Revealed: Time Out Montreal's 2021 Best of the City award winners

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Theatres have had a supremely difficult time getting through the pandemic, and we're glad to see that institutions like the MainLine have made it through, however scuffed up they are in the process. Our favourite bilingual spot for improv, theatrical performances, and a major anchor for the city's Fringe Festival, it's a theatre that is near and dear to our hearts.

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Montreal gallerist Juno Youn has been on the Montreal scene for a while, and we're happy to see that his eponymous contemporary gallery survived its move to Old Montreal during the pandemic. Not only that, but he and his curation of artists have innovated their offerings extensively bewteen the physical and digital—and don't even get us started on how they brought their best and brightest to art events in the city this past year.

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The art world has struggled a lot with how best to weather the pandemic ever since it struck, forced to innovate quickly and in ways it couldn't have predicted. Centre Phi has been leading the pack: Artist residencies that catch attention and provoke discussion, fascinating curations and installations, and virtual reality work that the city—if you ask us—needs to be paying WAY more attention to, and it all comes together in one multidisciplinary space? What a gem.

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Impérial was a shoe-in for our choice of best cinema since over a month ago; it was a done deal when considering how they've hosted so many great events, and are a prime example of the city's robust film festival culture, despite everything they've had to struggle with alongside every other theatre in the city. Also, it's just gorgeous on the inside? Like, really gorgeous? 

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After launching their terrasse this past summer of the same name with all of its massive fishbowl cocktails and Tulum décor, our vote for best nightlife venue is easily handed over to NewHaūs. An intimate, speakeasy-style club may not be everyone's idea of fun right now with mask restrictions, but the people behind this place are pure innovators on the scene and the curation of music is twice as good.

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Bookstores have been an unsung hero of the pandemic, keeping us company with their wares during the darkest of times. That includes this relatively new name on the scene, a bilingual spot in NDG that specializes in all kinds of fiction, graphic novels, kids' books, and a wonderful regular lineup of events. We wish them all the best, and highly recommend them for your next book to cozy up with.

Montreal has a long history of pedestrianizing its streets and locals love to show up for it, but beyond those long lines for paella and slices mango on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, it's not all that common to see whole strips of the city come together toput on street markets. Then the organizers of Yatai MTL and Japan Week come together with their planning savvy, throw together a massive fair that runs the entirety of Montreal's "second Chinatown" by Concordia University, and BAM: Immediately it's our favourite place to get together to stroll the streets. There was a corgi party, a giant boombox, public performances...? More please!

Outsiders looking into Villeray normally see a densely residential neighbourhood. So why do people flock to Villeray? It's almost—save for the amazing local businesses—Jarry Park: In the summertime it looks like festival grounds (or it actually is festival grounds for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal) with how many people pack on its sprawling green with BBQs a-cooking and people playing baseball and beach vollyball matches if they're not already enjoying the pool or some petanque. If it's winter, you're still going to see folks flocking in for the sliding hill, skating on the pond, hockey, and cross-country skiing. There's a lot to do here, and you can do it all.

The city was full to bursting with street art this year, but one of our favourite projects was Le Germain Hotel's major mural makeover downtown: Dolled up by Canadian artist Michelle Hoogveld, this 171-foot tall brilliant mural called "Dazzle My Heart" is a kaleidoscopically cool piece that's made up of 80 different colors. Downtown is full of a lot of drab colours, and this is one colorful ray of hope for what the city could look like if we gave more and more breathing space to our artists.

It's one thing to throw an event over a single weekend, but eight of them? And it acts as a great cross-section of a nieghbourhood's culinary offerings? It goes without saying that this year's Marché de Nuit de Montréal was an absolutely smashing success, full of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino cuisines to name a few and found below the beautiful installation from La Pépinière. Montreal was on a roll when it came to street food events in 2021, and this one led the pack.

We know, this is double-dipping, but Marché Shoni truly was amazing in how it occupied so much of Sainte-Catherine and had its shit together from day one of operations! It's far too often that an event gets promised to Montrealers and it all falls apart somewhere along the way—not, like, Fyre Festival bad, but it can get awful at times. This event, however, is a case study in being prepared for a huge influx of people, provided resources like hand sanitization stations, maps, and standardized signage and promotion for all of the businesses involved.

It might not be news to Montrealers that MURAL Fest was amazing in 2021, but when you consider all of the amazing things that happened at this year despite all of the restrictions that had been put in place? This festival killed it: Impromptu terrasses with menus from some of the city's best, drag shows, dance parties, and turning the city into a veritable public gallery worth exploring—it was a huge step up from the (sorry not sorry) humdrum online stuff we got stuck with for so long.

Taking place 6 days a week, 7 hours a day, for 30 days, Montreal artist Victor Pilon moved the equivalent of over 144 tonnes of sand from one mound to another over the course of more than 360,000 steps in a free and public marathon performance at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. While the city made the most of its liberties during the summer and fall, this was truly one of the most heart-wrenching and inspiriing public works of art we saw this year. Not bad for the first museum activity to be held within the walls of the Olympic Stadium in 45 years.

It was amazing and breathtaking while it lasted: Showing views that only astronauts can experience, The Infinite brought the world's largest virtual reality experience to date right here to Montreal at Arsenal Contemporary Art, thanks to a collaboration of Felix & Paul Studios and PHI Studio.

Now it's off to Houston, Texas, but while it was here? This combination of virtual reality, augmented reality and projections took users on an immersive, hour-long trip aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for an hour-long experience: 35 minutes of free-roaming VR spread out over 12,500 square feet of rooms. Then there were mirrored corridors, and the digital room-sized artwork by Ryoji Ikeda called The Universe within the Universe, a piece that was created exclusively for the experience. It was without comparison in 2021.

Montreal, you brought your A-game to your street when curfews and lockdowns ended. There were some tough times—and some really tough times (remember those assholes who got impatient and went smashing windows in Old Montreal?)—but when we made it out the other side, we embraced our local businesses like there was no tomorrow, and we did it together.

It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty great.

It's a unanimous decision over at Time Out Montreal that this zero waste pub deserves recognition for everything that it does: Its prioritization of Quebec products both on the plate and from the taps; using its huge space to host cultural gatherings, in-house syrups for the cocktails; and seriously snack-worthy menu... All of that makes this place the complete environmentally-friendly package. 

Honestly, we don't think that this event gets nearly the amount of attention it deserves year after year. You don't have to be the kind of person who's willing to strip down and ride a bike to appreciate it: The event is chiefly a protest against the consumption of oil and its impacts on the environment. By drawing attention to bicycles, the organizers have said that they hope to aid in the promotion of alternative, greener forms of transportation like cycling. That's worthy of praise.

It's something a lot of locals in the area won't stop touting: Verdun sports its own beach, and it only seems to get better with every year. Opening officially in 2019, it gave Montrealers another spot to dip their toes in some sand and surf—apart from flocking to Jean-Doré on Parc Jean Drapeau every summer—and it's a modest place to do so. The season usually runs from June to September, and it's a great place during the day for families and a (literally) cool spot to go for older crowds in the early evening when the sun's still up.

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A lot of things went Montreal's way this year, but we needed a lot of wake-up calls, too: That's why we're choosing local journalist and opinion writer Toula Drimonis as our top pick for this year. Her words have brought attention to systemic racism in the province, calls for diversity, calling out the government on its bullshit, the need for climate action, and even hotter takes like getting rid of Canada Day celebrations and getting rid of the curfew. Even as we're listing everything she's written about, we feel like we're only scratching the surface. Thank you, Toula!

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Ever since it was first announced, we fell in love with the idea of a street market-style event that would bring together businesses from across multiple boroughs in a celebration of one of the city's best and brightest sceneries: Setting up alongside the Lachine Canal behind Arsenal Contemporary Art center, Sudbest  brought together culinary and artisanal works side by side, and they even invited more businesses to join them as the event went on. We can't wait to see additional incarnations of this as the years go on.

Le Monastère has been spreading the good word about the circus at its new digs inside St. Jax Montréal, a repurposed Anglican church. Featuring artists who have earned their big-top stripes from performing with troupes like Cirque du Soleil and earning medals from France’s World Circus Festival, these events are fantastical places for spectators to watch dazzling feats of acrobatics after grabbing a drink at the on-site bar. This past summer is when it truly shone, though: Outdoor shows with a bar and space for picnicking? It was fantastic.

Plans to go zero waste, to ban plastic, to build out some of the largest urban green spaces in North America; it's all happening here. Greenhouse gases are being reduced, access to public services and infrastructure that help make that happen are increasing, and making choices to clean the air, reduce the urban heat island effect, and improving biodiversity are all underway. We're not just becoming a major world player in sustainability; we're becoming a leader.