Montréal's Le Plateau Mont-Royal

Go native in Plateau Mont-Royal, where bespoke shopping, hip eateries, and wacky paint jobs attract locals and transplants alike, making it one of the city’s most diverse and distinctly authentic experiences. .

A creative hub, Montreal’s artistic elite pack the cafes along Rue Saint-Denis, where young painters and fashion designers draw inspiration from the playful murals and stately Victorian homes that dot the Plateau’s side streets. Not a major sightseeing destination, a visit to Plateau Mont-Royal allows you to enjoy a local perspective, soaking in indie films, latte art, contemporary galleries, and the city’s best bagels. A center of polyglot culture, Québécois accents mingle with shades of Portuguese, Greek, and Hebrew in the area’s iconic Mile End district, where restaurants straddle chic designer boutiques, serving up chorizo and caldo verde. Friendliest to those on foot, it’s a jungle of colourful awnings and sidewalk umbrellas, pedestrian walks and luxury shopping.

So hot and yet so cool—the Plateau moves to its own funky beat.

Wrought-iron staircases, old-style stone masonry, walk-up duplexes, imported cars, second-hand bicycles, designer fashion boutiques and funky frip stores: this working-class-turned-yuppie neighbourhood with bohemian undercurrents is by far the grooviest scene in Montréal. Those of us who don’t live here come to play as often as possible.

The Plateau is the best window to view the real Montréal. Here you’ll find a predominantly francophone community featuring an eclectic mix of artists, students, yuppies, and young families, spiced with a healthy dose of other cultures and languages to raise the diversity quotient that much higher. Round it off with a wealth of interesting shops, cafés, pubs and bars, not to forget black-box theatres, art galleries and gourmet shops, and you’ve got a free-spirited, creative atmosphere where all walks of life converge.

We live and play in the eastern shadow of Mount Royal. The edgy urban vitality of our dynamic commercial arteries—such as Saint-Laurent Boulevard or “the Main”, where Montréal’s ethnic communities first set up shop, Saint-Denis Street with its designer boutiques and cafés, Prince-Arthur Street’s BYOW terraces and restaurants, and Mont-Royal Avenue’s trendy hotspots—is balanced by the tranquility and fresh air afforded by luxurious green spaces such as Parc La Fontaine.

The Plateau by night heats up with as many choices of clubs, bars and cafés as you could think of, ranging from fashionable martini lounges to local microbrewery pubs to high-octane coffee shops. Throw in a thriving arts scene where local artists take to the stage nightly, and you’ve got the makings for a perfect night on the town.