"(The cast and crew of Mile End Kicks) went to Nouveau Système quite a lot. That's actually the first place where we met up as the cast, I believe, and had some hot dogs. It was really fun to be able to show people that didn't know Montreal. And then you realize when you're showing somebody who has no idea how proud you are of it—even things that sometimes appear as maybe boring or typical to you, to them it's like, oh, this is so cool."

"One of my favourite places in Mile End. To me it still holds the identity of what the neighbourhood means. There's this big whiteboard where people just kind of fill in their time slot and you just see people playing. I saw this guy once who had pedals and was just doing feedback loops and kind of playing like this weird noise music in this café. It was great. It was just awesome."

"Pichai was pretty much the favourite spot that I showed to the other actors (of Mile End Kicks). We had a good few meals at Damas as well, on Van Horne, and just getting gnocchi for five bucks at Drogheria Fine… The Mile End had everything that we could hope for."

Damas operates at a scale that feels almost defiant in Montreal: a vast, richly detailed dining room devoted entirely to generosity. Opened by chef Fuad Alnirabie, the restaurant treats Syrian cuisine as both craft and ceremony, built around mezze meant for sharing, bread baked constantly, and charcoal-grilled meats that anchor the meal. The cooking leans bright and aromatic—fattoush heavy on herbs and lemon, hummus crowned with lamb, vegetables treated with the same care as meat. Lamb appears often and confidently, braised, grilled, or folded into larger compositions.

The room hums nightly, fuelled by families, long tables, and a service team that knows how to pace abundance without rushing it. Sit near the kitchen if you can; watching pita balloon and grills flare is part of the experience.

"Cinéma du Parc is my favourite cinema in Montreal, by far, especially now with the recent renovations that they've made. There are few places around that have that energy and that unabashed love for cinema and love for just watching good, interesting films, different kinds of films on screen. Obviously if I was going to see Dune in IMAX, maybe I would not pick Cinéma du Parc. But besides that, that's my favourite cinema in the city."

"L'Express to me is like… Being able to go have a proper meal at midnight?Definitely one of the go-to spots.”

"I grew up in the after-hours scene. So Stereo, spent a lot of time there. (Similarly), Le Système is great, I think still holds some of the original Montreal energy. This is me being kind of like a rave kid who grew up in these places. And there are some cool new parties as well. In the same vein, shout out to Exposé Noir, which is this new kind of event. They have a couple of events every year. I like them a lot."

"There's this Irish bar called One Punch Mickey... That is by far me and my friends' go-to spot. I love Guinness, I love an Irish pub, and I love just the vibe of an Irish pub. That's probably the establishment I frequent the most. The bartender told me there's an actual app where you can scan your Guinness after splitting the G and it tells you your score out of a hundred. It's pretty precise — you've got to be perfectly in line with that middle line of the G, and even a tiny bit over is not considered splitting the G. But also depending on how it's poured, depending on how much foam is in the glass, that can definitely impact the dynamics."

"I live pretty close to Parc La Fontaine and I will often just get up in the morning, make a coffee, walk out of my house with my mug, go sit by the water. There are ducks that hang around there. Last summer I had named like ten of the ducks. I wasn't even sure if I was seeing the same ones, but in my mind I was. So I kept them close to my heart. We had nice conversations every morning. That's kind of how I try to stay grounded."

"Pointe-Claire Village, I spent a lot of time there as a kid. There's an ice cream shop called Wild Willy's. Every time I go back to the West Island, whether it's to visit family or my grandmother who's still there, I stop by and get an ice cream."

"I used to go out to Le Manoir. Every time I go back to the West Island it looks like nothing has changed. Seeing the same terrasse that I got drunk on, remembering how I felt at that time, remembering how confused I was as a young 16, 17, 18 year old who wanted to move to the city. It brings back very fond memories. It's interesting to go back to the places where you had your first kiss or had your first time getting drunk and seeing it from the point of view of someone who's older and hopefully wiser. Every time I pass by it gives me this little fuzzy butterfly feeling inside."

"There's this Chinese buffet Chow's... Inside the walls are all made of like fake bamboo. It looks like it's out of a David Lynch movie, but it's amazing. To me that was a perfect encapsulation of just these suburban white people eating at this kind of strange Chinese buffet, which was clearly catered to them—it had things that were really not Chinese at all. It was this weird vibe. But that's kind of how I feel about the West Island. It's kind of a weird place, but within that weirdness there's this unique charm to it."