a place called La Banquise that was open late and had an extensive array of poutine dishes on the menu.  The next day, we tried a place called Patati Patata.

While La Banquise was large, loud, and at the time we went, filled with drunk people, Patati Patata was very quaint and quiet, with just a few seats at the bar.  The poutine at both places was very good, but I think that Patati Patata was slightly better.