In honor of a good friend’s upcoming wedding in May, the group of groomsmen decided to venture to the great white north to celebrate the momentous occasion. Although I have been to Canada a few times now, this would be my first excursion into Quebec, and first visit to Montreal.
We actually landed on Montreal kind of randomly. The original plan was to go snowboarding out west somewhere, but we ended up having two individuals that didn’t ride or ski. Off the recommendation of a few others (and all of us being big hockey fans), we finally decided on the French-Canadian city only a quick two hour flight away. My good buddy Timur was tasked with planning the weekend and finding our accomodations, and he did an incredible job. Our Airbnb was a six bedroom house smack dab in the middle of the historic district of Montreal. The location was incredible; we could (and did) walk to everything we needed. The house had plenty of space and of course had an awesome game room up top–complete with foosball and a giant card table.
The group of 10 arrived at various times throughout Thursday. After switching up my flights a bit, I was into Montreal around 5pm. A short uber to our place downtown and I had arrived. I plopped my bags down and grabbed a celebratory beer. A lot of the group had gotten there early and already explored the immediate area a bit. I got unpacked and ready to make our way to our 8pm dinner reservation.
Our Thursday night dinner was at a steakhouse called Gibby’s. It was quite possibly the best steakhouse experience I’ve ever had. My other favorite steak was from Mastro’s in Scottsdale, but this one was definitely up there with it. Right in the middle of old town Montreal, this place had an awesome vibe–with fantastic food to go along. The steak was cooked perfectly, but the star of the meal was a loaded twice baked potato that was absolutely phenomenal (and probably super healthy, what with all the cheese and bacon). The service was also top notch as our band of idiots is probably not the easiest to deal with. They of course surprised us with a delicious shortcake at the end of the meal to top it all off.
After a quick walk back to the house, we all recharged and made the decision to test out a local bar. Nothing terribly exciting but we had a good time. Its tough to find a place that’ll accommodate 10 dudes without any heads up, but we found a great place called Taverne Midway. The staff was awesome and really made us feel welcome. Just an hour or so later and we decided to head back and get some sleep for the weekend ahead.
I decided to bail on the group activity we had planned. I wasn’t feeling so hot and decided to stay back and rest. After an hour or so, I went down the street to have some recovery brunch. It was a fantastic decision, and I instantly felt rejuvenated. Although the afternoon wasn’t super eventful, I was happy to be feeling back to normal. We did explore downtown a bit though and I was able to snag a couple good shots of the area. Such a beautiful city with an awesome heritage.
Friday evening’s dinner was at a Mexican place called Escondite where we actually ended up doing a family style meal. It turned out to be a fantastic choice as we got just the right amount of food for a fairly good deal. The food was also fantastic. We had a little of everything–6 different courses in all I believe. With delicious churros to top it all off. So freaking good. We stumbled upon two more dive bars on the way home but overall another pretty uneventful night. Some of the group did decide to venture back out, but I was content to call it a night.
Saturday started pretty slowly with everyone sleeping in nice and late. Our brunch reservation was at a restaurant called Brasserie 701, and just like Gibby’s it was also one of the most fantastic meals I’ve ever had. The food was so fresh and delicious, the servers were super cool and attentive, and the atmosphere was perfect for a Saturday afternoon. The apps were incredible–scones with the freshest strawberries, croissants with homeade jam. Everything was absolutely delicious. Not to mention the chicken & waffles I had as my main. So perfect, and just the right amount of food to boot.
As soon as we were done brunching we hoofed it back to the house to try and catch the second half of a Hurricanes game. The Canes ended up winning and our group ended up snoozing. The brunch had taken it out of us. But we new we had a great last night in store, so it was a necessary recharge.
Once everyone had woken from their afternoon stupor, we dusted ourselves off and made it across the street to an awesome sports bar for a quick dinner and drink. We returned to the house with a case of beer to pregame the night’s event: a concert at a downtown nightclub with the German DJ Robin Schulz. After an hour so of getting psyched up, we all hopped in Ubers to head down to the club. The venue was called New City Gas, and it was absolutely unreal. It was in an old brick building but the interior was updated and super modern. Definitely one of the better nightclubs I’be been to. We ended up purchasing VIP tickets to have access to a private balcony area that turned out to be real nice. The concert itself wasn’t too crowded but it was awesome to be able to have our own area where we could all hangout together and still communicate.
The show itself was great but I began to suspect something was up when the second opening act continued playing for well over an hour. It started to get pretty late and it looked as if Robin Schulz was not going to show. That unfortunately turned out to be the case, as the opener ended up playing close to two and a half hours and closed the show out. You could tell the DJ duo was caught off guard and didn’t have much to play after their initial set was through. All in all though we still had a fantastic time raging together as a group. Not something we get to do very often with all of our friends scattered throughout the US these days. We’re getting old!
Sunday hit us like a freight train. We were finally able to get ourselves together and get the place cleaned up. Our departures were scattered throughout the day, with one group already on the way home (leaving the house at 3am and not sleeping after the show!). Two of us grabbed and Uber headed to the airport around 9am before suffering through a two hour delay out of Montreal. I ended up cutting it ridiculously close for my connection in Charlotte. After sprinting through the airport from one terminal to another, I was the last one to board the plane to Raleigh just 6 minutes prior to scheduled departure. The gate agent event opened up the gate door for me! Super nice and very lucky. After another short flight, I was home safe.
It was an awesome trip to Canada–the group had so much fun celebrating our good friends special occasion. The city was absolutely amazing and the people were super welcoming even with the language barrier. We are already looking for excuses to return…
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 