Shopping
The polar bear stretching in the window of Galerie Elca London drew my eye to this below ground level store at 1196 Sherbrooke Street West. The gallery specializes in Inuit art, the art of the native peoples who live in Canada’s north. The stone and ivory sculptures seem to wriggle with vitality.
Walk into a treasure house of Japanese and Chinese furniture at Tansu at 1475 Stanley.
Asiatica at 310 Sherbrooke W sells blooming tea. When dropped into a glass teapot filled with hot water, a round cake of tea opens up to appear as flowers in bloom. Tastes nice, too. The shop also sells Chinese-themed furniture and decorative pieces.
My eyes were drawn to blocks of what looked like yellowy, brittle cakes of tofu at Seho Perles d’Afrique at 4007 St-Laurent. Turned out it was karite, the name for shea butter from Africa. The saleswoman tried to interest Iggy in it. With his brittle finger skin, he should have been interested, but no luck. By now I know better than to push moisturizers on him. We also enjoyed looking at clothing and musical instruments at the African import story.
The simply cut, solid-colored t-shirts, tops and other garments at the American Apparel store at 3523 St. Laurent attracted me. As a bicyclist, I zoomed in on the neon colors for good visibility. A clerk showed me how I could tone down a pink tank top by turning it inside out to display a tamer pink with neon accents around the neck and arm holes. I’d never seen this chain store before, but I plan to visit it again.
Restaurants & bars
A dozen or so briskets were arranged randomly in the window of Schwartz’s deli, almost as if they lay where they’d been tossed. The restaurant delivered on its promise of tasty smoked meat sandwich served without any attempt at ambience.
Chez la Mere Michel wins for French food delivered in a rustic atmosphere. In business since 1965 at1209 rue Guy. We’d pick it over Le Mas des Oliviers, which is apparently known as a politicos’ haunt. However, LMO’s onion soup was sublime, not at all salty, despite what the Montreal Gazette review said.
We liked Reservoir at 9 rue Duluth for its locally brewed beers.
Chokolantara.