September 26th, 2010
Tri Express
I am so proud of myself. Last night, I finally went to Tri Express, Montreal’s worst kept sushi secret. How many people told me to go there – I have lost track. We had a late 8:30 reservation and had I known the place seats only about 20 (+ worst kept secret = packed), I wouldn’t have got lost by going West instead of East out of the metro. By the time we realized we were walking in the wrong direction (+ already late = not good), I called to make sure we still had a table… and was told we’d sit at the bar.
An eternity later, we take our seat at the bar and here I am, taking my trench off, explaining to the waiter that I’ve neeevvveeerrr been so East in Montreal in my life (out loud and all) when …
I see, behind me, Denis Gagnon.
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And it’s Karl all over again.
I turn around, quick, sit down and see Tri Du, the world-renowned sushi chef, in. my. face. Thank God he turned out to be funny, warm and unintimidating because all along I was smiling at him, thinking how will I have the courage to stand up, professional camera in hand, and ask Denis Gagnon for an internship autograph. Or picture. Then my Omakase 1 arrives. (The other fabulous thing about Tri is that unpretentiously their menu is online, so instead of spending half an hour in the restaurant making up my mind, I spend half the day at home thinking about what I’ll want comes supper). And at the first bite, I understand why I spend so much energy locating this place, why I’ve been promising friends I’ll go there, I even forget Denis Gagnon is behind me.
3 Responses
Your last line is priceless!
FINALLY! I've been waiting for this blog post since I got your text! Those 1247 page views- yeah, that was me. What surprises me most is that YOU, got lost. Whaaaaaat??????????? Oh man, I can't believe you didn't go up to him and at the very least tell him that you loved his last collection! Oh well…This is all good practice for the day you meet Patrick Robinson or Marc (with you DEC finished). I'm dying of laughter at the waiter thing. Typical. It's like one night at work, I had this decently attractive older guy (who appeared to have had some botox done) in my section with his unnusually better looking girlfriend. When they left, one of the other waitresses comes up to me and goes: "OMG! Was that guy a good tipper??" She then explains to me that he's like some big tv quebecois actor. I can't remember his name but I thought it was too funny because of course, I would be the only person there to not have a clue as to who he is (and it also explained the hot girlfriend). And yes, he was a good tipper :)
P.S. The food looks so beautiful even I would like to try it. Tomorrow, whisper in my ear or write down how much the bill came up to, but make sure I'm not drinking anything. It would be a shame to spit out my coffee in shock…
omg i love this, you write so well and what an experience that must've been :D
Cristina ( i dont have any of these online accounts lol)