Since most people access Quebec through Montreal, it’s worth a beer visit all its own. It is a great beer city that Stephen Beaumont and Don Tse have covered in this very magazine in recent years. My dream day drinking and eating in Montreal would include a great meal upstairs at L’Amere a Boire, with excellent burgers and some of the best lagers this side of the Czech Republic—pretty unusual for this ale-besotted town. In the heart of the restaurant and hotel district, the pub is on Rue St. Denis, a very hip and vibrant street. A short commute of three subway stops from the Berri-UQAM to the Laurier metro station and about a ten minute walk takes me to Dieu du Ciel!. Don’t let the tiny size of this brewpub fool you, the number of taps is immense and the quality of beers is outrageous.
There are many good beer stores in Montreal, but handily, for convenience sake, less than two blocks up the street from Dieu du Ciel! there is a corner store, Dépanneur Rahman, with a very solid representation of artisan Quebecois breweries and their products for those who want to bring a little Quebec beer home. Back to downtown for dinner, where it’s hard to choose between the many restaurants. But it may be appropriate to have the eponymous Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich at Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. Now how to fit in Notre Dame Cathedral, Place D’Armes, Parc Mont Royal, Olympic Stadium…