Sass was there: Toqué book launch at L'Arsenal

When I think of the restaurant Toqué, I think of three things:

-Extreme class

-French cuisine 

-The renowned chef Normand Laprise.

It was impossible for me to decline the invitation to their gastronomical book launch at l'Arsenal. Toqué is one of the top restaurants in Montreal: Zagat's first edition of their Guide to Montreal put Toqué at the top of their list and the restaurant was awarded the Five Diamonds rating (the highest rating) by the Canadian Automobile Association and the American Automobile Association, to name a few distinctions. And when I said "Damn the book is 70$! That's not a joke!" the restaurant's chef, Marc-Antoine Crête replied (well it was more like screamed): "DEUX ANS DE TRAVAIL QUE TU VOIS LÀ!! DEUX ANS DE TRAVAIL MA CHERE!!!!" (translation: This is two years of work! Two years of work lady!!!). Okay. He was right. Cool guy though.  

Now back to the event.

I did not know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised to enter the beautiful room and see a fresh oyster bar on my left, a wine bar in the middle, people serving horse tartar & tataki on my right (you read that right) and...food trucks. Yes. They brought food trucks inside of L'Arsenal. Wine tasting, good music, food, good looking people and the "crème de la crème" of Montreal's gastronomical scene. This "5 à 7" (our term for Happy Hour) was more like a 5 à 10 as this event turned into a party. 

Charles Antoine Crête, the chef at Toqué, having a drink.
while signing a book. 

One thing that got my attention was the "Ouache Bar"...Let me explain something: "Ouache is a word that naturally comes out of a French Quebecor's mouth following a reaction of disgust: It's our "Ew". So this Ouache bar had a bunch of disgusting shots. When I asked the bartender (dressed as a cow girl, by the way) what the drink was, she told me it was a bunch of stuff mixed together. I had a shot and...Ouache!!! Really gross. I'm sure many people still enjoyed them after a couple of wine glasses. Ha. 

Check out more pics and an interesting video after the break!

Lab #5 Wine Tasting awesome event

Last Tuesday, me and a couple of friends attended a pretty awesome event for wine lovers. If you never came to Quebec & plan to come soon, it is important to know how much we love wine.

SocialGrapes.com is an iphone app to guide wine appreciators towards a variety of choices, depending on their taste. Their founders are doing something which I personally have never seen in Montreal: Every week, they conduct a "Blind" wine tasting event called the "Social Grapes Lab" in their office, which is located in Montreal's Old Port. The wine tasters then fill out a form with their comments and ratings on each wine (and remember, they have NO IDEA where it comes from, the name, ingredients. well...except alcohol of course), all of that while