Le Bulletin : 70e anniversaire des hamburgers, l'avant-garde, le yoga du solstice et un film si vous aimez les Piña Coladas [Numéro #186]

Morning, Montreal.

What a week! Time flies, as they say, when you’re busy: We’ve run stories this week that have a wild and fascinating range to them, from the city’s only specialized harpsichord makers and a history of Angine de Poitrine’s spiritual experimental rock granddaddies of to a potential groundbreaking solution to the hospitality’s hiring humdrum.

Let’s not forget that our resident film critic contributor Gianni Fiasche is back in the saddle with a double feature of reviews: Spielberg’s Disclosure Day (and why it’s OK-but-not-great) and a look at the box office breakout shocker Backrooms that isn’t muddled by the Gen Z hype surrounding it.

Lots to read, lots to do.

One final note: Readers who have been with us since early 2025 and beyond may remember our Block Party. We had a lot of fun, but now, we've got something even bigger planned for this summer.

You're hearing it here first: mark your calendars for August 8.

More details are coming soon (and paid subscribers will be first in line for it, wink wink nudge nudge).

— JP Karwacki, Managing Editor

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PHI

Two Shows to See: One About Lies, One About Vanishing Worlds

Paola Pivi, *Lies*, 2018. 92 televisions, steel, acrylic, audio, 378.5 × 602 × 486.4 cm. Installation view, *Art with a view*, The Bass, Miami Beach, USA, 2018. | Photograph: Attilio Maranzano / Courtesy Paola Pivi and Perrotin

Paola Pivi's show takes familiar symbols (the Statue of Liberty, the polar bear) and quietly pulls apart what we've decided they mean. It's a show about truth and the way images get co-opted, and enough irony that it doesn’t feel like a lecture.
Jakob Kudsk Steensen has spent years travelling to disappearing places, from glaciers and forests to volcanic seafloors, documenting them and rebuilding them as immersive virtual worlds experienced through video and VR. Otherworlds is the largest presentation of his work to date, and his first solo show in Canada.

One ticket covers both. PHI+ members get in free all season.

Get tickets.

The Editors' Picks

The places our editors keep coming back to. Every one has earned an editorial badge.

One Story to Read This Week

“I’d hear stories about the Wheel Club from both sixty-year-old pubgoers in the area and my thirty-year-old friends from music school. Once I walked into its dark basement… I quickly understood that these were more than stories.” | Photograph: Chris MacArthur / @chrismacarthur

The Wheel Club sits below street level on Cavendish in NDG, wedged between a karate studio and a daycare. It started as a veterans' social club after the Second World War.

It's home to the oldest open mic in Montreal, a weekly country night where no electric instruments are allowed and nothing written after 1969 is permitted on stage. Today, it is currently stewarded into a renewed status as a destination performance venue by Cliff Schwartz. He calls himself a custodian, not a director, and the club, he'll tell you, now has a life of its own.

This week's read is about what it takes to keep a place like this alive, and why the people who find it tend to stick around.

Read the full story

Thursday

🎶 Aire Commune presents Carnaval for a night of Afro beats, reggaeton, and baile funk.

☀️ Dance to house, dub, and jungle beats under the sun at SUNSAT.

🏞️ Stop by Festival sur le Canal for food, products by local artisans, and free live music.

🏜️ Line dance, present a friend, and meet new people at Rodéo Social, a western themed socializing night.

🎧 Explore a range of shows and DJ sets as part of the Après-Party des Francos.

Friday

🎸 Catch a live performance at Suoni Per Il Popolo, a community-based avant-garde music festival with shows around the city.

🌟 Experience an evening of music, magic, and burlesque at Cabaret Caf’Conc’, hosted by Sasha Baga.

🥂 Raise a glass to Alan Hustak, one of Montreal's most colourful journalists and boulevardiers, at a gathering of friends, misfits, and untold stories at Chez Alexandre on Peel at 5 p.m., upstairs.

🏅 The MEM is displaying a collection of objects and souvenirs for the 50th anniversary of the Montreal Olympic Games.

⚽ Watch the Haiti vs Brazil soccer match on the big screen.

Saturday

🌲 Ferias plays a party at the top of a tower in the middle of a forest. Info and tickets here.

🎤 Les Francos de Montréal, the city’s French-language music festival, concludes today in the Quartier des Spectacles.

🎥 Attend the Montreal premiere of The Donn of Tiki, followed by a Q&A with the directors and an afterparty.

📚 The Foire des livres de gauche returns for its second edition. Enjoy a range of books, zines, poetry, and illustrations promoting progressive ideas.

🌄 Celebrate summer solstice with a morning of yoga and bachata classes in the park.

🍺 Les Sans-Taverne and Building 7 celebrate their 8th anniversary with free food, beer launch, games, music, and karaoke.

🎵 Listen to the tunes of Peninsula Sound and A Sea of Gold and Burgundy at Petit Secret. Secure your tickets here.

🛍️ Stop by Marché Floh’s summer block party for a day filled with DJ sets, food, and vintage clothes and accessories.

📚 The Word is raising $50,000 to restore the facade for their store. Stop by the store for an evening of community with live music to celebrate the last big push towards their goal.

Sunday

🎭 The St-Ambroise Fringe Festival, presenting over 500 artists, comedians, and dancers in and around Plateau-Mont-Royal, wraps up today.

⚽ Watch the Montreal Roses play Calgary Wild at Stade Boréale.

🎻 Discover 17th and 18th century music, dance, and theatre performances with Montreal Baroque Festival.

🤼‍♂️ The next Battlewar wrestling match takes place at Les Foufounes Électriques.

🎥 Cinéma du Musée is having a special screening of the drama film Pointe Noire, followed by a discussion with the director, writers, actors, and editor.

Go Knicks! Also, Knox Taverne is serving up something special for the city all summer long, starting this weekend. | Photograph: @knoxmtl / Instagram

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.

Marché Artisans is having free ice cream tasting on June 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Café Magda has a 4 à 7 on June 18 and every subsequent Thursday for the whole summer.

Onivino and Celliers Starr are having a popup at Le Parloir for a summer wine tasting. June 18 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Get a taste of Mexican street food at Tianguis, a cultural festival and street food market running from June 18 to 21.

The Asian Night Market is back at T&T Supermarket from June 18 to 21, featuring a diverse menu, vendors, and games.

Discover Danish food with a potluck picnic on June 20 at Angrignon park.

Monopole Vin has their 9 year anniversary on June 20. Oysters and spritzes starting at 6 p.m.

Knox Taverne kicks off the start of summer with a collaborative menu on June 20. Fixed menu at $55 per person. Reserve here.

Hoogan et Beaufort hosts a Father’s Day supper on June 21 with lobster from Gaspésie, grilled lamb from Québec, fresh pasta, and wild mushrooms. Reserve here.

Dic Ann’s at Pie-IX is celebrating its 70th anniversary with 70 cent hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and pepsi. Only on June 21.

Coco Disco Club goes to Plongeoir for a night of corn and wine. You choose your butter and toppings, they choose a wine pairing. June 21st.

Seizon pops up at Café Paquebot to showcase their cardamom buns, cinnamon rolls, and a new surprise summer flavor. June 21 starting at 10 a.m. until it sells out.

Stop by Café Sandrino on Father’s Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for pizza from Taste Italy catering.

Street Monkeys turns 9 on June 22 with exclusive dishes by chef Tota Oung and a special on beer and cocktails.

Tacos Frida joins Da Best!, Montreal’s Taco Festival, with their special Tacos El Flaco. Only available for a limited time starting on June 22.

Celebrate St-Jean at Vino Disco bar with wine, hot dogs, and quebecois music all day long. June 24 from 3 to 9 p.m.

Celebrate the opening of Qantu’s new boutique with an afternoon of summer snacks. Sunday, June 28, à la carte menu, no reservations.

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

Angine de Poitrine didn't come from nowhere. The costumes, the invented languages, the performance art chaos… Quebec's been at this for decades, and the people who were there remember all of it. Read more.

Somewhere in the Plateau, a father and son spend six months building one harpsichord at a time by hand. No matter how precise they are, no two ever sound the same. Read more.

The Instagram DM era of hospitality hiring is over, and the app that killed it was built by a Montreal restaurateur. Read more.

Chuck Hughes opened Garde Manger twenty years ago with a bar, a kitchen, and bouncers until 3 a.m. We sat down with him to find out how you run a restaurant that long without turning it into a monument to itself. Read more.

Backrooms is immaculately crafted, suffocatingly atmospheric, and almost completely empty—the most technically assured debut you'll leave with nothing to say about. Read more.

The new Spielberg is sprawling, imperfect, and still worth seeing — mostly because nobody alive does this quite like he does. Read more.

In 1906, four thousand people packed into Parc Sohmer to watch a 42-year-old man who could barely walk defend his title as the strongest in the world. This is how he got there. Read more.

Montreal's record shops know how to curate music better than anyone else, so we asked six of them which Jazz Fest shows they were stoked for. Read more.

200 years of limestone quarries, tramway routes, bridal gowns, and a glass canopy: this is the story of how Plaza St-Hubert became everybody's street and nobody's neighbourhood. Read more.

Cirque du Soleil's new show under the Big Top in the Old Port has 53 artists, a two-storey cube, and something earnest to say about the world. 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 / AnnaClare Sung, Junior Staff Writer / Kristina Stamkopoulos, Editorial Intern