Similar to rue Notre Dame in Lachine, Wellington street in the southwest Montreal borough of Verdun is a long thoroughfare with a variety of surprises along the way. Foot traffic here has definitely increased in recent years as its popularity rises, especially among the young and trendy, as new bars, restaurants, cafes, and bakeries pop up seemingly by the month, and its grittiness slowly becomes gentrified. Visitors to the city who like to ‘go local’ when they travel, couldn’t do much better than a quick visit to Maltéhops.
Maltéhops Wine Beer and Spirits Store specializes in products made by small businesses in Québec. While you can find snack foods like chips and popcorn, and there’s an entire wall of hot sauces, the main attraction is their alcohol, beers in particular. Stocked with over 400 microbrewery varieties from all over the province from the usual (IPAs) to the quirky (salted caramel), it’s almost guaranteed you’ll find at least something to your taste. Whenever I visit, the staff are not only friendly, they’re extremely knowledgeable and offer great suggestions. You might not get to the far reaches of Québec on your trip, but you can at least buy one of the small town beers as a souvenir.