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
Police arrest Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides
Police have arrested a Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides and investigators say that they believe two of the victims may have been 'randomly targeted.'
NDP house leader laments 'agents of chaos' in precarious Parliament
NDP House leader Peter Julian says there's more his party wants to do in Parliament before the next election, but if the current dysfunction continues it will become a factor in how they vote on a confidence measure.
Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years for voting data scheme
A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Here's what the jury didn't hear in Jacob Hoggard's sexual assault trial
A northeastern Ontario jury has started deliberating in Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard's sexual assault trial, we can now tell you what they weren't allowed to hear.
Youth pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of P.E.I. teen Tyson MacDonald
A teen charged with the murder of another teen on Prince Edward Island last year has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
2 dead after fire rips through historic building in Old Montreal
At least two people are dead and others are injured after a fire ripped through a century-old building in Old Montreal early Friday morning, sources told Noovo Info.
A French judge in a shocking rape case allows the public to see some of the video evidence
A French judge in the trial of dozens of men accused of raping an unconscious woman whose now former husband had repeatedly drugged her so that he and others could assault her decided on Friday to allow the public to see some of the video recordings of the alleged rapes.
Scientists looked at images from space to see how fast Antarctica is turning green. Here's what they found
Parts of icy Antarctica are turning green with plant life at an alarming rate as the region is gripped by extreme heat events, according to new research, sparking concerns about the changing landscape on this vast continent.
Canadian family stuck in Lebanon anxiously awaits flight options amid Israeli strikes
A Canadian man who is trapped in Lebanon with his family says they are anxiously waiting for seats on a flight out of the country, as a barrage of Israeli airstrikes continues.