Beauty’s

About a week after we first moved to Montreal, our landlords had us over for a barbecue and drinks. Since the language of food is the only one I am fluent in, it wasn’t long before I was commenting on the barbecue, explaining why you salt pasta water and, of course, asking for new restaurant recommendations. My first question was what “all you can eat” translates to in French, since I’d been spending the last week trying to find an all you can eat sushi bar. À volonté sushi is still something to this day that I have not eaten, but at least now I know what I’m looking for.

Then came the recommendations. There were a couple restaurants recommended to us, many of which we’ve now dined at, but one in particular stood out in my mind: Beauty’s. However, this was a recommendation to go and enjoy their wonderful food and atmosphere, but a warning to not believe the hype, fully accompanied by a story involving calling a radio rant line to complain about a certain “iconic institution at Mont-Royal and St. Urbain”, a rude server and a prank phone call. Despite this we were curious, though skeptical, to try it for ourselves. Exactly one year later we find ourselves, totally by coincidence, dining there for breakfast. Beauty’s…