My two favorite things in the world are women and wine. Having dinner in a nice restaurant allows you to enjoy both at the same time.
Thus on Sunday, after perusing the S.O.’s tour book, I informed her that we were skipping the hotel’s “breakfast” ( cereal, coffee, and donuts on a counter) to partake of a real breakfast at a place that lots of people raved about. I was on vacation, dammit!- I ought to eat like a vacationer at least once.
It is not that the S.O. does not appreciate a good meal-she cannot reconcile that sometimes, you have to spend money to get one. I’m not talking about every day, of course-one has to save money-but sometimes, you have to relax and enjoy the moment.
Sunday was one of those times.
Up and showered, shaved-face put on-we set out to discover a restaurant called Eggspectations. It was near our hotel-about five or seven blocks walking. They pried themselves on their Eggs, Benedict. After having tried it-I, I agree that they should. It was good:
Yes, it is not a “heart-friendly” breakfast!
I love Eggs Benedict-but making it at home is just a pain in the posterior. Plus, I never really get the hollandaise sauce right-which is the key to a good Eggs Benedict. Not too thick, not cold, just the right consistency. It is better to go out for it, in my humble opinion. This particular set had some excellent seasoning and some good cheese mixed in. Even the S.O. liked hers:
Prices were not bad either!
We then spent the day exploring Mount Royal and the Oratorie that is on the backside of it. The weather was great, and we worked up an appetite. Considering dinner had been at a McDonald’s in Drummondville the previous night, I felt a decent semi-romantic dinner was in order.
So we went by Metro up to the stop at Laurier. That also allowed me to explore the Montreal metro-one of the “checks in the block” for me:
A short but pleasant walk led us to B.U. Bar a Vin. It came recommended, and I’ll have to say I liked it.
Because the S.O. hates to eat late in the evening -we arrived for a 6 PM reservation. So we had the place to ourselves. That did, however, mean we were able to get a table with a view:
It also meant that we could take advantage of the happy hour special prices on appetizers, e.g., you could get three for one price. A good bargain. We settled on Caprese:
Prosciutto with mushrooms:
And a Cheese Tort:
As I mentioned in a previous post, the place had a very well-stocked wine cellar-the wine list was ten pages long -in French and English. So rather than go through it, we talked with the server-who as it turns out it is from France and had trained as a Sommelier. He did not push the most expensive bottle on us-he gave us some good choices in each price range and his ideas about how it would go with our meal. We finally settled on this particular wine, Pierre Galliard Syrah-2007.
I am not a wine connoisseur, so -I can’t say for sure how great it is. However, we both liked it. It was very smooth and had a great flavor. I wanted to get another bottle. I liked it so much! ( Usually, my two criteria for fine wine are: “open” and “free”). However, we only had one and enjoyed with veal:
Truth be told, the actual entree was something of a disappointment, compared to the appetizers and the wine-but it was still pretty good. And the ingredients were very fresh.
Another thing I liked about the place was that they were not pushy. Because we were there early, the waiter asked us when we wanted dinner to go in so that it would come out hot and on our schedule-which let us soak in some of the atmosphere:
Which was fine with me.
Not cheap -but not too bad for a dinner with a bottle of wine and appetizers. B.U. Bar a Vin is located at 5245 St. Laurent Blvd in Montreal. We walked back the whole distance to our hotel-which was in and of itself an adventure. That walk takes you right past Schwartz’s delicatessen, where people were lined up the block to get in and get one of their sandwiches. I gather it’s something of a Montreal tradition… It sure smelled good!
