Montreal's most popular pizzerias over the past decade have taken a page from the world's top pizza cities. You’ve got places like Adamo and Pizza Toni doing New York-style pies, the airy crust and crispy-cheesy edges of Detroit-style squares at Hang Time and Brigade, Roman al taglio squares at San Gennaro or Segreta, classic Neapolitan-style pizza from new names like Magpie, Elena, Gema, and the local giant Pizzéria NO.900 that are joining famous old-school spots like Fiorellino, or Bottega. We don’t have a deep dish that’ll satisfy an ex-Chicagoan (yet), but we’re bound to get one soon enough. The one place missing from this list? Montreal.
Popping a frozen blueberry waffle into the toaster and slathering it in maple syrup is an ordinary start to a beautiful day unless those aren't blueberries, and are instead patches of blue-green mould.
The La Ronde amusement park has occupied the northern third of Île Sainte-Hélène since, well, the very creation of the island in its current form. From Montreal Island, it appears like a gleaming tangle of metal towers pumping out the foul perfume of fried dough, warm ketchup and hot dog water. But a recent Reddit post by history and architecture blogger Martin Bérubé (Propos Montréal) challenges Montrealers to reimagine the asphalt expanse, asking "if La Ronde were to close, what would you like to see in this space" instead? The post attracted over 400 comments, many offering tantalizing alternatives, from a new signature park to a cat sanctuary.
It's safe to say Montreal has got being cool down to a science. City dwellers across the world might try hard to concoct their own formulas for "cool," but few can compete with Montreal's distinct and buzzy style chemistry. To any average visitor, that effervescent charm and sophistication can seem like some intimidating magic. A post by Reddit user and U.S. resident u/010kindsofpeople dared to ask why.
A provocative message greeted drivers entering Montreal one morning in early December. A handful of people took to the corner of avenue de Lorimier and rue Ontario with a large banner that read, "French is dead. Welcome to MTL." The display was an apparent warning about the state of French on Montreal Island, where, census data shows, the proportion of people for whom French is the first official language spoken fell to 58.4% between 2016 and 2021.