Three Days in Montreal – Unique Accommodation. Outstanding Cuisine

For our anniversary, instead of a short flight from Halifax to Boston or New York, we decided to celebrate by staying in Canada and make Old Montreal our destination. We’re glad we did. We found a quirky, art filled hotel, history from the 1600s and some of the best cuisine in North America.

The entrance to the Sonolux hotel and LUMI restaurant

Filled with cobblestone streets and French colonial stone buildings from the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries, the original area of Canada’s second largest city comprises just a square kilometre. The compact layout makes it very walkable with interesting sights like the 1687 Saint-Sulpice Seminary, the original Bank of Montreal building from 1837 (still in use) and the adjacent Gothic Revival, Notre Dame Basilica. Nearby are several small, well-maintained parks along with numerous shops, cafés, restaurants and hotels.

The original Bank of Montreal. 1837

Most of the best Old Montreal hotels are modest in size, ranging between 100 and 200 rooms. We’re glad we went even smaller by staying at the Sonolux, a 36 room, art-filled boutique hotel ranked as one of the best new hotels in the world by Esquire. It opened less than a year ago.

Art collector and entrepreneur Daniel Gallant, a native of Moncton, New Brunswick, envisaged and created the Sonolux. He described his goal. “I wanted an evolving pathway between initiation and illumination.” He added, “It’s important to me to marry travel and art to give the guests something unexpected.”

Sonolux visionary and creator Daniel Gallant in the hotel lobby and restaurant

He certainly achieved that goal as the former neoclassical 1914 National Trust building on Rue Saint Jacques retained only the bank façade. The interior was gutted and turned into three dozen modern, long and narrow suites with projected art films and animation in the lobby and in all corridors. In effect, all public areas of the hotel have become galleries. There’s an audio lounge in the basement, Subterra, designed for vinyl listening sessions or live jazz on many evenings. As expected, the acoustics are stunning. There is little or no view from the room windows so, as Daniel Gallant explained, “The view has to be inside the hotel.”

Live jazz on many evenings in Subterra

That innovation was achieved by hiring ten artists who had full freedom to create the visuals projected throughout public spaces and available on all guest TVs. In addition to traditional hotel hospitality, management wanted to promote contemporary art and artists that people might not expect or know. The videos and the artists change every few months.

Every corridor has theatre seats and original, projected art

Even without its unusual art, the hotel and its perfect location would be a gem. The king beds are very comfortable with great lighting and drapes to separate the lounging or study area. Air conditioning is excellent. There are plenty of electric outlets and large bedside tables that strangely lack any drawers. A key attraction is the large bathroom with a shower big enough for two and a Japanese-style toilet/bidet. It’s the first time we’ve seen this convenient facility, common in Asia, in a North American hotel. Bravo!

Sonolux, named by combining Sono (“sound”) and Lux (Latin for ‘light’), also incudes a remarkably good restaurant. LUMI is known for its innovative, creative dishes under the direction of Executive Chef Graham Hood, a Dalhousie University graduate who has worked in several Michelin restaurants.

Unusual LUMI dessert topped with ruffled, dried yogurt

Located in the Sonolux lobby and surrounded by interesting, projected images on the walls, LUMI and Chef Hood offer à la carte dishes or an imaginative five or nine course tasting menu. When dishes are served, a small card is placed in an adjacent holder describing the ingredients. Another innovative and welcome touch.

Some LUMI highlights for us included shrimp en gelée with cucumber, Sri Lankin curry and coriander as well as a colourful fresh and roasted radish dish with arugula and dill. The dessert was a unique layer cake with makrut lime and cream topped with a ruffle of dried yogurt.

Chef Hood’s roasted radish appetizer

Until now, the focus of Sonolux has been on the hotel but the restaurant is now receiving accolades as its kitchen aims for future Michelin recognition.

Another Old Montreal restaurant, just a 10 minute walk from the Sonolux, has already earned Michelin Guide honours. Toqué has been led for 33 years by Executive Chef Normand Laprise, often called the godfather of modern Québécois gastronomy. He was the first chef to fully commit to fresh and seasonal local ingredients. With his partner, Christine Lamarche, they became pioneers of the now common Farm to Table movement.

Normand Laprise has been named Chef of the Year by MacLean’s Magazine along with many other citations (including awards from the James Beard Foundation and Relais and Châteaux). Our lunch at Toqué showed why. His dishes were among the most stylish and elegant we’ve ever enjoyed. Even the appetizers were visual masterpieces. John was impressed with his trout gravlax with kale, strawberry and green garlic oil. Sandra chose morel mushrooms stuffed with walleye & tarragon mousseline, fried shallot and smoked sturgeon beurre blanc. An exquisite dish. Our main courses were equally stunning. One of us had Quebec walleye with string beans, fennel, King Eryngii mushrooms and Kalamata olive purée while we both loved the chicken ballotine with lobster mousseline, asparagus and parsnip purée. Even dessert went well beyond the ordinary – Angelica infused rice pudding with blue honeysuckle berry compote, pistachios and lemon gel. If this was just lunch, we marvelled at what a Toqué dinner might be like.

Sandra’s favourite dish at Toqué. Stuffed morel mushrooms

Happily, we did get a chance to enjoy a Montreal dinner planned by a Michelin-starred chef. Jérôme Ferrer was born in France and combines French culinary traditions with Quebec terroir at his popular restaurant, Les Givrés d’Europea. We managed to snag a 5pm sitting for the six course tasting menu ($115). It not only included some remarkedly good traditional dishes (Arctic char, New Brunswick oysters, Quebec lamb shoulder, flambeed veal filet) but had a quirky side that we loved. We’d never had an amuse bouche of frosty eggnog with smoked corn or fried frogs legs diving into a sauce or blue cheese fritters served in a shoe! The biggest surprise was a fluffy cloud of maple flavored cotton candy at the end of the meal. A touch of whimsy that made us laugh out loud.

To round out our short culinary tour of Old Montreal we walked ten minutes from the Sonolux hotel to Marcella, an Italian restaurant popular with locals.

Marcella Italian restaurant in Old Montreal

It was busy and noisy but featured authentic regional cuisine. The tuna crudo was particularly impressive. It included basil oil, roasted sesame and lemon mayonnaise, fried capers, lemon, and lime zest with pistachio crumble. The deep fried calamari was hot, tender and tasty while the tortellini alla ricotta (with homemade sausage and smoked caciocavallo cheese) made us feel very Italian.

Outstanding tuna crudo at Marcella

As we were departing Montreal after our too-short three day visit, we thought of the message that the Sonolux creator, Daniel Gallant, left with us. “Through discovery”, he said, “we hope people will leave this hotel differently from when they arrived.” We felt exactly that, not only about the hotel but about our complete Montreal culinary adventure.

Photo Credits

All photos by Sandra and John Nowlan – All Rights Reserved

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