You need to taste this Montreal wine bar's Szechuan-style pop-up before it's too late

Before they were able to open in late June, Montreal's bars were left in a holding pattern, wondering when they would be able to open. That left many of the city's drinking establishments, from dives and watering holes to names that nabbed rankings on Canada's 50 Best Bars, wondering how they could adapt.

That included vinvinvin in Petit-Patrie, an upstart wine bar that quickly gained fame last year with its ability to curate selections of must-drink bottles. As a result, they started a Szechuan-inspired pop-up called miammiammiam—see what they did there?—to create some food sales to float them until they could reopen. 

The thing is, it's still running. While vinvinvin has been known to dish out some excellent complimentary dishes along with their wines, this Chinese menu is just as much worth a visit. Check out the menu here.

Small plates of vegetables like garlic eggplant, oyster mushrooms with Szechuan peppercorns, mapo tofu and dan dan noodles just served up with sesame seed-covered steamed buns for dipping and mopping up sauces left in the bowl. Best of all, the team up at vinvinvin are able to come up with pairings for the dishes.

Don't get us wrong, you can find editors at Time Out ordering Chinese food just about every other week, but this wine bar's menu creation gives the city another reason to get out and explore the variety of culinary offerings out there. It's worth it just to pay attention to their feed, as other events like the fundraiser menu night of Nihao Ma Habibi—a one-night "Sichuan-Lebanese fusion dinner" where proceeds went to victims of the Beirut explosion—can take place.