Business Lounge; An Old Port Hot Spot That Won’t Disappoint

Located in Montreal’s Old Port district, Business Lounge offers an ambiance similar to the many nightlife establishments nearby. At first sight, one would feel like having just walked into a bourgeois’ dining room. However, its level of elegance and class make this venue stand out from the rest while still offering drinks at affordable prices.

Its modest entrance opens up to a narrow and deep, dimly lit room. The doorman and efficient bartenders greet you in a friendly manner, a characteristic seldom seen in Montreal’s busy hot spots. With two floors open on a Saturday night and the many festivities being held in the neighborhood, there was no problem in finding a seating place for all sized parties. The interior decor reminisces of the centennial-type architecture complete with dark wood wall paneling, burgundy velour banquets and black iron chandeliers that give a somber, yet intimate mood. The latter also enhances a feeling of intoxication without having to down half a bottle of Grey Goose. The dark vintage furniture contrasts with the bar’s metallic industrial look. This change in décor is interesting and mixing up your surrounding made the venture for drinks that much more exciting.

A quaint dance floor placed near the bathrooms serves for the select few who chose to get their groove on in an establishment best suited for sit-downs and friendly conversations. With good music pumping throughout the place without it being over-drowning, Business Tapas & Lounge is a spot I highly suggest to check out whether it’s for a quick drink with a partner, a night out with a large group of friends, and everything in between.

Pros

• Friendly staff
• Good prices
• Elegant décor
• Many mirrors on the walls (for the ladies)

Cons

• Secluded location
• Small dance floor
• Slightly younger crowd (age 20-25)

Vote For Best Shisha Lounge

What’s the best shisha lounge in Montreal for you? I’ve listed a few at the bottom here, but obviously I can’t cover every single one. If the one that you want to vote on isn’t listed, leave a comment and I’ll add it accordingly.

Montreal Needs Better Shisha Lounges

Is it just me or is every shisha/hookah lounge in Montreal a ghetto? What happened to smoking in a respectable atmosphere, such as Stogies or Whiskey Cafe? I don’t know about everyone else, but the majority of the lounges in Montreal are a dump in my opinion. Honestly now, the place I last went to (which will go unnamed for now) had the stench of body odor in the air. Surely this isn’t the establishment”s fault, but there should be some ventilation going on in there. Another place I once went to on Decarie Blvd. looked like a broken down fast food restaurant that basically served tobacco. The worst place I’ve been to had holes in the walls with a small couch trying to hide them. Clever. Bravo.

The nicest lounge I’ve been to that definitely had some class was called Suite 3930 on St-Laurent boulevard. It was nicely decorated, the staff was friendly and the music wasn’t loud at all. You could actually sustain a conversation with a friend without having to shout in each others ears. The prices were decent too, and the shisha itself was the best I’ve had in Montreal (besides my creations…). The owner eventually made his business private and only approved certain guests to come in (basically a private shisha lounge, a first of its kind). Sadly, this place literally disappeared the following day when I tried to go for a second round of smoking after being 6 months or so open. Their phone lines were cut off, doors bolted shut, curtains over the windows… it was all tell-tale signs of abandonment. I suspect the owners fled the country for whatever reason(s), most likely avoiding taxes or they might not have had the appropriate smoking licenses in place to run such a joint.

For the longest time, a friend of mine and I discussed the possibility of opening up our own shisha lounge for kicks. We’d design the place to be comfortable, modern and overall be fresh. Comfortable couches and chairs would be the norm (ones with cushion at that) proper ventilation all around to keep the air circulated & clean, have a dress code in effect, and definitely serve the finest tobacco out there: Al Fakher of course. Montreal wouldn’t know what’s coming to them, and we’d seriously have a nice niche going, serving more mature and higher-end clientèle. Of course, this dream got shattered once we found out that we couldn’t get a smoking permit anymore. Too bad.

Montrealers: A Series of Articles

montrealing.com will have a series of articles on Montrealers who have made their mark in their respective fields. We will be having articles and interviews with these great individuals with an objective of having the most elaborate archives regarding Montrealers.

Montrealing.com Party Tour

We are teaming up with the best promoters in town for an unforgettable  series of parties around the city.  Let me tell you that these parties are going to be INSANE !!! Amazing DJ line-up, out of this world entertainers and naturally, the best looking people in the world: Montrealers. The schedule of the montrealing.com tour will be announced shortly, with the first event held at the montrealing.com loft. Again, stay tuned…

The Montrealing.com Loft

We are pleased to announce that the montrealing.com headquarters is under construction and will be ready shortly! The loft is a 2500 sq/ft  location in the St. Hubert Plaza and will be the place to be for all types of events. The place will be most known for its pre-parties, where Montreal’s finest will meet and greet right before taking the limos to a night out in town. I already have some “before” pictures but will wait for the “after” pictures to post them all at the same time, because quite honestly, the place looked like shit when we first got it. Stay tuned…

Coach Carbonneau Fired

It’s just too bad that it came to this, but props to Gainey for taking the tough decision. Carbo is a great guy but it had come to a point where he was  taking the wrong coaching decisions and digging himself in a bigger whole, mainly because the players had given up on him.  Looking at Various reports, we can conclude that Carbo would not win any awards for communication skills…   Don Lever, the coach of the Bulldogs (the Canadiens farm Team)  is coming to Montreal to asssist  Gainey. The question is, can he be the next coach? even if he is not bilingual? If so, Gainey would once again take the tough decision as I can only imagine how the  French media would react with an anglo coach…

Moomba: yeah, I know, it’s in Laval

When it first opened, Montreal promoters used to hold bets on how long it would take for Moomba to close down. Funny thing is, Moomba outlasted not only the clubs those promoters represented, but the promoters themselves! The fact is that Moomba redefined clubbing and introduced the supper club concept in the Montreal area.

The question is: What is the secret to Moomba’s success? I think it’s a combination of many things:

1. Good food and good music
2. Large, spacious and nicely decorated
3. Free and abundant Parking: It’s in a shopping center, so that explains it
4. Bouncers who actually do their job: You will never see teeny boppers in this joint
5. Great shows and special events that are always out of the ordinary
6. Great management and the ever-so sociable Jack

There are probably some other reasons that I’m forgetting or ignoring, but this place is all about Montrealing, even if it’s not physically on the island.

Altitude 737 – What the hell happened?

I don’t want to sound like a ” back in my days” kind of  person but what the hell happened to 737?  This place is the prime location for a club in Montreal and for some reason it has become a dump!  In case you didn’t know, this club is on the top floor of the Ville Marie building, the highest peak in Montreal; the one with the rotating light on it.

The people running this place are simply incompetent !  I stopped by the place the other day and the place looks like its been vandalized.  This used to be one of the only clubs in Montreal that looked good even when the lights were on!   There are dozens of promotion teams out there that I’m sure would love to fill this place up with Montreal’s hottest and sexiest.   Somebody should take over this place and run it like it deserves to be run.  All it takes is a good DJ, a reputable promoting team and the location will do the rest.  The sooner this is done, the better.  Summer is on the way and I can already see the hundreds of people partying it up on that huge terrace, which believe it or not, even had a pool in it !

Marathon Souvlaki – Why are you so good?

If you are thinking of starting a successful restaurant chain, you should probably stop by one of Marathon’s Souvlaki location and take some notes; these people have figured things out. Everything these people have on the menu is a delight from those little round fries to the their special marathon salad dressing and tsatsiki.

Marathon  locations are always packed with all types of people all thinking the same thing:  I hate you Marathon…  because I love you. Why? because every bite of that sandwich is a conscious decision to live with its consequences:  the garlic breath, not to be confused with ”garlic bread”.

So here’s some Marathon related  advice.

1. This is NOT a good place for a first date, unless you are into sometype of  kinky disgusting  garlic fetish
2. Take the marathon salad, its borderline addictive
3. Try the Greek beer, it tastes a little weird, but its good
4. If you go there at night, after clubbing, expect your bedroom to smell like shit the next day, enough to have your roommate/parents/siblings to force you to open the window.

I guess the garlic references can  apply to any greek or  even lebanese  place, but I thought I would give some props to Marathon since they really are the best. And no they are not paying me…  Even if they did, I would take store credit over cash.

« Previous Page