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Whisky Café
Late-Night Single-Malts & Cigars in Montreal
Posted: Monday, March 13, 2006
By Alejandro Benes
The Cigar Lounge at the Whisky Café
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Montreal is special in North America. It is the big city in the only French-speaking province on the continent. Among its major culinary contributions are smoked meat -- a brisket tasting something like a cross between New York deli pastrami and corned beef -- and French fries smothered in cheese and gravy, a dish called poutine. One is delicious. The latter is a mess. Kind of like the cigar scene in this great metropolis.
Montreal's Sherbrooke Avenue hosts Davidoff and La Casa del Habano. You can walk in and spend an hour in each humidor learning which of the Cuban cigars is good lately. You can even smoke at the shops, something that is increasingly difficult to do indoors in Canada and will become even more difficult after a ban takes effect at the end of May. Right now, it's still a bit unclear how broadly the ban will apply, but to enjoy a cigar at night these days you need to find a hospitable hotel lobby, jostle with the bar-hoppers of Crescent Street or venture beyond Centre-Ville (downtown) to explore the frontiers of development and neighborhood bars. Do that and you'll inevitably find Whisky Café in the Mile End section of Montreal, nearly off the tourist maps.
Go straight north on Boulevard St. Laurent and if you get to the Maison de l'Aspriateur -- or, the House of the Vacuum Cleaner -- you've gone a block too far. Whisky Café is on St. Laurent and Bernard, with the door on the latter, and open until three in the morning. The building is one of those red brick, old warehouse looking deals that you find in parts of cities in which the more centrally-located neighborhoods are no longer affordable. Mile End is hot. There is construction noticeable even on days when the temperature hovers around 19 Farenheit. Whisky Café counts on the local clientele wanting to stay warm and likely will prosper.
Whisky Café has more than 125 "Scottish Whiskys" from which to choose, most of them single malts. Make no mistake, the essence of this place is booze. The list begins with Aberfeldy Midlands 1977 and goes right through to Tobermury Mull 10 Years. A great number of the Scotches listed are followed by their age and numbers greater than 24 appear about 10 times. This is a serious investment. What is less serious, and almost a disappointment, is the breadth and variety of the cigar menu. It is not deep and it is not ample. That is not to say you can't find an acceptable Cuban cigar to enjoy. I had a Partagas Corona at C$25 (about $21) with my 1982 Tariquet Armagnac (C$28). There is a Cohiba Esplendido at C$97, which is a high price to pay for any cigar, though one should consider they're not going for a lot less at the tobacco shops here because of the exorbitant taxes on tobacco in Canada. So, be prepared to shell out the cash if you want a Cuban, or even a Dominican cigar. A Fuente Fuente OpusX was going for more than C$90 at Davidoff.
What Whisky Café really has going for it is that it tries very hard and succeeds at making you feel welcome. The menu offers different ways to sample and enjoy. We had a tasting of various Bowmore Scotches (C$20), three small pours in tulip glasses that allow you to appreciate the differences in style from the same producer. There are a number of these degustations and not limited to Scotch.
Whisky Café also pairs food and drink. There's the traditional Champagne or sauternes and foie gras and vodka with smoked salmon. The most interesting, and perhaps ambitious, combination was a glass of rivesaltes, a Muscat, served with duck breast stuffed with foie gras and garnished with onion chutney. Further down the menu are pairings of port and cheese, ice wine and chocolates, Port and chocolates…You get the idea. We ordered our own cheese plate.
The main room at Whisky Café is relatively unassuming and large. Nice. Clean lines. Tables line a wall that displays bottles of booze on lighted glass shelves. There are numerous comfortable booths. Jazz is playing. Some sort of animal head sculpture hangs up by the ducts. I didn't ask. Of interest to all of us is "Le Salon Cigare." This is the cigar lounge. It’s a dark, narrow room that you enter through two studded wood doors. The walls are made of some sort of large-particle board that is the color of cured tobacco leaves. Very soothing, actually. A painting hangs across from the mirror, "Blowing Smoke Rings," a Victorian scene in which dad is the object of attention from his wife and two young daughters as he blows smoke rings from his cigar. Nice touch. The narrow humidor is stuck into the wall and you can look at the cigars as you decide what to choose. Or you might take your own.
The oddest aspect of Whisky Café is not the fact that the men's room has a urinal wall with water cascading down from the ceiling. Nor is it the stand-up "l'urinette" in the women's bathroom. The unusual thing is that Whisky Café is seemingly so proud of this that there are photos of the fixtures on its website (www.whiskycafe.ca). The patrons of Whisky Café are generally young. This might appeal to them. They're certainly going to be in the loo at some point if they drink enough.
Whisky Café
5800 St. Laurent Boulevard
Montreal, Canada
Phone: 514-278-2646
Monday through Friday 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Saturday 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Sunday 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Go to Cigar Bar Central.
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