Whisky Cafe Montreal: Churchill’s Delight

“Scotchy scotch scotch”, so quoth the anchorman.  So serveth Whisky Café in the Mile End of Montreal.  Over 150 single malts – staggering.  Also quite a lot of other aged brown booze (cognac, rum, port, etc), as well as a separate cigar room with numerous classics from Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, and others (Havana of course). They offer tasting flights of whiskies, arranged by distiller or region, as well as whisky and cigar pairings.

The main bar is reminiscent of a classic, elegant French café, the cigar room more a clubby, plush den.  Both very nice (though definitely stay in the main area if you don’t smoke, as the air in the latter area is quite thick). 

café

cigar den

All in all a very distinctive place, the only such of its kind in Montréal, it seems, and truly a world class whisky selection. As it happens, it won the Canadian Whisky Bar of the Year award in 2008Try the Lagavullin 16, it’s peated perfection. Here’s just the single malt menu:

Sir Winston Churchill, in all his whisky-guzzling, cigar chugging Hard Ballerness, would approve.

Bonus: across the street is the Royal Phoenix Bar, which is to be entered at your discretion, but by all means stand on the street corner and watch the parade of alternative young Montreal life stream forth from it – black, white, straight, gay, girls, guys, and almost everybody dressed and decorated off the wall and mashed up.  Pure entertainment!

Whisky Café
5800 Boulevard St. Laurent
Montreal