The Bulletin: Limited Edition Donuts, the Laotian & Cambodian New Year, and Axe Throwing With Syrup [Issue #176]

One more thing: We're helping collect answers to the question "Dear Montreal, I fell in love with you because…" as part of an upcoming visual piece we're working on with designer Tatiana Rusconi. Share your response here if you want to be a part of it.

Live long and propser. 🖖

— JP Karwacki, Managing Editor

A Spring Beer Crawl, All Under One Roof

Spring is here, we’re thirsty, and WILLS has the answer: Good people, and even better beer.

This Saturday, 17 breweries—including Mellön, Isle de Garde, Dieu du Ciel,, Messorem, Loup Garou, and a dozen more—take over the Mile-Ex community hub for an afternoon of local and regional drafts poured straight from the tap. Snacks by Mama Vu.

Saturday, April 11 · From 2 p.m. · 6729 ave de l'Esplanade

One Story to Read This Week

Emmanuel Hébert dropped out of high school, sold mixtapes at 14, resold clothing out of a Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham at 16, and eventually ran a rustproofing empire. Then he decided he was bored and walked away from all of it. A trip to India did the rest.

Now he lives and works inside a 6,500-square-foot Colonial-style mansion in Châteauguay, where almost everything you see—the marble fireplace from the Basque Country, the stuffed peacocks, the 17-foot sacristy cabinet salvaged from a desacralized church—is for sale.

This week's story is a portrait of what happens when obsession finds its form.

Activities, parties, points of interest, art exhibitions, you name it: These are the weekend events you don't want to miss.

Thursday

🎤 Yolk Literary celebrates its 6th anniversary as it takes over Parquette with live music, pop-up poetry, dancing, and the journal's first art exhibition since 2021—six years after a hundred people braved a blizzard for its inaugural night in Hochelaga.

📷 Le Jeu vernissage opens Antoine Lussier's photographic exploration of bodies, gazes, and intimacy at Mes Pants de Queer, experimenting with fragmentation and distortion to get at what we feel when we look at each other. BYOB.

Friday

🎨 Plural Art Fair brings 45+ Canadian galleries to the Grand Quay of the Port of Montreal for a three-day showcase of contemporary works spanning emerging and established names.

🎤 Just For Laughs Showcase: Thursday Stand-Up? Cool! brings nine comics— including Ben Stager, Mike Carrozza, and Eve Parker Finley—to Théâtre Sainte-Catherine for a night of sets performed in front of JFL bookers.

🤡 It sounds silly, but it ain't: The Montreal Clown Festival stretches across seven venues and nine shows, with cabarets, workshops, and international performers exploring joy as an act of resistance.

Saturday

🎉 Sabay Sabay celebrates the Laotian and Cambodian New Year with a Khmer-Lao pop-up menu from Super Boat People and Sep Lai, a papaya salad competition, comedy, and the launch of a new lemongrass-galangal ale brewed with Sans Taverne.

🍁 Complètement Sucres takes over Parc Morgan in Hochelaga with $3 maple bites from nine neighbourhood restaurants, free tire d'érable, axe throwing, and a log-sawing competition. Proceeds go to local community organizations.

🎧 OCTOV x T.I.T.S. Collective takes over the SAT for one night, with ANNĒ, Daria Kolosova, and SPFDJ moving between the Satosphère dome and Espace SAT from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

🛍️ Marché Atypique fills a Longueuil venue with 45+ Quebec artisans covering handmade jewellery, taxidermy, witchy and dark art, ceramics, plants, and clothing. Free entry, free parking.

🎬 Vues d'Afrique International Film Festival comes to a close: 40-plus years of African and Creole cinema to the Cinémathèque québécoise for screenings, artist discussions, and a competitive Canadian shorts section.

Sunday

🎧 Habitat Sonore: Spring Awakening pairs two immersive sound works at PHI—Sika Valmé's Haitian Creole-rooted Konesans and El Mehdi's Maghrebi-influenced SALAM—in an intimate listening room built for up to 10 people at a time.

📖 Spring Reading at Polari brings together six writers—Pamela Beyer, Maya Stewart Pathak, Jake Valente, Chloe Latour, Savannah Dalcourt, and Marie Ségolène C Brault—for an afternoon of words to ease into the season.

📸 Gabor Szilasi at McGill Rare Books and Special Collections puts the Hungarian-Canadian photographer's panoramic silver gelatin work on display.

WHAT TO EAT & DRINK IN AND AROUND MONTREAL

Scope the latest restaurant openings, recommendations on where to eat, plus new menus, old classics, and everything in between.

Neotokyo Nakagin, the Mile End izakaya from the Neotokyo team, is opening within the month—with a Japanese mini mart to follow by end of summer.

Restaurant Limbo pops up at Beigne Habitude on April 11 with four special flavours available from noon until they're gone.

Sun Ramen teams up with Chef Sonya Sammut for a one-night pop-up at Lawrence on April 11—a five-course spring tasting menu with Asian flavours woven throughout, wine pairing by Jérôme Beloeil, and two seatings.

Bisou Bisou Open Kitchen returns for Supper Club Vol. 2 on April 11, with chefs Kim and Laura (formerly of Tendresse) and pastry hand Will serving seasonal bites and intentional desserts highlighting Quebec produce: No reservations, from 5 p.m. until late.

WILLS hosts Soif de Printemps on April 11 with 17 breweries pouring local and regional drafts, presented alongside Mellon Brasserie and Isle de Garde. Snacks by Mama Vu. From 2 p.m., tickets via their bio.

Café Miracolo hosts a Italo-Mexican collaboration dinner on April 13 with guest chef Alejandro Ramirez Huerta for a special à la carte menu.

Le Kikid x Buboy pop-up brings together chefs Eric Lazaro, Julien Yvan, and Rining Clément for a $65 set menu at Buboy's Saint-Urbain spot on April 13. Two seatings at 5 and 8 p.m.

Cariño pops up at Buboy on April 16 with a tapas counter-style soirée in Chinatown—Spanish small plates, no reservations, no fixed menu, from 5 p.m. until sold out.

Candide welcomes Domaine de l'Espiègle for a winemaker dinner on April 16, opening bottles from 2020 onwards that they've been saving for exactly this occasion. Spring menu at $88, wine pairing at $66.

Disco Mayo turns one on April 18 with a No Frills-themed party: $3.99 hot dogs, micheladas, margaritas, and free Kirkland cake from 1 to 7 p.m.

Copilote and L'Hélicoptère host a winemaker dinner with Ferran Lacruz of Bodega Clandestina on April 23—four courses built around four of his Penedès xarel·lo cuvées, far removed from anything cava-adjacent.

The annual St. George's Day double-decker pub bus tour takes place on April 26, hitting Bishop & Bagg, Brit & Chips, and Burgundy Lion. Departs at 9 a.m., food and drinks included.

Lawrence hosts its 10th annual benefit dinner for the Mission Communautaire Mile-End on April 27, with Marc Cohen joined by Danny Smiles (Le Violon) and Dmetro Sinclair (Nora Gray) for a collaborative supper.

Here, you'll find a weekly round-up of our stories from the past week, plus the latest local news.

If you haven't yet fallen down the rabbit hole of why the internet's in love with Angine de Poitrine—Quebec's favourite masked, polka-dotted, microtonal duo from Saguenay—now's the time. Read more.

Long live the dep! Our city's cornerstore institution has a surprisingly specific origin story surrounding one law, one Rosemont grocer, and a sign that went up in 1970 that changed Montreal forever. Read more.

The best bars in Montreal obsess over lighting, acoustics, and the feeling of a room long before anyone thinks about the cocktail list. Elle Magni talks to the designers building spaces you never want to leave. Read more.

A Hochelaga dep, a lottery jackpot, and a Sino-Cambodian family who turned a corner store into a life — Angelina Guo's book tells her parents' story, and it's worth your time. Read more.

Breakglass Studios has launched its own record label. 20 years after recording Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, and Kaytranada, the Montreal institution debuts Breakglass Records with a thirteen-artist roster and a notably artist-friendly model. Read more.

Is this what the Plateau's been missing? Prince Pub opens at the corner of Prince-Arthur and Saint-Laurent with a kitchen open until 1 a.m., a daily 5 à 7, and pub classics done properly by executive chef Pierre Morneau. Read more.

Dragon Flowers has a new address after 40 years on Bernard. Tamey Lau's beloved Mile End flower shop has moved, and everything that made it a neighbourhood institution is coming with her. Read more.

Sucré bleu! A Quebec maple syrup producer has been caught selling fake syrup, cut with at least 50% cane sugar, sold in hundreds of grocery stores across the province. Read more.

Montreal was right to walk away from the FIFA World Cup. Radio-Canada's Enquête reveals the deal would have blocked the Jazz Festival, the Grand Prix, and major events at the Olympic Stadium for months, while Toronto and Vancouver are now on the hook for hundreds of millions in cost overruns. Read more.

Montreal-born Willo Perron just been named Designer of the Year by Wallpaper*, the man behind Rihanna's Super Bowl stage, Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour, and Chanel's Grand Palais runway shows started out making flyers for concerts in 1990s Montreal. Read more.

The Notman House on Sherbrooke Ouest has a new owner and a new mission: the Trottier family has acquired the 1844 heritage property and is transforming it into a philanthropic hub, with a $6-million ecological restoration underway. Read more.

Survivor Québec has quietly built one of the tightest reality TV communities in the country. When Season 50 of the American version came to Montreal for a watch party, the line between players and fans dissolved entirely. Read more.

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And that wraps yet another weekly bulletin. We’ll be back with more curiosities, local stories, and events to discover next week.

If ever you catch something we should know, don't hesitate to reach out to us on Instagram.

👋 Masthead: Philip Tabah, Founder & Head of Creative / Daniel Bromberg, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief / Jean-Philippe Lauzon, Co-Founder & Head of Tech / JP Karwacki, Managing Editor / Whitney Domingo, Community Manager / Samuel Vadnais, Head of Partnerships / Anahi Pellathy, Editorial & Production Coordinator