Wünderbar: Montreal's first German beer hall in 30 years

"I think of my establishments as movie sets," Anthoni Jodoin says when asked about where Wünderbar fits into his oeuvre of bar creation.

Having built out worlds like the tiki maximalism of Snowbird Tiki Bar and the Tarantino-in-Texas hub of Spaghetti Western, it's no stretch of the imagination to say Jodoin's bars the way most people approach fantasy: there’s little room for subtlety.

"If a set director needs to have a German beer hall for a movie set, then I'm going to design the best goddamn authentic-looking German beer hall. When they come in, it doesn't matter if they're in Montreal or not—they can pretend they're in Germany for a couple scenes."

His latest project is among his most ambitious set pieces yet: a 3,500-square-foot Bavarian beer hall, the first since 1995, the year Le Vieux Munich closed its doors after a 26-year run, taking with it the last proper German beer hall in the province. For three decades, Montreal's had Irish pubs on every corner, cocktail bars, and microbreweries, but was lacking a destination with communal tables stretching the length of the room, imported German beer, and an atmosphere inspired by Munich's Oktoberfest grounds.