After three years of work, downtown Montreal now has a gourmet food hall.
The 40,000 square foot Time Out Market lets Montrealers and visitors sample food and drinks from 16 of the city’s top chefs.
Among the restaurants on offer is Vietnamese joint Le Red Tiger.
“I think it’s going to be crazy for the next month, next year because I know the trend of food halls is crazy in the States, everywhere in the world,” said Le Red Tiger owner Dan Pham. “You can eat pho with short ribs, we’re doing bahn mi different from banh mi in the city.”
Time Out started as a magazine that features food, drink and cultural experiences from each city in which it’s published. The owners have opened a market in Lisbon, Portugal which had 3.9 million visitors last year alone.
Time Out Market CEO Didier Souillat said the concept is to democratize fine dining.
“You’ve got chefs like Normand Laprise right over there selling his own signature burger which starts at $9.00,” he said. “You’ve got a tartelette with mushrooms from chef Claude Pelletier starting at $12.00. So you get a sample of what those chefs do in their own main restaurants but for a fraction of the price.”
A booth from Grumman 78 serves up classics from the restaurant while adding some new recipes like a fried haloumi taco with cauliflower and pickled fennel.
“Someone won’t be able to go eat at Toque and Club Chasse et Peche and all those restaurants here in a week but they could do it at Time Out and that’s really amazing,” said Grumman 78’s Caelle Cerf, who boasted that his Time Out kitchen is bigger than at the restaurant.
Time Out Market features seating for 550 people.
