Around Town With Brandon Svarc

“One of my favourite stores is a bar supply store called Alambika, also on St. Laurent! That store is dangerous. I always want everything in there. They have bitters, cool glassware, and I get my Japanese knives sharpened there. What I want from there are these coupe glasses that are like shot glasses. They're like half an ounce but stemmed.”

“Everyone knows Gentile, and that’s fantastic. But there’s this place called Pasta Bar and the tortellini is amazing. You walk along the counter and you can choose your pastas. And there’s a salad part where this lady will mix up a big pasta if you want to be healthy. It’s been there forever, since I was a little kid. It’s all schmata guys, old Italian and Jewish guys. Just to listen is amazing. Especially when you go there during lunch, it’s garmento lunch.”

“Recently I went to Jun I and I liked it. When you go in you get that smell and it reminds me of Japan. The chu toro from there tastes like Japan.”

“Sometimes we go to Tasty Food. It’s also an establishment that’s been there for so long, over on Decarie. It’s a nice little family pizza place, and all the pizzas are small and one size, not by slice. They do it the one way, but it’s nice and crispy. It’s an old school place. I think it’s been around since the 50s.”

What would be a perfect Montreal day?

“If it’s the weekend, I like to go to Marché aux puces St-Michel.”

“With family sometimes I do stereotypical stuff like going to Beaver Lake. It’s a cute family thing to do, I mean it’s Montreal, there's no reason not to.”

“If it’s a rainy day sometimes we go to Taz, the indoor skate park. My kids fucking love it. We’re there once a week now. When we don’t know what to do, we go to Taz. I will skateboard, my boy will do roller blades and scooter, and my daughter will [ride a] scooter.”