In warmer months, the experience begins with cocktails and canapés on the new elevated patio before moving into the restaurant proper, where 15 guests share the industrial-chic dining room and 10 more sit at the sleek chef’s counter. This year, chef-owner Massimo Piedimonte has conjured his love of Montreal culture and local terroir into a seven-course tasting menu inspired by the seven deadly sins. Dishes can change almost daily, according to whatever ingredients catch his eye, and may often carry additional narratives. Reflecting his roots (“Italian-grown, French Canadian-born”), an opening amuse-bouche might be a crisp cannolo filled with a classic French beef tartare, first seen when Piedimonte competed on Top Chef. Les Feuilles Mortes (which “sounds like walking in Mont-Royal Park in autumn,” he notes) is a tumble of crisps shaped like fallen leaves, made from squash, sunchoke and beets with a lightly spiced crémeux of honey. A dish of buckwheat, malted cereals and blackcurrant pays tribute to Leonard Cohen’s Jewish Orthodox heritage. Complementing all the fun is the perfectionist execution of the dishes and ultra-professional service from the front-of-house team led by maître d’ Olivier Soliveres.

Massimo’s focused style of dining is paired with a ferocious intensity of flavour — it holds you in the space long after you have dined.” Darren MacLean