Which is more important—the zen or the onigiri rice balls—I don’t know.
Here’s what I do know: Le Café Falco is tucked into the big warehouse district east of St-Laurent, where Mile End hipsters used to never think to wander, at least not without a map.
But this cafe, next to a ton of Montreal start-up small business incubator office buildings (sorry for the spewing of nouns) is the only place in the city for un-squished onigiri rice balls stuffed with savoury meat, fish, tofu, or vegetables. Even more unusual is seeing sprouted mung bean, seaweed and sesame seed salad with a maple syrup-based vinaigrette, or siphon coffee.
Best Japanese Snack Food: Onigiri
This is a simple snack with a few mouthfuls of surprise inside, like the soy and miso-sweetened chopped tofu skin onigiri filling, or the slightly bitter mustard leaves and soy with turmeric and vinegar, sautéed in soy sauce.
Le Falco has a hammock. You know how I feel about hammocks. It’s not really a napping hammock, which definitely makes it lose points, but you could sit in it, so it’s quasi-functional. The art and décor of the café are also done by the owner’s husband, and the décor creates a very zen feeling in the café.
You’re likely to find office workers from the neighbourhood talking quietly and somberly while sipping cups of coffee with a brioche from Boulangerie Guillaume or a cookie outside of meal times.
Le Café Falco closes at 5pm daily and is only open Saturday for brunch, so the best time to check them out is from 11:30-12:30. They often run out of onigiri and sandwiches by 2pm.
Not feeling the rice balls? Make your own combo from a choice of sandwiches, soup, salads, and onigiri. The onigiri are $1.75 each, and two with a salad (marinated daikon, Japanese lentils, beets with tahini using local vegetables whenever possible) is under $6. Sandwiches are a little more expensive in the $7-$9 region, but a bowl of home-made soup (carrot-orange one day, celery and celeriac the next – not so Japanese in flavours but Japanese in simplicity and quality) won’t break your budget.
The sandwiches are a mix between what you’d expect to find at upscale cafes (the ones that make their own, not the ones that have them brought in) and Japanese flavours – thin omelets made with organic eggs are folded into ham and vegetable-stuffed baguette or organic chicken with onion confit and coriander. And there’s usually a vegetarian option with egg-free mayo.
A coffee or tea costs extra, though, so you’ll end up paying more overall (and generally receive smaller portions) than for a combo at L’Entoilage. The money’s worth it, though, since every little bite is full of flavour and the cafe owners support local and organic as much as possible. They even bike around the neighbourhood (to Guillaume’s Bakery and to Jean-Talon market) to pick up ingredients and brioche instead of using a car or having items delivered to the cafe.
When I asked the owner why the café only does siphon pot coffee (beakers of glass on the wooden counters make the place look like the most friendly science experiment you’ll ever walk into), she said it’s because siphon coffee doesn’t use electricity. So you may need to wait a few extra minutes for your coffee, but you get to watch it pass through the glass apparatus which is fun (at least the first few times). After that you can just sit yourself down on the hammock and take a load off while you wait
Le Café Falco
Where: 5605 rue de Gaspé
514-272-7766
Hours: Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm
How Much: $15 all-in for lunch and a coffee
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