Montreal institutions | The “Hunting” has not lost its place

Do established Montreal tables still live up to their reputation? We will be visiting a few throughout the year to reconnect with these restaurants that have stood the test of time. In a stone basement in Old Montreal, the discreet Club Chasse et Pêche continues to delight a diverse clientele.

A little history

When chef Claude Pelletier and service ace Hubert Marsolais opened Club Chasse et Pêche in 2005, success was almost immediate. The elegant grotto with enveloping leather armchairs and white tablecloths, decorated with works by the artist Nicolas Baier, has risen to the top of the charts of the best restaurants in Montreal, not to say Canada.

A good number of renowned chefs, sommeliers, waiters and waitresses have gone through the Hunting and Fishing School over time, whether Marc-André Royal (Le St-Urbain and La Bête à Pain), Minh Phat (Mui mui and Anemone), Aaron Langille (Le Diplomate), Theo Diamantis (wine representative agency Œnopole), Laura Vidal (sommelier at the Small Group, in Marseille) or Caroline Loiseleux (sommelier in Marseille).

Then the Club made small: Le Filet, avenue du Mont-Royal Ouest, opened in 2011, and Le Serpent, in the Darling foundry, which is now 10 years old. The small artisanal pasta chain Il Miglio was born in 2017. Favorable echoes continue to come from Le Filet and Le Serpent, but the Club remained a bit mysterious.

Hubert Marsolais assures us that the group’s flagship is in great shape. The team in place is exemplary, with Helen Karagiannakis as maitre d’hotel for a long time, Joris Gutierrez Garcia, “best nose in Quebec”, newly at the sommelier and Olivier Larocque in the kitchen. The latter had worked at Chasse et Pêche in 2009, then participated in the first years of the Serpent. “People stay in the family for a long time,” he notes. This is also the case for pastry chef Massami Waki, who has accompanied Claude Pelletier and Hubert Marsolais since the days of Le Cube, formerly in the Hôtel St Paul.

The experience

I hadn’t set foot in the cavernous dining room on rue Saint-Claude in ages and my expectations were high. The place, unique in Montreal, does not seem to have changed a bit and that’s good. It’s maintained, with the occasional new artwork on the walls, updated toilets, and freshly upholstered, but un-zealously, armchairs.

We are assigned a nice table at the back, with a view of the entire main room. The smaller room, near the bar, is empty tonight. “It’s a quieter evening than expected,” repeats our waitress, as if apologizing. I will learn later that it was in fact one of the quietest services of the last year, that the chef was training two new people in the kitchen and that Joris, master of the wine list, had decided to spend the evening doing administrative work. rather than indoors, given the small number of customers. Even his assistant was off that night.

It’s really bad luck for me, who derives great pleasure from discussing wines in restaurants with a cellar of the caliber of that of “Chase”, as its regulars affectionately call it.

You can spend anywhere from $60 to over $1000 on a bottle here. There is something for all wallets and all palates, whether you prefer estates that are minimally involved in the vineyard and the cellar or the more classic Bordeaux grands crus. To have the means, I would spoil myself with an old vintage, perhaps, since some bottles have been dormant in the cellar for 18 years.

I found my pleasure myself on the menu, the Les Varrons 2020 cuvée by Julien Labet, cult winemaker from the Jura. Mea culpa, I could have given the benefit of the doubt to our excellent waitress, Amy, to advise us. Sensitive, she smelled a certain dissatisfaction and even dared to raise the delicate subject at the time of the digestive.

The Club Chasse et Pêche menu is short. There are oysters, five starters and five main courses. Some of these dishes are immutable, such as braised piglet risotto with slices of foie gras, and scallops with candied lemon. It is possible to request the tasting formula, a recent option, at $150, which can be enhanced with a wine pairing.

The “hunting and fishing” changes regularly. That night, it’s the perfect crusted Prince Edward Island filet mignon and Argentine shrimp. I tasted another version when the photos were taken the following week: American wagyu beef hanger steak and Maine lobster. Both beef/shellfish plates were excellent.

The duck dish, on the other hand, is particularly generous in meat, with interesting contrasts of tastes, in particular the celeriac and caraway seeds which flavor the sandwich bread filling.

The starters that preceded it, the risotto and the sweetbreads, combined depth and a sensual interplay of textures. The marriage of tastes was impeccable, but someone in the kitchen had dropped the salt shaker. When I taste the sweetbreads again while taking the photos, the seasoning is perfect.

The kitchen also prepared the starter of raw hamachi (fish), well enhanced by the distinctive taste of yuzu and the crunchiness of roasted almonds.

Massami Waki ​​is always baking for the whole group. His workshop is now outside the Club Chasse et Pêche. I only taste the chocolate dessert, which is perhaps not the most representative of the magic that the alchemist of sugar can do with less expected ingredients.

Conclusion: my expectations were not met the evening of my “incognito” passage. But after discussions with a few demanding customers who had spent some excellent evenings there quite recently and the flawless tasting while taking the photos, I absolutely wouldn’t hesitate to go back.

423 St. Claude Street