Montreal Metblogs » Zura

Dawson design show

Zura — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:24:38 +0000

The interior design school of Dawson College is having their annual vernissage of the final masterpieces of this year’s graduates. Appropriately hosted in the resplendent lobby of a building designed by Mies van der Rohe himself, this is a great event for the graduates to get exposure and for the public to get a good look at what three intense years of design school can produce.

Where: 1 Westmount Square, in the lobby (metro Atwater)
When: Thursday, May 28, 5:30pm – 9:00pm *
Complimentary food & drink: yes!

Check out the Facebook invite.

* The vernissage is this evening, but the projects will be left up for the public to see all day on Friday and Saturday.

Little City Gems 5: Jewels of St. Henri

Zura — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:49:23 +0000

I took a walk into St. Henri the other day westward along Notre Dame, admiring the lovely and impressive Carré George-Étienne Cartier (which looks like a larger, grander Carré St-Louis), and was pleasantly pleased to spot a few curious and worthwhile establishments. All in the vicinity of Metro St-Henri, here are my little finds:

Ambaa Yoga
A great little yoga studio with a nice relaxed vibe that teaches classes of mediation, pilates and yoga in several styles, including ones for kids, which seems to be an additional specialty of theirs.

Recessionary note: They have a community drop-in class on Friday evenings which costs a very affordable donation of $5, taught by a featured teacher of the week.

4660 Notre Dame O.
(corner of De Courcelle)
514.996.3620

Perfide
A curious little boutique that caught my eye, full of neat and cheeky clothing designs, jewellery, accessories, books and other fun knick-knackery. Definitely worth a browse.

4217 Notre-Dame O.
514.509.0731

La Gaillarde
I walked into this shop with its deceptively non-descript store front to find a treasure trove of fripperie, and many of the local as well as local-eco designer wear and accessories we already know and love.

Recessionary note: Sundays are 2-for-1 days in the basement fripperie section.

4019 Notre-Dame O.
514.989.5134

Le Caffe Mariani (read the review)
What a great find! Facing a lovely church and an interestingly designed last-century caisse-pop building I happily stepped into this cafe. The decor is lovely and unpretentious as are the staff. I enjoyed my cafe au lait and choco-cranberry-banana bread and the general ambience of the place. I made a mental note to come back with a book and be ready to spend an afternoon eating an affordable and delicious lunch made with excellent and possibly organic ingredients. They also sell locally made fancy soaps and not-so-local olive oils and the like. Judging from the number of laptops I saw, I suspect they must have wi-fi as well.

4450 Notre Dame St. West
514-504-7458

Enjoy.

Little City Gems: 4

Zura — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:24:51 +0000

Suite à my last post, not to worry, the beauty of our good little city is when one thing closes, usually something else interesting will eventually spring up in its place. I came across a place over a year ago called Volver: Café Culturel. Situated in a demi sous-sol on the west side of Parc between St. Viateur and Bernard streets, this rather expansive cafe of Argentinian bent is not only home to local musical events, book launches, cultural and linguistic workshops and art vernissages, they also have a great little menu at surprisingly affordable prices. Served by one of the friendly owners I had a plate of fresh and substantial empanadas (definitely under $10 and they were good portions) and a glass of decent Argentianian red ($6-$7 for a vintage that’s usually $10 elsewhere). I had likely just seen Almodovar’s “Volver” and was thusly attracted to the passionately red sign of the cafe and anything remotely spanish-ish. Well it worked. :)

Volver Café Culturel
5604 avenue du Parc
Tel: 514.272.4419

Little City Gems 3: Ode to Bygones

Zura — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:16:13 +0000

A few of my favourite little shops in town (all on St. Denis street, actually) have sadly closed their doors in recent years and months and this is my ode to them.

A Japanese-style tea-house that closed a couple of years ago was O-Chai which had one location on St. Denis just above Mont-Royal and later on just below Laurier. They had a cute and cozy décor and served wonderful teas (including my favourite green matcha latté) and delicious little snacks that came in the form of samosas, sushi, noodles, scones and personal dimsum in bamboo containers, all for bargain prices. It was a perfect place to relax on a quiet Sunday afternoon, and read a good book. (Their sub-Laurier location has since been taken over by Les 3 Petits Bouchons, which is a thankfully yummy resto I would definitely recommend.)

It’s been at least a year, but I’m still getting over the closing of the Japanesey home decor, gift, paper and tea shop Carton which came to an end when the owners decided not to renew their lease and that twenty-five years was a good enough run. They were done and it was time to move onto the next part of their life adventures, whatever they were.

Madras, on the west side of St. Denis street near Duluth sold great items of clothing, run by a French man who always sported a casual and unimpressed ennui. It used to be a mix of frippe and local and NYC designer clothing shop, and gradually the fripperie section became smaller and the local designer section grew larger. They had sales often enough and I always found such neat little pieces most every time I went, all of which I still wear.

Feu Vert, to my dismay, also on St. Denis but on the east side just above Marie-Anne greeted me recently with papered up windows when I was hunting for a new year’s eve dress this past season. Deceptively kitschy looking, this tiny shop packed full of sequined, scarfy, beaded things, and dresses, tops and bottoms and accessories of all colours and textures was run by an even tinier tough-as-nails Argentinian woman. She would look down at you (somehow, from her height of under 5′) over her glasses on a chain and let her irritation flare when you chose the “wrong” style of clothing for yourself. She would never let you try on anything that was not exactly right for you and had no qualms about making realistic comments about your weight or shape. Thick skins were necessary in her shop, but boy did you ever walk out with a fantastic properly accessorized outfit at a well-bargained price.

I will miss them all dearly.

Little City Gems: 2

Zura — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:57:44 +0000

Every first Sunday of the month, the people of ¿Que Pasa Montreal? get their Andalucía on at La Place à Coté. Admission costs $10 and the drinks are rather inexpensive at this grungy little venue of great character. In true Peña Flamenca form, you get to experience an improvised evening of some of the best Flamenco music and dance the city has to offer. Get there early to get a good seat!

Next show: Sunday, January 4th, 8pm
La Place à Coté, 4571 Papineau (corner Mont-Royal)
T: 514.522.4571

Enjoy. :)

Little City Gems: 1

Zura — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:48:40 +0000

Now may be the winter of our recession, but I am on a gentle quest these days to find new and unique activities about Montreal that are equally gentle on the wallet as well as a nice change from watching whatever on TV at home.

Last night’s activity took place at The Yellow Door at 3625 Aylmer, just below Pine. A scant two hours of poetry, prose and spoken word readings in an intimate space by fresh and established (multi-lingual) writers, and there was even a moving a capella quartet. All for the sum of $5. I left feeling rather fulfilled and inspired to start a series of blog posts of neat things about the city.

For more information on poetry readings in the city, visit the following links:

http://www.yellowdoor.org/
http://www.nochesdepoesia.com/

See The Light with Simon’s

Zura — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:29:00 +0000

Heads up for an upcoming event this weekend called “I See The Light” in promotion of a new cd compilation and limited edition t-shirt collection with local artists, also featuring live DJ’s and painting. It’s free and sounds like fun.

The details:
When: Saturday, August 30th, from 12-5 pm
Where: Simon’s downtown store, 977 Ste-Catherine W.

Download the PDF press kit here

Frosh Alert

Zura — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Walking along Sherbrooke around Parc yesterday evening, my senses were suddenly assaulted by crowds of youths in ill-fitting, white tank tops markered up with cheeky smut. They shrieked excitedly, chanted cute obscenities in unison and carried placards as they marched giddily through the streets.

Yup, watch out, Frosh has been turned loose on the town.

Roller Derby Dirty

Zura — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:54:15 +0000

When a friend of mine called me up to invite me to go to an all-girls roller derby final championship game at a convenient plateau arena where cheap beer and raging girls with attitude on rollerblades were to be featured, it sounded too ridiculous to say no.

Indeed, we lined up yesterday evening at the St. Louis arena on St. Dominique just north of St. Viateur, paid our $12 entrance fee, paid for our 2 for $5 beers (or $3 for one, but who only gets one?) and made our way down into the hockey area. Having the foresight to bring pillows, we settled down in prime parterre seating (at your own peril) and cracked open our first cans of a truly horrible-but-good American brew “Pabst” and the Roller Derby championships between the two Montreal teams La Racaille and Les Contrabanditas began. Hosted by the fabulous Plastic Patrick and some other dude, we were quickly launched into screaming, cheering fans as the first half started.

What fun! I highly encourage you to check this sport out. Teams of mouthguard wearing, fishnet sporting women racing around a hockey arena in a violent, jostling, strategic, competitive and action-packed activity, it’s fun for the whole family. (There were a significant amount of kids there, actually). With player names like Wrath Poutine, Ashley Thudd, Iron Wench and Georgia W. Tush, how can you not go?

(Next game happens at Arena St. Louis on August 13, between Montreal’s New Skids on the Block and the Long Island Roller Rebels).

Official site: http://www.mtlrollerderby.com/
An informative Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bubbabrown/sets/72157606154552557/

Dear pedestrian…

Zura — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:02:54 +0000

The new bike path on deMaisonneuve running through downtown is all very well, but there are some surefire hazards. As a véloïste, I’m getting used to the concrete median between road and bike path though I’m not sure it has been the best of ideas. Let me tell you, it’s absolutely horrible when it comes to pedestrians. Pedestrians downtown still need to learn that they cannot loiter in the bike path oblivious to bike traffic, with their backs to oncoming speeding cyclists. Also, they need to learn that they cannot take up the entire width of the path by using it as a sidewalk. They need to learn faster. I have nearly sliced pedestrians in two with my bicycle several times this season, giving myself and hopefully the pedestrian a proper heart attack. It is rare when cars are less hazardous to cyclists than pedestrians, but that is the case in this city right now, especially where the bike path is newest. All I can say is that they are darned lucky I tuned up my brakes this year.