Our last night in Montreal recently, our boss, Daniel, took the sales managers out to a fairly new restaurant that he wanted to try - Le Restaurant Apollo et Traiteur. Apollo, as it's normally called by the locals in Montreal, is the concept of chef Giovanni Apollo, a fairly well-known local caterer (traiteur is French for caterer) who specializes in organic or "food from the land" for his menus. There are actually two Apollo restaurants nearly across from one another - Le Bistro Apollo - and Le Restaurant Apollo that we went to. A little more about that later.
Giovanni Apollo is somewhat famous in the world of gastronomy. Known for his cooking classes, his catering business and now his two restaurants, Apollo champions the concept of molecular cuisine by focusing on a food group and then making a number of tapas-style offerings out of that one particular group. For example, he may have fresh salmon one evening and he'll make four different styles of salmon to try. That same evening, he may have fresh pheasant and he comes up with four different ways to prepare the wild game. Nearly every evening, Apollo has beef, seafood, venison and wild game foods on the menu.
Giovanni Apollo has also tapped into the "fast food" market for urban professionals who don't have time to make lunch or dinner, but who want high quality food to enjoy. He makes a number of fresh foods that are either bought as fresh or frozen for dining later on. Apollo also has two rooms in a nearby hotel that he uses for catering functions such as weddings, corporate events and other occasions.
But Le Restaurant Apollo is his big draw. In a recent article in a Montreal newspaper, Le Restaurant Apollo was named one of the Top 10 restaurants in the city. That's saying an awful lot considering there is some world-class dining in Montreal. And that's also why Daniel wanted to try the restaurant out.
After a long day of meetings, we drove down to the Little Italy section of Montreal and we parked along Boul Saint-Laurent near the two Apollo restaurants (see map). We made the mistake of walking into the bistro on the west side of Boul Saint-Laurent thinking that was the place, but the maitre d' - in broken English - informed us that we were looking for the restaurant across the street and down a couple doors.
After we finally figured out where we were supposed to go, we were seated at a long table in front of a floor to ceiling window with etched glass at the bottom which looked out onto Boul Saint-Laurent and the busy pedestrian traffic that continually walked by. I'm glad that we had at least three French speaking people at our table because the maitre d' and the waiter spoke NO English, whatsoever.
Le Restaurant Apollo offers no alcohol service, but encourages patrons to bring their own bottles. Daniel had dipped into his wine cellar at home and brought along three bottles of a great French wine that he'd picked up on one of his trips to Focal. The wine was Madiniere blend from the Yves Cuilleron winery in the Cote Rotie region of France. It was very, very good. It had a full body and left a great taste on the palate. In doing some research on the wine, I found that it was also not very cheap. So I have to thank Daniel for being so gracious and generous for sharing some of this outstanding wine with us.
One of my colleagues doesn't care for wine all that much, so Simon picked up some of the local beer for us to have, as well. One of the beers he brought was "La Fin du Monde", which translates into "The End of the World". It's a Belgian-style golden ale from the Unibroue micro-brewery in Chambley, Quebec. It was full-bodied and had a kick to it - Unibroue's triple fermentation process gave it a 9% alcohol content by volume. In comparison, most American mainstream beers have a 3.2 to 5.0 alcohol content. I'm generally not big on Belgian-style ales, but it was very good.
Daniel decided to just start picking out some things and bring them to the table tapas-style. That way we'd have a little bit of everything to share and pass around the table.
Daniel, in French, ordered up a lot of things. I sometimes can pick up French conversations, but he and the waiter were talking too fast so I couldn't understand what they were saying. Finally, he told us, "I ordered duck, beef, venison, veal, scallops, and salmon. That should get us started." Boy, I'll say - and THEN some!
The duck was the first thing to come out. The waiter brought three different settings with duck dishes (right). Quite honestly, other than foie gras and just regular duck breast meat, I didn't know what I was eating. And it was probably for the better.
The duck was prepared four different ways and served on a wooden tray. From the first bite of the foie gras, well, it was soon a free-for-all with guys fighting to get the last morsel of food from the trays. It was actually great fun. The taste sensations were overwhelming and we made short work of the duck.
The scallops and the beef were brought next. The beef had a carpaccio, small tenderloin medallions in a mushroom wine sauce and a couple of other preparations. The scallops were big and meaty and served with sort of a liver pate on one plate. They, too were very good.
The veal, salmon and venison came out last and we were just going to town on the food as fast as the waiter could bring it out. The veal (left) featured a grilled shank, small tenderloins and thin strips that were in a red wine reduced brown sauce. It was unbelievable.
The salmon featured a couple of sushi-style offerings and sort of salmon-mousse that was also excellent. The venison, compared to the other dishes, was rather tame and somewhat gamey in taste. It was definitely more tough to chew and didn't have quite the taste explosion that I found with the other preparations.
We all agreed that we needed more food (there were 8 of us), so we decided the duck, the salmon and the beef had to come back to the table. Daniel ordered three more each of those dishes. I'm sure the people at Apollo had to wonder about those crazy guys up front ordering more food and having a good time laughing in between bites.
By the time we fought over and finished the final morsel of the excellent food at Apollo, the waiter came out with a dessert menu. Honestly, I wasn't interested in any more food, but they did have creme brulee. Actually what they did was to bring six small desserts per tray that featured the creme brulee, a fruit parfait, a chocolate hot dog in a pastry (seriously - take a closer look at at the hot dog shaped thing when you click on the picture!), and three other things that I don't quite remember what they were. Daniel ordered three trays of desserts. The creme brulee was very good and the chocolate hot dog was interesting, but also good. The chocolate hot dog was something called an "inspiration pastry" that French chefs will come up with when they want to make an interesting dessert.
We had more than enough food, more than enough wine and the dessert just sent me over the top at Apollo. I've eaten at some unusual and great restaurants during my nearly 8 years of working for my company. But I can honestly say that Apollo was one of the more unique restaurants I've been to given the menu, the food preparation, the presentation and the overall experience at the place. I'm still shaking my head over the numerous taste sensations I experienced that evening. It was truly one of the all-time gastronomical highlights of my life.
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