Stroll along Saint-Hubert Street between Rosemont to the south and Villeray to the north, and you’ll hit on a strip that’s totally unique in the city—a perfect mix of Latin enclave and hipster hot spot. No wonder it ranked one of the world's coolest streets. Part of that stretch of Saint-Hubert is covered with a glass roof—the titular Plaza—so that whatever the season, you can enjoy fantastic food, awesome bars, prom dress shops, bookstores, thrift stores and made-in-Montréal streetwear spots in relative comfort. It’s a street of extremes, which rain or shine, are a guaranteed good time.
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Local artist Gabrielle Tittley opened Pony when it was still the OLD Plaza, pre-2020 reno, when the original awnings were green and graffitied. Her shop features poster art as well as great wearable merch plastered with her singularly witty illustrations. Her hip streetwear store has attracted other cool brands like Lopez MTL (men’s fashion with a skate aesthetic), sneakerhead HQ Kar Nam, and for more down-to-earth shoe lovers, Mile End Kicks.
You want a pub crawl? You’d actually be hard-pressed to stop into all the places on the Plaza and still be standing by the end. Ausgang Plaza is a live-music and dance-party destination with totally unique programming. Le Système is a fantastic new-wave pub, Brouillon is a classy buvette, Spaghetti Western serves up spag bol with a side of Texas Ranch Water, and pick anything tropical at the black-lit Snowbird Tiki Bar — whether it’s the house Mai Tai or the sharing Scorpion Bowl, it’ll take you to a very special place.
Montréal Plaza elevated the tone of the Plaza when it was established here in 2018 by Toqué! alum Charles-Antoine Crête and partner Cheryl Johnson, doling out small plates at higher cost than anything else on the strip, in a relaxed atmosphere packed with the creativity we all expect from them. The décor is a sight in itself. The duo has since opened Juliette Plaza, a bright and light accessible bistro decorated with framed comic book pages and a boast hanging upside down from the ceiling.
The gorditas, burritos and tortas de chilaquiles at Place Juárez draw crowds out the door — to avoid the wait, lovers of Mexican coils also try La Jungle Café, El Mol Cajete or La Toxica. Pizza and Jersey-style casino clams await at Marci, pillowy dumplings at La Maison de Mademoiselle Dumplings or yummy ramen at Yumé Ramen. Le Toaster Villeray is your perfect brunch destination; for sophisticated Thai it’s Pichai; and you’ll find some of the best natas in town at Pâtisserie Rosário. For storied fast food, grab a sandwich at Le Roi du Smoked Meat (est. 1954) or a Montréal sub at Vincent Sous-Marins. Cooks will find all the specialized supplies they want at Épicerie Conserva, Panier Gourmand, Sabor Latina or Top Discount épicerie française, featuring the biggest choice of French-from-France imports in the province.
There’s a whole array of second-hand stores along the strip to help avoid fast-fashion landfills, and to directly support locally made fashion and accessories you’ve got your pick: Belle et Rebelle, ARLOCA and ONZE all curate their own collections of Montréal-made looks, while Espace Urbain is a female-owned community shop chock-a-block with African fashion and home goods. Les Mauvaises Herbes is a beautiful natural cosmetics shop that promotes its DIY philosophy with cool workshops.
Whether it's by taking in the latest exhibitions at contemporary art galleries Art Mûr or Articule, or buying art supplies at the petite and wonderful Kama Pigments art supply store, the creativity spills over on this strip. That’s one of the reasons it has drawn cool local businesses like creative studio TUX and design hubs La Firme and Wedge to set up their HQs there, and continues to pop out the latest cool bars and restos every month.
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The area north of Jean-Talon has long been an enclave for budding fashion designers and makers of all sorts, with a plenitude of shmata shops outshining each other with storefronts full of sequins, silks and satins. One of our fave stops is Ultratext, a wonderfully messy hole-in-the-wall where you can uncover all the sewing notions your heart desires. Not far there’s also Beads Planète, the mother of all jewellery making supply shops.
For an old school experience, dive bar Oméga and its next-door peep show reveal the seedier side of the strip. Saint-Hubert still boasts a couple of sex shops, though fewer than it had. Fetishwear shop Il Bolero has been a mainstay here since the 90s — pop in to find an array of latex gear, assless chaps and padded straps.
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After a great meal, make like a local and embrace the ritual of stopping into the local duckpin bowling alley for a game. Just one block east of the strip, on Saint-Zotique, Quilles G Plus is pure vibz with its Y2K vibe and traditional onsite offerings of cheap beer and decent burgers. It’s open until midnight every weekday and 2 am on the weekend (starting at 10 pm the bowling turns “cosmic”, i.e. glow-in-the-dark), which only partly explains its eternal popularity.
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Another theme that stretches along the Plaza is gaming, with outposts like pop culture merch niche Chez Rhox Geek Stop and its offering of goods ranging from Studio Ghibli lunch boxes to Animal Crossings magnets. Right across the street you’ll find Planète Otaku, packed with model kits and collectible figurines. At GameStop you’ll also find merch but it’s mostly about the actual games.
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