Summer of Smiles: Chef of Le Violon shares his top picks for visitors to Montreal
It is shaping up to be quite the summer for Montreal celebrity chef Danny Smiles.
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The 48-seat eatery on a quiet corner of Rue Marquette and Rue Gilford, which hosted former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and pop star Katy Perry earlier this week, presents French and Italian-inspired dishes with a focus on fresh, local seasonal ingredients.
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In a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, Smiles and team serve thoughtful, innovative bites that he describes as, 'super honest.' He prides himself on the menu's simplicity, which was the main goal for Smiles and his partners (co-executive chef Mitch Laughren, wine director Andrew Park and creative director Dan Climan).
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Then in July, Smiles and his team opened Dalmata, an Italian-style ice cream shop in the Mile End that serves gelato from soft serve machines, which began as an off-menu experiment at Le Violon.
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'We never had dreams of opening an ice cream shop but there was this locale that our friends owned and they came to us and said they thought an ice cream shop would go well here,' said Smiles.
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Just a 15-minute walk away from Dalmata is Smiles' dive-y late night burger bar Double's, which rounds out an eclectic portfolio of projects that each highlight a different aspect of his personality.
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While Smiles honed his skills through stages at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, he's very much a product of his multicultural upbringing in East Montreal. 'My dad is Egyptian Lebanese and my mom is Italian and I grew up in a very Italian neighbourhood,' Smiles says. 'My grandma lived next door and she was a terrific cook. It was two different backgrounds meshed together and it was just so beautiful. I was born in the 80s and growing up there were a lot of immigrants and a lot of influences.'
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