WINNING FORMULA: `KEEP IT CASUAL'

Condé Nest Traveler once marvelled: “Mon Lapin has that best-kept secret, intimate neighbourhood vibe.”

The Little Italy resto-bar still has that “intimate neighbourhood vibe,” but forget the “best-kept secret” part. Not after emerging No. 1 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurant List in 2023 and again this year. We’ll soon find out if Mon Lapin takes top spot in Chris Nuttall-smith’s top 20 list for Maclean’s as it did last year.

“This is just surreal,” enthuses Mon Lapin co-owner Vanya Filipovic. “This is beyond our wildest expectations. To have people come from far and wide to little Mon Lapin in Little Italy just blows us away. We really just see ourselves as a small neighbourhood joint, but we’re so incredibly grateful for the honours.”

Filipovic, along with her co-owner, co-chef husband Marc-olivier Frappier and co-owner, co-chef Jessica Noël, earned their stripes after toiling at Little Burgundy’s Vin Papillon for 15 years prior to opening the 50-seater Mon Lapin in 2018.

Success is really no accident. Mon Lapin provides one of the more intriguing food-and-wine offerings and pairings around town. Frappier and Noël’s menu, which changes daily, is rife with creations all over the map, and Filipovic and colleague Alex Landry’s organic wine choices are exquisite.

No accident that Filipovic and Landry also took this year’s Best Canadian Sommelier Team Award for the resto presented by the list-makers.

“We’ve always prepared and served our food and wine the way we like to have it done, and maybe that is the key,” Frappier says. “We’re not going to change that formula, either.”

Frappier credits co-chef Noël: “We really complete each other. That’s the way a restaurant should be run, with two people sharing the load.”

What’s noteworthy about not just Mon Lapin’s selection but so many of the others, including Verdun’s magical Beba at No. 8, is the number of casual restos filling the top 100 list in the country.

“Having more casual restaurants on top of the list really shakes things up in a way,” Filipovic says. “And that’s been our entire philosophy: to keep it casual.”

Not to take away from Mon Lapin’s top placement, but Frappier feels that this honour also reflects Montreal’s place overall on the culinary front.

“Regardless whether we’re No. 1 or 90, the more people talk about the quality of Montreal restaurants, the better it is for the city. There are so many restaurants in this city that are just as good as ours, including those not on the list.”

Frappier has an idea that should prove entirely palatable for locals and tourists seeking more summer sustenance: “A festival celebrating this city’s restaurants.”

I smell a hit here in Festival City.