Sometimes plan B turns out to be best. When my friend and I couldn’t get into our brunch restaurant of choice (the line up out the door and around the corner was discouraging), we quickly scrambled for our phones to find someplace else nearby ending up at Cafe Bloom, an unassuming and out of the way place on the corner of Centre Street and Rue Jardin in Pointe St. Charles, an area just South West of downtown Montreal.

While I enjoyed the hot chocolate, my French Toast with bacon sauteed in maple syrup was the star of the show. Besides the typical fresh pastries and sandwiches you might expect to see on a typical brunch menu, there are a few unexpected surprises, like baba ganoush, Mexican Pozole soup, and Korean fare like Kimchi and Bibimbap. They also had veggie options which aren’t always easy to find. The distressed hardwood floors and simple, rustic decor of Café Bloom give a nod to the 19th-century industrial roots of the now trendy neighbourhood ‘The Point’ has since become. Café may be a little undiscovered (if not underappreciated) for now, but I predict it won’t be long before it picks up in popularity.