A Sultry New Lounge Atop Montreal’s Red-Light District Has Premium Sound & Vintage Vibes

A slick and sexy new lounge has opened in Montreal’s former Red-Light District: Emmanuelle, on the fifth floor of the 2-22 building at the intersection of Rue Sainte-Catherine and Boul. Saint-Laurent is a high-end 3,500 square-foot lounge that enhances the city’s award-winning nightlife scene with a custom sound system as well as drinks and dishes from local industry veterans.

After taking the elevator up, guests enter another world designed by the Montreal-based Atelier Zébulon Perron. The elongated dining room and terrasse — fit for either 140 seated guests or as many as 275 standing and sampling cocktails — glows with an erotic 1980s aesthetic. That means a lot of warm colours, soft textures, and vintage decorations reminiscent of the movie sets featured in the videotapes your parents probably kept hidden on the top shelf of their closet.

You might also recognize the name Emmanuelle from growing up in Quebec? If you know, you know.

Originally opened for this year’s Grand Prix weekend ahead of a grand opening on June 29, the project began with Donald Lauture, a Montreal entrepreneur and DJ with nearly 20 years of experience in the nightlife industry. Three years in the making, the venue concept is based on Lauture's visits to a range of hotels, lounges, and private homes in Hong Kong, Vienna, London, Dubai, Paris, Doha and Monaco.

Combining his music experience with teams from Moog Audio and CODA Audio, Lauture and company adapted Emmanuelle’s interior so its sound system could deliver a precise quality of sound while being completely concealed in the lounge’s aluminum grid ceiling, sourced from France.

The vibes get even better on Emmanuelle’s four-season terrasse with a pergola that looks out onto the city streets. Conceived in New York and built in Turkey, it’s equipped with an automated guillotine window system that opens in the summer while being heated in the winter.

As for the food? The lounge’s chef Nick Bramos is using his experience from places like Four Seasons Marcus, Toqué!, Taverne Monkland and Succeda to create a menu of small sharing plates including to-die-for options like wagyu tartare covered in caviar, raw and cooked fish, and Instagram feed winners like racks of lamb and octopus à la plancha.

Dimitry Saint-Louis is behind the bar’s cocktails. Having worked at spots like Le Royal, Mon Lapin, and Four Seasons Marcus, he’s built a drink list using premium spirits, seasonal ingredients, and homemade syrups to create both all-new creations as well as frozen margaritas and palomas served out of Patron bottles.

It’s by no means a casual place, but if you’re dressed for a night out you can easily come here just as much for a fashionable pre-game as you can for late-night boozy dancing.