St. Viateur bagels
Posted: August 19, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 CommentsSt. Viateur Bagel bakery has special significance to me not just because they have the best bagels in the city but also because my father grew up across the street from here. It’s a Montreal landmark and people line up at all hours of the day or night to buy a dozen of these hand-rolled, baked in a wood oven bagels. Ask any Montrealer and they will confess that rarely does the whole dozen make it home.
I love this neighborhood, the bagel shop is “un incontournable” for all my visiting friends from Europe! Did you sketch this picture from the (in-famous) alley where you met with the guy with the special request?!
We take all our visitors there too. And we bring bagels when we visit our American cousins too. It is a must. I sketched this one from a few alleys over and the only life in that alley was a lot of pigeons.
I was there twice this week which is so extraordinary for me as I don’t drive to Mtl..but my dear friend is moving there and we made a couple of trips:)I love that area.What a lovely job you did:)
Thanks Monique. Glad you enjoyed your bagels.
Shari, your passion is watercolour, but your line drawings are every bit as good.
Thank you John. I love drawing too and now that all my summer workshops are over I plan to draw more.
It seems that so many Montrealers whose parents also grew up in Mtl have a connection to this area-Outremont-my Dad also spent his childhood around that neighbourhood. I am so much enjoying your architectural drawings with pen. My background in Interior Design left me with an appreciation of the drawings of buildings that seem to be so loose and alive, I always feel that my drawings are still kind of stiff. But I realize that practising ALOT makes all the difference when it comes to that kind of confidence.
This sketch seems to evoke feelings for a lot of Montrealers.
As for the drawing, yes, practice really helps. If I don’t spend a few minutes drawing one day, I feel the difference the next day. Takes longer to warm up. And it really helps in the painting if the drawing is accurate.
A wonderfully evocative sketch, Shari… and timely, too, since I saw your post at the very moment I was consuming one of the seven dozen St.Viateur bagels we brought back from Montreal a few weeks ago and stashed in our freezer here in Niagara on the Lake. For a former Montrealler like me, now living outside of Quebec for more than 24 years, regular pilgrimages to this iconic and timeless landmark keep me connected to my previous life in that wonderful city. The bagels provide an instant gustatory nostalgia trip every time I spread the cream cheese on a golden-toasted, sesame-seed-encrusted piece of Montreal culinary heritage…truly the best on the planet.
Thanks for providing a visual treat to accompany my Sunday morning breakfast bagel feast.
David, I love your comment. I have a friend who has lived in California for many years but whenever she comes home to Montreal she has to make the pilgrimage as well to buy several dozen bagels — as many as she can fit in the extra suitcase she brings just for that purpose. When she gets home she slices them all in half and freezes them so they can last as long as possible. And because she doesn’t have a big freezer, she evens puts them in a friend’s freezer until she needs them. I’m so glad you enjoyed the sketch with your feast.