Montreal's Getting A New Asian Night Market In The City's 'Second Chinatown' This Weekend
Around 30 vendors will serve street eats on rue Ste-Catherine.
True Montrealers know the city is home to two Chinatowns: the official, traditional Chinatown around rue de la Gauchetière and the unofficial, more contemporary Chinatown in Shaughnessy Village. Now, after seeing the success of the annual Asian night market in Montreal's original Chinatown, Shaughnessy Village is finally getting one of its own: Shoni Market.
From September 10 to 12, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest will close off between rue Lambert Closse and rue de Bleury as pedestrians sample delicious Asian street fare from around 30 different kiosks.
"We thought Shaughnessy is like a hidden pearl downtown [...] and we wanted to make people know [it] better," said Cristina D'Arienzo, director of operations for the Montréal centre-ville business development corporation (SDC). The SDC is organizing the event with help from Yatai MTL, which put on Montreal's Japan Week, and Pocha MTL, a local Korean event producer.
"This is like the second Chinatown," D'Arienzo told MTL Blog. "There's a lot of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese [restaurant owners] especially. [...] Chinatown's like your original traditional neighbourhood, but on Sainte-Catherine is where we can find the new owners and new stores that opened their doors."
The name Shoni, D'Arienzo said, is an insider nickname for Shaughnessy Village and all the participating vendors for the event's inaugural year have restaurants located in the neighbourhood.
Here's a list of eateries you can expect to see:
- Hot Star Large Fried Chicken
- Mama Bangkok
- A Beverage Store
- Petit Poisson Dumpling
- Restaurant Subway
- Ichifuku & Kametsuru Shoten
- Delice Oriental
- Épicerie Du Bazaar
- La Fleuraison
- Nos Thés
- Café Desserts ETC.
- Don Taco
- Lakshana's Chettinad Indian Restaurant
- Boba Boba
- Capitaine Québec (comic books)
- Bar Ganadara
- Marché Oriental Jang Teu
- Mai Xiang Yuan Dumpling
- Chef Lee
- Sammi & Soupe Dumpling
- La Belle & La Boeuf
- Argo Bookshop
- 3 Amigos
- Yin ji Chang Fen (Rouleaux de riz)
- Le Coq Frit
- Gazo
In addition to tasting amazing food, D'Arienzo said there will be DJs, performances, a K-pop dance battle by 2KSQUAD, and a corgi party with more than 100 dogs.
Prices will be different at each stand, but you can budget about $5 to $25 for each dish.
Shoni Market
Price: Around $5 to $25 per dish
When: September 10 to 12 (Friday and Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.)
Address: Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest (between rue Lambert Closse and rue de Bleury)
