More beer city outtakes from our recently published Beer Traveler.
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal is the second largest city in Canada and also the second largest city of French speakers. Only Paris has more people who speak French. It is also home to nearly twenty breweries within the city limits and several more just outside.
Some of the best include Dieu du Ciel, Le Chaval Blanc and Le Saint-Bock Brasserie. A few others worth your time are Brutopia, any of the four Les 3 Brasseurs or the Benelux Brewpub. If you can get out of town, Unibroue on the Chambly River has a fun tour.
If you’re hungry or looking for a good beer bar, try Fourquet Fourchette, Vices et Versa or Broue Pub Brouhaha. If you want to bring some beer home with you, your best best bet is Depanneur Peluso.
In some ways, Montreal is two cities. There’s an underground city there with tunnels spanning 20 miles connecting 80 percent of the city’s downtown office space and 35 percent of all commercial space. It also connects 60 residential complexes, meaning you could conceivably never go outside, especially during a harsh winter, for weeks at a time, yet still eat and rink beer at some of the finest places in town. Each day, about half a million people use one of the 120 entrances and exits to the underground.
When the weather is nice, Mount Royal is a great place to go. Created by Frederick Law Olmstead, who is most famous for creating NYC’s Central Park, it offers the most amazing views of the city. Nearby is St. Joseph’s Oratory, the largest church in Canada and boasting the biggest dome of any kind after the one in the Vatican.
For other non-beer things to do, there’s the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Olympics Stadium – the site of the 1976 summer games.
If you can choose when to visit Quebec, June is a good time because that’s when Montreal’s best beer festival is held. The Mondial de la Biere lasts five days and includes many special events in addition to the festival itself.