Its hard to eat well when you work on a by-election, away from home.It’s also hard to keep a blog updated.

At any rate, here is what my first week looked like -

Monday, August 11 2008: 

Lunch: I reviewed my visit at the Terrazza Trattorria & Case da Carlo here.Dinner: I wanted to get an an update on Westmount-Ville Marie, so I went with Jerry to the Bâton Rouge near the Bell Centre, in the old Moe’s Deli building.  We shared a Louisiana Spinach Dip before I digged in a grilled sirloin salad.    The dip was warm and creamy and came with sides of salsa and sour cream.  There was tons of chips, tons of dip, its a good think we shared.  As for the salad, it was made of mixed greens, grilled zucchini and roasted red pepper. The 7 oz sirloin was topped with warm walnuts and very lightly-flavored blue cheese. I asked for the blue cheese dressing to be on the side in order not to ruin the salad.  It was pretty good I thought.

Tuesday, August 12 2008:

Lunch: I engulfed a Baconator at Wendy’s.  Too dry.  It needs some bbq sauce to round it up.
Six strips of bacon, though.  Remarkable.

Dinner: I grabbed a few beers with a lightning strike survivor at L’Île Noire, then we went to Les Trois Brasseurs on St-Denis for some choucroute.  The sauerkraut at Les Trois Brasseurs is not anything special, but it is usually alright, and can feed an army.  I had the Royale, which included a frankfurter, ham and some pork shank.  The ham was ordinary, the frankfurter much better, and the pork shank very tasty – although you have to be careful not to eat all the fat or skin.   Les went for the 3 Brasseurs one, below, which included a frankfurter, grilled ham, a smoked sausage and potatoes.  He could barely finish it, which is rare for him, he said.  They served their own beer too, which had to the whole choucroute experience.

Wednesday, August 13 2008:

Lunch: I went to the Suite 701 for a chat with a columnist.  We shared some crab cakes, which were smallish but lightly and nicely oven-fried.  We then both went for the Lobster Club, which was interesting as it came on a flavourful bread.  The side sald was fresh and crispy.

Dinner: I crossed the Champlain bridge to Verdun to meet a friend at le Garage Café in Verdun.  I had the turbo burger while she enjoyed the semi-automatic. My burger was made of lamb, nicely cooked, with a tasty mix of very nicely melted cheese, ementhal and gruyere.  The french fries were also quite tasty, and there was soooooooooooo much.

Thursday, August 14 2008:

Lunch: I forced the local campaign team to go to La Brasserie Renaud.  More about it here.

Dinner: We went for a few beers at Le St-Ciboire, but the food came from The House of Reggae next door.

Friday, August 15 2008

Lunch: We went back to see Manon at La Brasserie Renaud.  Why not?

Dinner: Had a very late dinner at Fresco before going to see Star Wars.  We actually went there because Dominic and I wanted to grad dinner before the 11:30pm showing of The Clone Wars at the Mega-Plex Lacordaire 16.  We looked around, but there wasn’t much else that was grabbing our attention.  We were surprised by the quality of the offerings, and we both went for the Lobster Linguine, which was served with half a lobster, mussels, shrimps and scallops in a crushed tomato sauce.  Quite tasty, although the lobsters were a tad bit overcooked.  As an appetizers, I picked the smoked salmon, which was very nice and well accompanied, while Dom selected the snails, served gratted with lots of butter and garlic.

Saturday, August 16 2008

Lunch: I grabbed a sandwich at Cavallaro Westmount. The place is a neat little Italian grocery/deli/bakery place, and I got Genoa Salami sandwich with an extra grilled pepper to give it a bit of a zip.  They made it fresh before my eyes, asking what I wanted on it along the way.  I enjoyed it with a can of Brio Chinotto.

Dinner: I went with Anne-Marie to L’Académie as everyone else had gone AWOL that evening. As she filled me in on the action in Westmount, we both decided to go for la table d’hôte of the evening. The vegetable cream they served first wasn’t really inspired, but wasn’t despicable.  I went for the Lamb chops, served with a rosemary sauce and it was pretty good.  The meat wasn’t of the best quality I had ever seen, but it was cooked perfectly and very tasty.  AM went for a steak, which she ordered blue.  Well, it was blue, but it was also cold, which is a sign that they keep the meat in the fridge (freezer?) too long before cooking it, or that the fridge is too cold.  Too bad

In 1995, in an old Red Lobster that went under, opened an old-style, old-fashionned deli-bar.

La Station became an institution in Hull, specializing in smoked meat and other delicatessen delicacy. It quickly became a popular hang-out, especially for the twentysomething and thirtysomething crowd, but not exclusively.  It wasn’t rare to see a 20 mins line-up at breakfast time during the week-end.  And, for the party-goers and the bar-closers crowd, the place was open 24 hours from Thursdays to Saturdays, the only restaurant doing so in Hull.  The place was also hosting different community events for charity purposes, such as “Le déjeuner du Commandant”, where SQ officers served breakfast to raise money for La Fondation Québécoise du Cancer.

But it all went up in smoke on the 5th of February 2007 as a fire destroy the place.  The owners, who also own La Cage aux Sports in Hull and Georges Lounge and Grill , a trendy steakhouse in the old Au Coq building, promised to re-open quickly.  They did so in the fall, with a bigger building, a 100 more seats and a new wood oven.

Yesterday was my second visit to the new Station.  I had been disapointed by my first visit after the re-opening, but I decided to give it another try because I did enjoy the old Station very much.

So I went yesterday with my lady and another lady friend for a late night dinner.  And, again, the old Station I remember so fondly is long gone.  The ambiance used to be quite warm and friendly, with all kind of old school memorabilia, signs, posters, items of all kinds hanging around, giving it a very cool retro look and feel.  All gone. The fire is to blame of course, but the owners could have found some items to decorate.  Instead of the good old deli feel we had back then, we now walk in a cold and very noisy place without a soul.  No need to believe me – here is how our young waitress described the new place: “It’s like working in a big cafeteria!” she said.  No kidding.  You are drowned by loud hip-hop music and the very high ceiling and open-space concept does carry people’s conversations and kitchen noises.  And the crowd is now much younger then it used to be.  Or is it me that is getting much older?

Anyway, now about the food.  I ordered the deli club sandwich, a thick serving of their delicious smoked meat, topped with crispy bacon, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce.  It’s a nice twist of an old classic, and I added some dijon mustard to complete it.  It was very filling, to say the least.  It came with french fries, the battered and breaded kind which were alright, and with a side of a very boring and watery coleslaw.

My partners in crime last night went for simpler items - neither were disapointed.  The all-dressed pizza was very tasty, with a zippy tomato sauce and fresh toppings.  Cooked in the oven wood, it had a fabulous crispiness.   The italian poutine was a very filling serving of their fries, topped with their thick and meaty spaghetti sauce and fresh cheese curds.  The sauce could have been warmer to help the melting of the cheese, but it was still very well done.

With a pitcher of beer, we chipped in about 20$ each.  Not bad, but I sorely miss the old Station.

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