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
New Pentagon report on UFOs includes hundreds of new incidents but no evidence of aliens
The Pentagon's latest report on UFOs has revealed hundreds of new reports of unidentified and unexplained aerial phenomena but no indications suggesting an extraterrestrial origin.
Police release bodycam video of officer-involved incident at Hindu temple protest in Brampton, Ont.
Police say an officer who forcefully removed a 'weapon' from a protester outside of a Hindu temple in Brampton was acting 'within the lawful execution of his duties' after bystander video of the incident circulated widely online.
Here's how a potential Canada Post strike may affect Canadians
A disruption in Canada Post services would hit some Canadians harder than others. As the deadline approaches for a potential strike at midnight Friday, CTVNews.ca asked readers how it would affect them and how they are preparing.
RCMP begins deploying body-worn cameras to frontline officers across Canada
Within days, thousands of frontline RCMP officers will be starting their shifts equipped with a body-worn camera, as the national police force begins deploying the program across Canada.
'Countless lives were at risk:' 8 charged, including teen wanted in deadly home invasion, after West Queen West gun battle
A teenage boy arrested along with more than 20 others following a gun battle in Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood was wanted in connection with a deadly home invasion in Etobicoke back in April, Toronto police say.
Scotiabank users facing 'intermittent' access to banking
Scotiabank users say they are having issues using their bank’s services following a scheduled maintenance period that ended days ago.
Everything is under US$20 at Amazon's newest store
Amazon is targeting retail rivals Shein, Temu and TikTok Shop with a new deeply discounted storefront that sells a wide array of products for US$20 or less.
W5 Investigates Car security investigation: How W5 'stole' a car using a device we ordered online
In part two of a three-part series into how thieves are able to drive off with modern vehicles so easily, CTV W5 correspondent Jon Woodward uses a device flagged by police to easily clone a car key.
Many long COVID patients adjust to slim recovery odds as world moves on
There are certain phrases that Wachuka Gichohi finds difficult to hear after enduring four years of living with long COVID, marked by debilitating fatigue, pain, panic attacks and other symptoms so severe she feared she would die overnight.