Joe Beef!

Tonight my co-worker Dean and I had dinner at Joe Beef, a Montreal restaurant which certainly lived up to its name. That web page doesn't really say anything about the place -- if you're interested, check out what the folks at eGullet have to say.

The room is very small, only 26 seats, and the two-tops along one wall are crammed in so closely that the beyond-adorable servers have to move the table in order for you to get to the banquette seating. (I don't usually go on and on about the attactiveness of random women but this woman was seriously cute). The seating arrangement fostered a sense of community that I don't usually care for when I'm eating, but it turned out to be very comfortable. Many of the diners seemed to know each other as well as the waitstaff -- since we went on a Wednesday I'm guessing it was mostly regulars, though the room was full, and we only got a reservation due to a last-minute cancellation.

There were lots of things on the menus which sounded very tasty -- filet mignon, trout on a bed of lentils, roast guinea hen, Dover sole, mussel soup. They have a huge wine list including several wines by the glass. We started with a half-dozen oysters on the half shell -- a few from British Columbia and a few from Price Edward Island -- before moving on to the main course.

After mulling over the guinea hen as well as the "Pot Pie" with boudin sausage, we decided to split the cote du boeuf, which was a rib steak. Actually it was more like an entire rib roast cut into steak-sized pieces -- there must have been 2 lbs. of beef, plus a giant rib bone. Seriously, this thing was huge. I'm planning to bring the bone home and make my dogs the happiest dogs in the world, and I figure that if Montreal gets snowed in over the next few days Dean and I will be able to survive for at least a week on the leftovers.



In addition to being large, though, the steak was great -- tender, juicy, and well-prepared in a horseradish wine jus with greated cheese on top. The Swiss chard tart seemed almost unnecessary in the face of so much steak.

As we were getting our coats, one of the owners (Fred) came out, introduced himself, and thanked us for coming. It's the sort of thing you might expect from a brand-new restaurant, but for him to be doing it two years in is a nice touch. All in all it was a very nice meal in a great atmosphere and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who's in Montreal and looking for a big, hearty meal.