Juliette & Chocolat is more than chocolate, it’s a festival for the senses. My daughter and I were invited to the grand opening of their new location on the west island. We were greeted with an overflowing chocolate fountain of delight. I felt like I was on a Willy Wonka factory tour with my inner child. This was not going to be a regular review of the norm. There were kids with plastic bib aprons ready to get messy with their chocolate treats. Yes, get ready to get messy with your chocolate food. This was a perfect opportunity to spend some quality father-daughter time at Juliette & Chocolat. This is the place where your sweet tooth gets re-activated. Everything in the restaurant looks so chocolicious! That should be a word.
Joseph Mantagaris is a globe-trotting chef who has garnished many years of experience in many countries. At the age of sixteen, he started as a cook’s helper and has not looked back. He has cooked for celebrities. His wealth of cooking knowledge from every continent brought him back home to create a few restaurants in Montreal. His passion now is with Beurre and Baguette. Your mouth will discover the plates he created from his travels. The ever-changing online menu has something for everybody. You will find standards such as pizzas, kid corner meals for picky eaters, pasta meals, a variety of sushi, poke bowls and a wealth of salads. The menu keeps changing each day.
Coffee connoisseurs rejoice, Montreal is about to get a new café from British Columbia. 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters has chosen to expand outside BC and picked Montreal as the first café expansion. MtlRestoRap’s Tony Medeiros had the opportunity to interview Sara Bilodeau the Café Director for 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Quebec. She is very excited about the new location in Old Montreal this summer. 49th Parallel is going to be a very popular destination for coffee lovers. In addition to their coffee, the brand is bringing with them their oh-so-delicious Lucky’s Doughnuts (Beignes Lucky’s)! With mouthwatering doughnuts and irresistible coffee, Montreal’s first-ever 49th Parallel Café is set to become Old Port’s new go-to café this summer!
Cavallaro St-Jean has been in business for 12 years. Matthew Blanchette and his business partner took over in late 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The two knew they had a tough road ahead of them, but both were ready for the challenge. Cavallaro is your one-stop shopping for European products such as pasta, tomato sauce, cookies and rare to find products at your local grocery store, priding themselves in finding the perfect gastronomic experience of imported products. They also believe in selling the freshest local products for their clients.
In 1981 Giuseppe Cavallaro started with just a humble storefront. Back then, life was a little different. The milkman delivered your milk daily and we bought groceries from people we knew on a first-name basis. Today, we still believe in those same values.
If you had a busy day at work, Cavallaro St-Jean is ideal when going home to feed yourself and your family. It is a quick stop, with plenty of parking and no hassles. You are in and out in a flash.
Cavallaro St-Jean has a variety of deli meats (salami, porchetta, smoked turkey, mortadella, capocolli, pepperoni, and other meats) to make succulent sandwiches at home. Of course, you will need cheese and boy do they have a big choice there. You can buy fresh bread, rolls, and baguettes to accompany those sandwiches. If you are not feeling it, they have a few sandwich choices for you made on the spot. The fridges are loaded with a variety of standard soft drinks and carbonated health alternatives to down your sandwich.
Matthew was very gracious in offering some food for take-out. I picked the ready to heat lasagna to bring home. It was a generous portion of meatballs and tomato sauce enveloped in tender lasagna pasta. I enjoyed the baguette they offered to me. I noticed behind the glassed counter they had an excellent pick of different salads: from chic pea salads, potato salad, taboulé, cold pasta salad to mixed olives. These side dishes are a great idea for your other meals at home.
I picked a chicken breast sandwich with a house hot sauce for my wife. She enjoyed her sandwich. Her go-to sandwich is always the chicken type. Cavallaro St-Jean did not disappoint.
The soups are to die for. On cold days you can bring home in-store classics such as creme of tomato, pasta e Fagioli, and potato & leak. Just warm up and enjoy with another person or keep for another day.
If you are the type that likes to warm up food or want to add to your food creations, Cavallaro St-Jean has a frozen section of different foods that you can bring home that you can put in your oven and heat till ready. They have frozen pizza balls so that you can make pizza at home, but do not forget to buy the tomato paste, cheese, and pepperoni.
My wife and I tried the tomato pizza. You can eat just like that or add ingredients to it if you like or even warm it up. They have eight different pizzas to pick from. Below are the different types that they offer.
Pizza: Tomato, garlic and herbs, cheese, cheese & olives, meat, pepperoni, and vegetarian.
Sandwiches: Chicken pané, Philly steak, I love meat, Cubano, calzone spinach spiral and empanada.
Every restaurant has a pièce de resistance offering and Cavallaro St-Jean has theirs too. My eyes just popped when they brought out the cannoli nachos. Right in front of me was the most delicious dessert that my eyes did behold. Cannoli nachos are made of pretty much the same ingredients as cannoli filling. The ingredients include ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips. The cannoli are in a plastic dish container. It is surrounded by cannoli shell chips that are perfectly tender and flaky. All you do is scope the chocolate chip cannoli filling onto your shell chips. Please do not double-dip! Nobody likes a double dipper. Remember George Costanza from Seinfeld?
What goes better with cannoli nachos but coffee and they have plenty of this. You can grab a hot brew on your way to work or when you go for a walk. You must have one if you are going to buy a dessert there. There is nothing like the aroma of coffee to draw you in. I was so tempted to grab a coffee with my cannoli nachos. For the next Super-Bowl, I am grabbing a few cannoli nachos for my football party, assuming the pandemic is over by then.
Matthew Blanchette and his business partner were busy when I was looking at the vast number of imported products. They were getting ready for Easter. You should order early for Easter; it is around the corner.
Cavallaro St-Jean is a quaint little corner of Europe in the West Island without leaving Montreal. Not exactly a restaurant, but well equipped to feed your family each day with a little something different that is not found in your local grocery store. This has now become my little secret spot. I hope you will support them. They are very accommodating in bringing in new products and keeping them fresh. Matthew Blanchette relocated to the west-island community and wants you to enjoy what he has to offer you a great eating experience.
If you are not able to go to Cavallaro St-Jean, you can use Uber Eats to get what you are looking for. You can contact them at cavallarostjeanddo@gmail.com or call at 514-675-1824. Conveniently located at 4701 Boulevard Saint-Jean, Dollard-des-Ormeaux. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.
