The Bulletin: A vinyl Saturday's heavy rotations & where cherry blossoms bloom [Issue #74]

The Bulletin is a collection of what's happened, what’s happening, and what’s to come in and around Montreal.

The Main

The Main

April 25, 2024- Read time: 9 min
The Bulletin: A vinyl Saturday's heavy rotations & where cherry blossoms bloom [Issue #74]Photograph: © Laura Gérard / @thediamondsoflife

With each passing week comes another moment of renewal, a slow creep of refreshment. Cherry blossoms and magnolias are in bloom, we've got bluer skies, and things are ever so slightly starting to pick up everywhere you look.

It's a beautiful time right now. We're all making plans for terrasses and parks, arguing in group chats over who's going to be crossing town because "I've got the perfect spot", checking out all the places that've opened in the last four months and change, and generally taking time for one another. We've no longer the old excuse of weather to keep us in, and got every other excuse to get out and soak in some sun.

Breathe it in and enjoy it this weekend, Montreal. We've fairer skies and seasonal showers, but things are undoubtedly starting to look up—if we can be called one of the best places to be in the world at this time of year, you'd best be enjoying it too.

Get some suggestions by reading on.


upload in progress, 0

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

Thursday

  • One of North America's largest multi-lingual literary events featuring over 200 activities in more than 10 languages ​​each year, Blue Metropolis, has returned.
  • Darren Emerson's In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats at the Phi Centre is coming to a close, an interactive documentary virtual reality adventure that takes audiences back to the heyday of the UK’s illegal Acid House rave scene of the late 1980’s.

Friday

  • Cabaret Berlin's NUIT ELECTRO events return for its fifth edition, the only lesbian-queer party in Montreal dedicated 100% to electro, dark disco, and techno music.
  • Local musical creatives Collectif Radiance are bringing their mini orchestra to Sala Rossa.

(A Very Vinyl) Saturday

Sunday

  • Released 45 years ago following his Cannes prize-winning début The Duelist, Ridley Scott's Alien is going to be screened at Concordia's J.A. DèSeve Cinema.
  • Graduates of the École nationale du meuble et de l'ébénisterie de Montréal are holding an end-of-year exhibition.
  • Andō Hiroshige's revolutionary woodblock prints of landscapes, the “Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō”, joins the MMFA's collection.
  • The Scottish indie pop band Belle & Sebastien are playing MTELUS.

Love Montreal? Support our content!

You like The Main, right? Of course you do. So why not get exclusive access to dispatches from your favourite city by subscribing as a paid supporter?

You'll not only get complete access to everything we have to offer whenever you want it, but you'll also receive:

  • Early access to exclusive features and content
  • Special invites
  • A 10% discount on everything in our store
  • Being able to impress people by knowing more about Montreal than they do
  • Good vibes

Your brunch destination this weekend? Piel Canela, specializing in Latin American cuisine with twists on a midday weekend traditions. | Photograph: Courtesy Piel Canela

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.

Here's the tea ☕

Brunch destinations Régine Café and Janine Café have continually seen line-ups, so that bodes well for this new place from their team: English tea room services twisted into a Montreal image with Paparmane, an Old Montreal destination in the making. (The Main)

Paparmane: Dreamy tea time is served by Montreal brunch royalty
Here’s the tea: The minds behind brunch destinations Régine Café and Janine Café turn their attention to English tea room services twisted in their own Montreal image.

Let's go to the Dep

As a locally-focused cultural magazine, we're working with the people who help enrich our city's identity by showing us just how beautiful and creative it is.

That's why we created the Dépanneur, where you can support locals, keep cash in the community, and connect with the people who are creating amazing things (every purchase also helps to support our editorial content, too).

Right now, you can subscribe to our coffee program collaboration with Dreamy Café that's fueled by freshly-roasted Montreal brands, and shipped straight to your door every month. And if you're subscribed to The Main? You get 10% off!


upload in progress, 0

Here, you'll find a weekly round-up of the latest local news, from entertainment to current affairs and more.

Our city of outdoor stairs

While the Quebec metropolis is among the coldest major cities on the continent, its urban fabric is characterized by romantic swoops, stoops and spirals of innumerable stairs, prompting one architecture firm to use that as inspiration. (Azure Magazine)

Why Exterior Stairs (Still) Shape Montreal’s Urban Fabric
MSDL Architects translate Montreal’s vernacular of spiral stairs into a high-rise context for the 21st century.

911 chokepoints

Montreal and Laval’s ambulances are routinely relying on paramedics from off island to come to their aid. As data released via an Access to Information request by The Last Ambulance indicates, Urgences-santé has been in operational crisis mode almost every day since the beginning of 2024. (The Rover)

An Impossible Scenario – The Rover
Ambulances in Montreal and Laval are so short staffed that they routinely rely on paramedics from off island to come to their aid.

If we had a nickel every time this came up

The majority of Montreal merchants still greet their customers in French only, but fewer and fewer are doing so, while "Bonjour-Hi" has been on the rise in recent years. (CTV News)

French-only greetings drop in Montreal as ‘bonjour, hi’ gains popularity
Most Montreal merchants greet their customers in French only, but that could soon change as “bonjour, hi” becomes more popular.

Beware the buzz, trespasser

Drones have been patrolling the REM tunnels under construction since a young thrill seeker entered one of them last summer, so here's where you can watch some of their sick flight footage. (La Presse)

The intruders set off fireworks and sparklers

Tip my hat to you, sir

While reporters like Bill Brownstein have had to report of late on the closing of far too many city institutions after decades of business, “it does the heart good knowing that Henri Henri is the oldest and largest hat store in Canada, celebrating its 92nd birthday this month.” (Montreal Gazette)

At Canada’s oldest hat shop, ‘every hat tells a story’
Henri Henri, a Montreal institution on Ste-Catherine St., is celebrating its 92nd anniversary. Hats off to that.

It'll be the bee's knees

The ninth floor of the Montreal Eaton Centre may have been frozen in time after it was shuttered in 1999, but this year it's being plunged back to 1931, revived to its former glory. Even we got to see a sneak peek. (CBC Montreal)

A first look at the restored art deco 9th floor of the Montreal Eaton Centre | CBC News
Unveiled in 1931 then shuttered in 1999, the ninth floor of the Eaton Centre was a destination where people of all walks of life would dress to the nines to dine. It was hidden away for 25 years and is being revived as a restaurant, bar and event space next month.

Germs: A heritage minute

The fossilized bacterial DNA in the soil where the Ville-Marie fort was built in 1642 is helping reveal certain activities practiced by the first French people who settled in Montreal. (Le Devoir)

Des bactéries révèlent le passé de Montréal
Un examen microbiologique du site fondateur de la ville révèle les activités pratiquées par les premiers Français.

Wish you were there

It was an emotional afternoon last Saturday watching Montreal vs. Toronto in a crowd of 21,105 at hockey’s biggest venue, witnessing just how far the women’s game has come. (Cult MTL)

The magic moment when the PWHL broke the ultimate women’s hockey attendance record in Montreal
The Montreal vs. Toronto PWHL game at the Bell Centre on Saturday broke the attendance record for women’s hockey with a crowd of 21,105.

Goodbye to those stinky grocery store deposit machines

Montreal finally has its long-awaited Consignaction centre: You press the green button, dump the cans and bottles into the machine and hit the red button, which automatically sort the containers and spit out a receipt for your refund. (CBC Montreal)

Montreal gets first Consignaction centre as part of Quebec’s new container deposit system | CBC News
After a long wait, Quebec has opened its first two centres as part of a plan to make recycling bottles and cans easier. Consignaction plans to open 200 more locations across the province by 2025.

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.

    We use cookies on our site.