The adventures began at Baldwin Barmacie (115 Laurier Ouest, Montreal QC)
Walking into Baldwin's at 6pm on a Thursday, one thing becomes abundantly clear - this is where the hip style makers of the Plateau congregate for Cinq a Sept (see side note below). The decor is fresh with several shades of white, large leather seats and an incredible combination of dimmed overhead lighting and candles. It's exactly what you would expect a laid back, fashionable lounge bar to look like. A DJ sits perched above the bar delivering nice mix of lounge music - enough to tap your feet to but subtle enough to perform as background music to good conversation.
(Cinq a Sept - Quebecoise' version of Happy Hour for those playing at home. Directly translated it is "5 to 7" and it basically the time between finishing work and sitting down to dinner where you have a drink with friends or workmates and maybe a light snack. I was introduced to this almost immediately after arriving here! For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinq_à_sept).
The theme or concept behind Baldwin's is a comparison between Medicine and Alcohol (not a big stretch really). So the set-up is really that of a pharmacy. You are able to purchase entire bottles of spirits and have them served to your table with a selection of mixers appropriately served in small medicine type jars allowing you to brew your own concoction.
Six O'Clock is a little early for me to get stuck into a full bottle of Vodka so I took advantage of the happy hour prices and had a few beers. If beer isn't your poison of choice, there are several cocktails on offer (including some very good looking Martini varieties) and from what I could see, the bar staff knew what they were doing as mixologists.
Overall a great place to start a night or possibly end one. The drink prices aren't outrageous but I would recommend taking advantage of happy hour if you want more bang for your buck.
After four or five pints, some gourmet nourishment was required post haste. The promise of traditional Greek cuisine, live Greek music and the possibility of some drunken Greek dancing from one of our party had me sold.....onwards to Mythos Esiatorio!
Mythos Estiatorio is located at 5318 Ave De Parc between St Viateur and Fairmount- one of the main Restaurant, Bar and Cafe thoroughfares through the Plateau.
As we walk through the entrance, the authenticity is apparent. Whilst on the surface the decor is no different from hundreds of other Greek restaurants throughout the world - something felt like this was less contrived than most. The aromas from the kitchen resembled real home cooking and the two Greek musicians performing centre stage couldn't be faked.
Our waiter seated our party directly in front of the stage so we could truly appreciate the music - a move appreciated by the band I suspect as we were the only ones that graciously clapped after each song (more to do with the clientèle than the quality of the music.
My ability to order from a menu written in French, while improving, is still not fantastic. That combined with the fact that there were two Greeks in our party as well as two other very well travelled people meant that I was happy to leave the ordering to someone else. This turned out to be a very wise move both because of the quality of the selection, but also because we all chose to share a wide selection of dishes allowing me to experience as much of the menu as possible in one sitting without damaging my organs or my wallet. Some of the culinary highlights included:
Skordalia - Skordalia is a dip, but no ordinary dip. It's basically a Greek version of mashed potatoes with Garlic. Closer to a dip in texture than traditional mashed potatoes. It worked very well as a compliment to some of the later dishes
Spanakopita Spitisia - Basically a filo pastry spinach slice. Very Moorish - I only had a small sample of it but could have easily enjoyed this on it's own.
Patates Fournou - Your basic run of the mill Greek roast potatoes - but something was a little different. It may have been the freshness of the Rosemary or the home made olive oil but I have never eaten Potatoes as nice as this before.
Gigantes - As basic a choice as you can find - Lima beans in tomato sauce. Again, I think the difference here is the quality of ingredient because even the Lima beans tasted better than i'd had before. They dissolved on the tongue with the slightest pressure and the basic tomato sauce they were drowned in was the perfect complement.
Lokaniko Sharas - Char grilled Greek sausages. Packed full with flavour and when topped with a little bit of Skordalia were the highlight of the meal for me.
Octapodaki Sharas Me Piperies - Char Grilled Octopus with mild peppers. Now i'm a hesitant seafood fan as a general rule. There are some seafood dishes that I love but i'm still hesitant about quite a few of them as I didn't develop my seafood palate until later in life. I was informed my the other members of my party that the Greek's make the best Octopus and no Greek menu experience is complete without trying it. So I did - and i'm glad I did. I can't believe I had been avoiding this delicacy for so long - a mistake I won't repeat!!
The meal was accompanied with some Greek red wine - unfortunately I don't recall the name as the bottles were ordered by another member of our party but it was a very nice introduction to Greek wines and the perfect addition to everything on the menu.
I was lucky enough to have a couple of Greek speakers with me during this experience who kindly translated some of the lyrics being performed by the two Greek musicians making them that much more enjoyable. It turned out that their repertoire extended beyond traditional Greek music to basically anyone with Greek heritage meaning I learned my second music lesson for the night - Cat Stevens is Greek! I, of course, confirmed this via Wikipedia and was quite surprised to discover that Cat Stevens was born Steven Demetre Georgiou. I finished the night with a small laugh to myself remembering the father from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" saying "Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek". Well....apparently give me a musician, any musician and I'll show you that he is Greek!
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