Mile End meets Outremont

Montreal's Mile End neighborhood pulses with creative energy at every corner. On this walking tour, you'll explore streets where artisans, musicians, booksellers, and software designers mingle with Italian and Polish immigrants, Hasidic families, and students. This neighborhood represents Montreal at its most vibrant and authentic—a place where multiple cultures coexist in a colorful urban landscape.

The tour starts at the historic Rialto Theatre, an ornate 1920s venue inspired by the Paris Opera. You'll stroll down Parc Avenue, where old Hasidic Jewish businesses like Bijouterie Rothschild stand alongside family clothing shops with simple paper signs in their windows. The journey continues along Saint-Viateur Street, the intersection of hipster and Hasidim, European and New World, where you'll discover the famous Saint-Viateur Bagel Shop cranking out hot wood-fired bagels 24/7.

You'll wander through charming back alleys where underwear hangs on washing lines and tomato plants trail along garden lattices, experiencing the intimate side of Montreal apartment living. After exploring the literary hub of Drawn & Quarterly bookstore, you'll cross into the leafier borough of Outremont with its sedate atmosphere and spectacular parks. The tour ends at Parc Saint-Viateur, where a white stucco pavilion and meandering stream create an opulent green oasis in the heart of the city.

During this 45-minute walk, you'll have a chance to:

• Peek inside Saint-Viateur Bagel Shop, where bakers hand-roll Montreal's famous bagels and cook them over wood fires
• Browse the shelves at S.W. Welch's secondhand bookstore, filled with poetry, classics, and esoteric literary finds
• Stop by Dragon Flowers, a beloved neighborhood shop where owner Tamey Lau has been surprising customers with free gifts for 25 years
• Explore Drawn & Quarterly, an internationally renowned comic book publisher and bookstore that hosts packed literary events
• Experience a quiet ruelle (back alley), where you'll glimpse the intimate backyard life of Montreal apartments
• Visit Club Social, a neighborhood coffee spot where locals gather under a shady tree on the terrasse
• Observe the Neo-Byzantine Church of St. Michael and St. Anthony with its distinctive minaret
• Discover the leafy, affluent neighborhood of Outremont, home to historic French bourgeois families and a quarter of the city's Hasidic Jewish population

Join writer Kathleen Winter through this fascinating cultural crossroads where languages, religions, and lifestyles harmoniously intersect in one of Montreal's most beloved neighborhoods.