Rich People Need To Eat Too
"Rich people are weird," a friend of mine recently mused, "they eat things that clearly taste awful just so that they aren't eating the beef and chicken the common man does all the time." Perhaps if you've been successful in life, you look for ways to distinguish yourself from the six-pack masses in more ways then the fancy car and the big house - perhaps you'd even eat things most people would rather avoid.
Thursday's (1449 rue Crescent) is just the sort of restaurant where you might meet such people. Located inside the eloquent Hotel de la Montagne, the restaurant has a fair amount of French cuisine and high dining, but the menu is varied enough to cater to those not overly enamored by food that could pass as fashion. This is Quebec, after all. Among our dinner party, though, we ate dishes that spanned the culinary cultures of the world: from Escargot to Chinese noodles, from New Orleans Crab Cakes to Korean-style Baby Octopus - all delicious and immaculately prepared. The baby octopus was decidedly the most unusual entree of the night. We were served a small octopus with a smattering of salad off to the side of the plate. I really don't know how to describe the taste of octopus. Perhaps if I was richer, I'd have the vocabulary necessary.
The restaurant is right next to a bar and small dance-area also bearing the Thursday's name, and it seems the crowded motif of those areas translated over to the restaurant - tables are a little too close together, and the waiters are nearly forced to sidestep each other and the guests - but the food is worth it.
Thursday's is a fine choice if you're trying to impress a date or dabble in the finer culinary pursuits. I must say, though, I saw something a few days after visiting this restaurant that poked serious holes in my friend's thesis regarding rich people: a Lamborghini Gallardo parked outside of a McDonalds, with the requisite gaggle of stunned gawkers assembled around the car. Perhaps Big Mac Attacks know nothing of high-tax-brackets and first-class flights.
