Things are ramping up.That back to school feeling is already in the air. Work contracts are coming in and I think fall will be a busy time for me. I have the General 54 shop finishing up, three new clients in the pipeline, three old clients coming back for more, an intern (!) offering to work with me, and a wedding to plan . I’m feeling a little out of breath just thinking of it all. And then there is this teeny tiny blog I have been so enjoying writing. I checked recently and over two THOUSAND visitors have checked the site out! And there have been almost 14 THOUSAND page views! Now, I know that mainly people I know are visiting and then revisiting the site (hi mom and dad) and I know that this is peanuts compared to other design/mama blogs out there, but it feels like lots and lots of people to me. So for those of you reading, thank you. It warms my heart, gives me courage, makes me take a minute to think, and keeps me honest.
Because of all the busy-ness I thought I’d keep it short today and just write about the super fun date I had two nights ago. I know that this may seem lazy of me but it was an inspiring date and it got my creative juices flowing and I will write about it anyway. My love and I went out, sans children, to the Grunman ’78 HQ space down in St-Henri. The team behind the space has pretty much singlehandedly brought food trucks to Montreal. They have a food truck too and work many of the events in the city but they also have an old space in an industrial part of the city that they have turned into an awesome, cool, and beautiful restaurant/party space.
Sunday night, they were hosting a party with Omnivore, a food festival, and the guest chef was Pierre Sang Boyer from Paris. A very handsome korean french chef that created a real stunner of a menu.
the event flyer and a sneaky pic of the chef in the bottom right corner of the photo on the right.
First we had cocktails:
The Yamanashi for E & The Miyazaki Mule for me. So good.
We asked Eric D., the manager and a former Lawrence staffer, to order whatever he thought we should try and soon beautiful plates arrived on a plain old cafeteria tray.
The gyoza was the best I have ever tasted and the spicy pork and tofu dish was ridiculously delicious. I decided that given the choice I could eat this kind of food every day of the week. And E and I couldn’t have enjoyed the date more. If we hadn’t had to pick up the kiddies before 9:00 and if I didn’t have to be the designated driver (St-Henri is far. Not really, it just feels far.), we could have stayed there all night drinking yummy cocktails, chatting, sharing really good small plates of food, listening to music and soaking up the cool, warm atmosphere. I geeked out and walked around to take pictures between courses.
The space:
A large open room with two garage doors open to the early evening light, a corner bar made out of a mix of antiques and industrial materials, a mishmash of chairs and random tables, a second area with a long open kitchen and more communal seating, hanging christmas lights spread throughout the space. Artwork up on the walls some by, my favourite, Mr. Sign a.k.a. Dave Arnold (including the Grunman logo and exterior sign). A simple, raw space like this one can totally handle tables and lamps made out of shipping palettes. When I see a regular restaurant or store use these materials I find it annoying. Here it works. It is that easy, cheap and cheerful type of decorating that makes perfect sense in an old garage or whatever the space was before. It is unpretentious and unaffected, not trying to look that way but actually that way. They really get it here: a great blend of casual ambience, cool people, good lighting, and last night anyway, great food and drink. A real tricky combination to achieve. The stars were alined. The space was a perfect match for what was on the plate. A tricky thing to master.
I felt like I was on vacation: relaxed, into my surroundings, loving the new food, loving the company. Everything a date should be.
xa
More dates! More dates!