In 2020, Knuckles was born, a new small Villeray neighborhood address signed Matthew Shefler and Vincent Lévesque Lepage. Since then, this restaurant, which offers a vegetarian and locavore menu, has made its mark – it was a finalist in the Revelation of the Year category at the last Lauriers de la gastronomie québécoise.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
At the same time, Julien Betancourt, formerly co-owner of Clandestino, also wanted to open a restaurant, with his sidekick Abel Garcia and his good friend Paul Aoun, and had his eyes on a small local, located in Little Burgundy. Matthew Shefler knew them all from his Clandestino days. The two bands decided to join forces and thus Nolan was born.
“We really wanted to create a place for the neighborhood, where the door is always open. You can come and have a coffee in the morning, a sandwich for lunch, you chill in the afternoon with a small glass of wine and a cocktail, you end up having dinner with friends who come to join you”, summarizes Julien Betancourt. With that in mind, the place doesn’t take reservations and is open non-stop, morning to night, Wednesday to Sunday.
The inspiring menu of talented chef Vincent Lévesque Lepage this time incorporates a few animal proteins, but retains this philosophy of offering local products. Beef from Prince Edward Island, halibut from Gaspésie, seafood from the East Coast rub shoulders with rhubarb, lovage, haskap, and camenile oil from small producers and small farms.
We also notice the inventiveness in the dishes, which are eaten with the eyes: salty éclairs with herb cream, speck and horseradish; oyster mushrooms marinated, then tempura-fried, with house mustard and a green onion emulsion; or even the signature dish of the place, the Nolan Roll, kinds of fried sticks revealing inside smoked meat, emmental cheese and sauerkraut, to be dipped without restraint in a chilli sauce.
The thirsty will find something to wet their throats here. Abel has created a cocktail menu giving pride of place to aperitivo and other bitters. Sommelier Marie-Claude Lauriault, for her part, signs a wine list with lovely finds, driven by a natural philosophy, but without falling into anything extreme.
1752 Notre Dame Street West