Meet the man behind some of Montreal's most iconic business signs
You might not realize it, but you are probably familiar with Dave Arnold's work.
The local artist is responsible for the hand-painted signs on some of Montreal's most iconic restaurants.
"So, if you're a customer coming in the back door, that's where you'd go in," Arnold said while giving CTV News a tour of the Joe Beef terrace.
Above the back entrance hangs one of the first signs ever painted.
"But this little one," he said, pointing to a small sign hanging over the staff entrance to the kitchen, "just the 'cuisine,' for some reason I really love that one. It feels like a nice old French restaurant."
Dave Arnold. (Scott Prouse/CTV News)
Mr. Sign, as he has become known, has been adding a bit of his own personal flavour to bars and restaurants all over the city for more than 15 years.
"The subtle charm of imperfection is a thing that we're constantly going for," he said of the lettering he did on the front window of Vin Papillon on Notre-Dame Street. "It's a fine line between looking too much but, a little a little wiggle, a little blip here and there really adds to the charm."
As he finished the thought, Arnold noticed a sliver of paint missing at the bottom-right corner of the letter N.
The sign at Montreal's Le Vin Papillon, rated one of Canada's top 100 restaurants earlier this year, is also one of Dave Arnold's works. (Scott Prouse/CTV News)
"Someone got curious here," he said. "You can see someone said: is that really paint? And their fingernail seems to have discovered it is. It is paint for sure. I'll be back here next week to touch that up."
Painting restaurant windows in Little Burgundy is how Arnold started, but his work is now ubiquitous.
In the Mile End, he showed CTV News his methods. Boucherie Lawrence's glass door was smashed recently, destroying one of his paintings. Last week, Arnold was back to repaint.
"A blank canvas is the most important step," he joked while thoroughly wiping down the glass door with Windex.
Then, with chalk stencil lines on the window as his guide, Arnold's carefree humour gives way to laser focus. Each detail is given careful consideration.
Dave Arnold paints a sign on Montreal storefront. (Scott Prouse/CTV News)
"There's a lot of things to consider," he said. "The design is one, the colour is another. The texture that you want. Inside of the glass versus outside of the glass."
"There's all these considerations that, you know, if you do them all properly, it ends up looking quite nice. If you make the wrong call on any one of them, you can end up looking like a dog's breakfast."
At this point, Arnold has lost count of the number of restaurant and shop windows he's painted but believes the number is close to 70. Each design is unique. But taken together, they create a common thread, melding art and food in a way that is authentically Montreal.
"It's really satisfying to know that I have left little breadcrumbs of me and my tastes and my talents all over the city," he said. "It's very, very satisfying."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's response to Trump deportation plan a key focus of revived cabinet committee
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's promise to launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has the Canadian government looking at its own border.
Who should lead the Liberals? 'None of the above,' poll finds
As questions loom over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership, a new Nanos Research poll commissioned for CTV News says a quarter of Canadians say none of the potential candidates appeal to them.
New technology solves mystery of late First World War soldier's flower sent home to Canada
In 1916, Harold Wrong plucked a flower from the fields of Somme, France and tucked it into a letter he mailed home to Toronto. For decades, the type of flower sent remained a mystery.
U.S. election maps: How did 2024 compare to 2020 and 2016?
Though two states have yet to be officially called, the U.S. election map has mostly been settled. How does it compare with the previous two elections?
Canada rent report: What landlords are asking tenants to pay
Average asking rents declined nationally on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than three years in October, said a report out Thursday.
N.S. school 'deeply sorry' for asking service members not to wear uniforms at Remembrance Day ceremony
An elementary school in the Halifax area has backed away from a request that service members not wear uniforms to the school's Remembrance Day ceremony.
Remembrance Day: What's open and closed in Canada?
While banks and post offices will be closed nationwide on Remembrance Day, shops and businesses could be open depending on where you live in Canada.
Judicial recount for Surrey-Guildford confirms B.C. NDP's majority
The B.C. New Democrats have a majority government of 47 seats after a judicial recount in the riding of Surrey-Guildford gave the party's candidate 22 more votes than the provincial Conservatives.
48,584 space heaters recalled in Canada after burn injury in U.S.
Health Canada has announced a recall for electric space heaters over potential fire and burn risks, a notice published Thursday reads.