24 Hours

Quebec City’s Saint-Roch District

By Giancarlo La Giorgia

Beyond the battlements, just northwest of Quebec City’s old quarter, trendy Saint-Roch entices visitors with great dining experiences in a vibrant urban setting.

Versa Restaurant-Bar

Travellers expecting the postcard setting of Old Quebec are in for a surprise: Saint-Roch embodies the chic culture and style of modern Quebec. Indeed, it has become a magnet for young professionals, artists and students, not to mention foodies from all over. My wife, Rita, and I are spending a day checking out the food scene centred around Rue Saint-Joseph, the heart of the district.

We start off our day of culinary exploration with breakfast at De Blanchet, the bakery, caterer and fine food shop of master pastry chef Roland-Alain Blanchet. The airy, sunlit space provides lots of room to admire Blanchet’s eye-catching confections and other gourmet goodies. Taking a seat at the long communal table near the door, we order two soup bowl-size cafés au lait, into which we decadently dip a pair of buttery croissants, and follow up with a colourful assortment of macaroons (apple pie, maple, lavender and dark chocolate with chili pepper).

At lunchtime, we head a couple blocks west on Rue Saint-Joseph to dine at Le Clocher Penché Bistrot. This bustling, unpretentious eatery, festooned with paintings by local artists, is owned by a pair of chefs whose tastes run toward stripped-down French and pan-Mediterranean classics. We opt for the boudin noir (blood sausage) and bavette de boeuf (flank steak), both made with regional ingredients. Lunch menus change daily, dinner menus weekly, and both are complemented by a good selection of privately imported wines.

Later, after leisurely browsing the designer stores on Rue Saint-Joseph – Bloomis for high-end perfumes, Baltazar for modern housewares, Benjo for kids’ toys and Hugo Boss for fashion – we find respite at the Maison de Thé Camellia Sinensis. This exotic apothecary-like space is perfumed by its collection of over 150 teas and herbal infusions from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Eager to try something different, we order a pot of organic rooibos chai, a ruby red tisane from South Africa that’s naturally sweet and pleasantly soothing.

For dinner, we decide to splurge at the pricey but excellent Restaurant l’Utopie. The dining room’s standout feature is its glass-encased 3,000-bottle wine rack, a perk of the restaurant’s side business as a wine importer. Befitting a restaurant of this calibre, the sommelier and avant-garde chef skilfully complement each other’s strengths: Our nine-course dégustation menu is perfectly paired with fantastic, sometimes obscure wines. (There’s also a bouteille menu, pairing fewer courses with a single wine.) The menu changes weekly, but expect deluxe ingredients, including tuna belly sashimi, two-pound crab legs and partridge, prepared with molecular gastronomy flourishes, like horseradish foam, cubed basil or seaweed jelly, and served with panache on large slate tiles.

In the mood for a nightcap, we stroll down to Rue de Parvis and join the crowd at Versa Restaurant-Bar. This hopping joint claims to serve the best martinis and mojitos in town, and with ingredients like fresh mango and raspberries, they’re certainly the most exotic. For a bite-size bar snack, I suggest either the duo of basil beef or spicy salmon tartare mini-burgers. If you’re torn between the two, just ask your server for a plate with one of each – and another mojito, for good measure.

(Giancarlo La Giorgia is a Montreal-based freelance journalist and the author of the non-fiction bestseller Canadian War Heroes: Ten Profiles in Courage.)

Useful information

Le Clocher Penché Bistrot, 203 Rue Saint-Joseph E., 418-640-0549

TOP PHOTO: VERSA RESTAURANT-BAR
BUILDING: BENOÎT LACHANCE