classy times in HoMa

Is it really on to New York Montreal? What's with calling Hochelaga Maisonneuve "HoMa"?? It's as stupid as DUMBO (Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Anyway. The east end is still pretty trashy but there's some nice places down Promenade Ontario. I quite liked the Atomic Café and its cool video store but I haven't been there for over two years.

Last Tuesday the husb and I had occasion to be in the East End, and had some time to kill before another meeting in that area. So it was a good opportunity to revisit Promenade Ontario (will they start calling it PO, like the teletubby?). There's a great little square at the eastern end of PO, and I believe they have farmer's markets there. I don't remember cafes near there last time but this time there were two with nice al fresco seating. I can't remember the other café's name but there were more people in front of ArHoMa so we went in there for our little lunch.

This little café was buzzing. Apparently HoMa-ers like their fancy food and freshly baked breads. What caught my eye were these gorgeous looking cupcakes. Imagine a brownie on top of a cupcake? Sugar overload. Not for me, but they sure did look perdy.

I chose a tuna sandwich with alfalfa sprouts, olives and orange slices, served in flax bread in the shape of a fish to boot. This place is out plateau-ing the plateau! It came with green salad for a decent $5.50. The husb choose a croque monsieur with a choice of two salads for an extra $1.75.



Surprisingly, despite the presence of the olives, the tuna sarnie was pretty tasteless, although I felt very virtuously healthy eating it. The oranges were a nice touch but it would have been nicer if they were sharper and if the tuna had more flavour to contrast with. The tuna was low on mayo, which was good, but there wasn't much flavour to pump up the filling. The bread could have done with a better surface crunch. As it was, it was kind of just a lot to chew on. The salad was good though.



The husb's croque came with red peppers, mushrooms and the like under the grilled cheese. I thought it was odd, but he loved it. The bread was also not regular bread, but as he put it, "some kind of eggy, kind of sweet, cakey bread". Which worked for him. I tried the bean salad and unfortunately, it was a sum of its parts, nothing more exciting than that. The combination was not magic.

So this sounds like a bad review but I have to say that I thought ArHoMa was a nice place. The location is really nice and it made me think that Verdun needs a nice square surrounded by cafés too. It had wonderful service, the coffee is fair trade, organic, etc, etc, the atmosphere is great. I'd just try something else on their menu, or even, um, add some salt to that sarnie. Hopefully these gentrified spots and the hot dog joints will co-exist happily.

ArHoMa
15, Place Simon-Valois
Montréal
(514) 526-4662