Dinner: Juliette et Chocolat
Juliette et Chocolat, 1615 St-Denis (514)287-3555

Don't we look spooky with blurred out eyes? That's why I do it: spookyvision!

Last night I went out with La Française for a bite to eat. She had a ton of things to tell me and I had a professor to complain about, so, things worked out just fine. We decided to meet outside Place des Arts metro. Of course, I was about 15 minutes late. Sorry, Française, I didn't mean to make you wait. Obviously, the whole time she had been thinking about where we should go. So, as soon as I barrelled up to her in a frenzy of apology, she waited for me to catch my breath and say "Hey, why don't we walk over to that place I told you about - Juliette et Chocolat." Certainly, I was in to position to object. Not that I wanted to. A few months ago La Française had gone out for lunch with a friend, also from France. They went to Juliette et Chocolat and she came back raving about these crêpes au sarrasin that I just had to taste.

So, off we went and fifteen minutes and a world of information later, we arrived at a small, quaint, fruitfully decorated, whimsical basement café.

Have you ever seen the movie Chocolat where Juliette Binoche is a young woman who heats up the town with her thick, creamy, decadent chocolate brew spiced with chili powder? Well, if Mme. Binoche lived in Montreal this would be her shop.

The place was filled with young people who looked decidely unromantically involved. It should have been filled with young people who were undeniably sexually involved and looking for some kind of torturous delay tactic. But, who am I to talk, I was there with La Française who, while beautiful, is frankly the wrong gender for me. Anyway, she's seeing someone.

The menu is 90% chocolate and other sugary decadences, 10% savory crêpes. Since we were attempting to have a dinner of some sort, we started with the savory crêpes. The decadences I'll get to later.

Ok, wait. Let me just say this. They have a bar au chocolate, which you'll be surprised to know is a chocolate shooter bar. They serve you different kinds of liquid chocolate in manageable shot glass portions - bitter, semi-sweet, milk, chocolates stemming from different areas like Trinidad and chocolate flavoured with orange and other flavours.

Now, the crêpes are all made of buckwheat flour. You can have them topped with your choice of pestos, a variety of cheeses, asparagus and other vegetables. I chose the épinard, which came topped with spinach, an egg, ham and gruyère cheese. La Française went for a pesto of nuts and cheese, along with extra goat cheese. Overall, I was pleased with my dish. However, the crêpes was ever so slightly overcooked. The edges were just a little crispier than they should have been. The filling was excellent - particularly the egg, which I had asked be well done, rather than runny. Whoever cooked it has great timing. It looked like it would have been runny, but it wasn't and I cut it right away so it hadn't had time to settle. I have it on good authority that La Française enjoyed her crêpe, but that the combination of cheese upon cheese was a little too creamy for her tastes.

The crêpes, while filling, weren't so much so that you couldn't have dessert. Or maybe it's just a case of refusing to leave without sampling the chocolate. It seems that there were more patrons than menus, so after several minutes of looking around hopefully a waitress (who seemed to be Juliette herself) arrived apologetically commenting that "oui, je vous ai vu - vous voulez un dessert, non?" Yes.

The dessert menu, as I've said, is vast. There are sweet crêpes, there are cakes, there are chocolate candies, there are chocolate shooters. Unable to control ourselves, we both opted for the chocolat fondant. If you don't know what that is, then God help you. Fine, I'll just tell you. Usually, it is a rich, moist chocolate cake with a "melting" interior of liquid chocolate. This one was reversed - a rich chocolate cake draped in a wonderful curtain of chocolate balanced by a scoop of hazelnut ice cream. The moistness of the cake was wonderful. The texture just melted in your mouth. The chocolate sauce was slightly sweet and tasted best with an accompanying mouthful of the ice cream.

Men, and I'm talking to the men because lesbians already should know this, getting women drunk is pointless. If you're looking to arouse artificial interest in your date, your best bet is to ply her with liquid chocolate. Trust me. If you "get lucky" with a drunk woman who otherwise would not be interested, then you've taken advantage of her to an extent. If you take the same, mildly disinterested woman for chocolate shooters, she will take advantage of you. Chocolat puts ideas in a woman's head.

Okay, so the service was friendly if at times hurried. The food was mostly good and the chocolate was decadent (the buzz word of this review). I'll give it 3 stars - but the rating could rise once I try the shooters.

Kisses,
Laurelle