Griffintown’s latest morning-after merrymaker is Junior, a Filipino restaurant with a strong nod to its country’s streetfood. Taking centre stage at the small restaurant are a pair of turntables and behind the deckss every weekend morning are co-owners/brothers/DJs Toddy and Jojo Flores of Peopl, a club in Old Montreal. But they create a very different vibe at Junior, were they and a handful of their friends spin old-school funk and hiphop while you dig into Filipino fried chicken-coconut waffles doused in maple syrup and sip calamansi lime mimosas.
The sparkle in those sippers is Bisol, the affordable bubbles of the moment, which fit right in with the natural wine menu by co-owner David Pendon (he also works with Oenopole, a wine import agency in Montreal).*
More impressively, the wine connoisseur has created one of the best beer lists in the city. It’s all hard-to-find Quebec microbrews including Le Castor’s oatmeal stout and Trou du Diable’s APA — things that go well with spicy Filipino pork sausage, braised pork adobo in vinegar and soy sauce, dry honey-garlic spareribs and super snackable pork and vegetable lumpia — the Filipino version of spring rolls.
The goal is to serve umami — perfect drinking food — says Pendon. “I think izakayas kind of broke the seal. ‘Oh you can drink with beef?’ Like nobody ever thought of that before,” he says. In the Phillipines, nightmarkets are hopping at 4 a.m. So he thinks Montrealers are at least ready to branch out with their 5 à 7s and late-evening snacking. He says he wanted to create a space where people can come for a drink of and bite of crispy Filipino fried pork ears (a traditional the country shares with Quebc sugar shacks) after work, or come later for Filipino comfort foods like palabok (“basically a Filipino bolognese with vermicelli noodles and a pork gravy on top,” says Pendon) and chicken adobo manok with lemongrass, ginger and coconut milk.
It’s not hipster food, he says, glancing at the Filipino family at the table by the open kitchen. “We didn’t want to make it fancy. We wanted it to be traditional foods that Filipinos would recognize. And we want people who have gone to the Philippines to be like, ‘This is just like in the Philippines.'”
Despite the nod to tradition, he also wants the place to be a neighbourhood joint. “The moment I wanted to create was something not meal-centric. Like, you don’t have to come from 6-8:30. You can flow through. You can snack. We have the terrasse in the back.”
But it’s at brunch that things get a little more interesting.
Sunny-side-up eggs come with garlic-punched fried rice, soy- and lemon-marinated beef strips, super ripe papaya fruit salad and house-made plantain chips. You can watch the tattooed chef in the back shaving the plantains and manioc to fry throughout the morning service.
If he’s wearing long-sleeves, look for the bright pink kitchen clogs.
And it’s gluten-free! Pendon says they always have at least a few dishes made with gluten-free soy sauce to cater to the growing group of people like me who miss bread. But the second you see an order of the pork belly or fried chicken coconut waffles go by, you’re going to forget about eggs.
In homage to their citizenship, they waffles come with a generous serving of maple syrup. And in homage to their country of origin, they come with vinegary atsara, thin strips of pickled green eggplant and peppers. Break the egg yolk over the rice, add some Filipino banana hot sauce and you’re golden.
“The chef has a background in Italian fine dining,” says Pendon, which explains the honey-sweetened vinaigrette on the perfectly dressed salad that balances that tender beef. Who would have thought a bunch of lettuce would be a highlight of a brunch plate?
What’s next? Soy-marinated skewers for late-night snackers, says Pendon, and they’re working on that occupational license for the back terrasse. But already, weekend bacon and eggs-ers and Filipino foodies alike are flocking to Griffintown for brunch. Maybe you should tagalog tag along…
Junior
Where: 1964 rue Notre-Dame
When: Daily 5:30-11pm, Sat-Sun 10am-11pm
How much: less than $20
514-944-8636
*Disclosure: Pendon did invite me to come check out Junior’s brunch, but he didn’t pay for my meal.
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