Best of MTL 2016: Nightlife

Maclean Rouble

The Wiggle Room campaigned hard and won hard across the nightlife spectrum, dominating the Bartender and Server categories, coming in a strong #2 in Best Fancy Bar, #3 in Best Pick-up Spot, #4 Best Bar AND #5 Best Comedy Club! Let’s not forget that Wiggle Room’s presence over the last few years has boosted the city’s burlesque scene significantly — we probably wouldn’t have a Best Burlesque Performer category without them. And good for Grumpy’s for adding to years of acclaim for their staff (Gern F., Ram and Garth) by surpassing Casa to take the #1 spot in the Best Bar category. On the club front, it’s telling to see LGBT nights rule the Best Club Night category, with three events outside the Village, yet conversely there are two longstanding Village clubs in the general Best Club category that were not there last year. So, fragmented as the LGBT nightlife scene may be, the party continues. As for the new Best Drink category, we see a mix of cocktails and straight-up liquor, or, as one person put it, repping the big winner here, “plain ol’ beer.”

Best Bartender
1. MacLean Rouble (Wiggle Room)
2. Gern F. (Grumpy’s)
3. Judy Kennedy (McLean’s)
4. Julie Paquet (Notre Dame des Quilles)
5. Rashta Kruger (ComedyWorks/John Doe)
6. Pat Lalonde (Else’s)
7. Vito Ciocca (Le Bremner)
8. Ram Krishnan (Grumpy’s)
9. Garth Burnham (Grumpy’s)

Best Server
1. Eloise Huston (Wiggle Room)
2. Cindy Levesque (Wiggle Room)
3. Manon Lavoie (McLean’s)
4. Vanessa Vick (Sparrow)
5. Dawn Burns (ComedyWorks)

Best Bar
1. Grumpy’s
2. Bar de Courcelle
3. Casa del Popolo
4. Wiggle Room
5. Notre Dame des Quilles
6. McLean’s
7. Dieu du Ciel
8. Sparrow
9. Snack N’ Blues
10. Burgundy Lion

Best Fancy Bar
1. Big in Japan
2. Wiggle Room
3. Sparrow
4. Loic
5. Dominion
6. Soubois
7. Mayfair
8. Datcha
9. Furco
10. Emerald

Best Sleazy Dive
1. Barfly
2. Bifteck
3. Idée Fixe
4. Snack N’ Blues
5. Brasserie Beaubien
6. Foufounes Electriques
7. Bar de Courcelle
8. Mad Hatter’s
9. La Remise
10. Prime Time

Best 5 à 7
1. Furco
2. Casa del Popolo
3. Vices and Versa
4. Benelux
5. Foufounes
6. McLean’s
7. Buvette Chez Simone
8. SuWu
9. Bishop & Bagg
10. Dieu du Ciel

Best Wine Bar
1. Pullman
2. Buvette Chez Simone
3. Loic
4. Vin Papillon
5. Rouge Gorge
6. M. Mme

Best Pick-up Spot
1. Rockette
2. Foufounes Electriques
3. Wiggle Room
4. Furco
5. Notre Dame des Quilles
6. Thursday’s
7. Cabaret Mado
8. Datcha
9. Sparrow
10. Apt. 200

Best Club
1. Datcha
2. Le Belmont
3. Unity
4. Stereo
5. Sky
6. Newspeak
7. Rouge
8. New City Gas
9. Tokyo
10. Muzique

Best Club Night
1. Mec Plus Ultra
2. Mess Around
3. LIP
4. POMPe
5. Bass Drive
6. Cousins
7. Bareoke
8. Deadly Mardi
9. The Goods
10. Tokyo Thursdays

Best Underground Venue
1. Plant/Plante
2. Drones
3. Poisson Noir
4. Bad Lunch
5. The B.O.G.
6. Plurrealityz
7. [Civic number withheld] Durocher
8. 820 Plaza (RIP)
9. Fattal (RIP)
10. La Passe

Best Live Music Venue
1. Metropolis
2. Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre
3. Casa del Popolo
4. Bar le Ritz PDB
5. La Sala Rossa
6. Divan Orange
7. Club Soda
8. Fairmount
9. Katacombes
10. Turbo Haus

Best Promoter
1. Blue Skies Turn Black
2. Evenko
3. Greenland
4. DL Jones
5. Analogue Addiction
6. Passovah/Noah Bick
7. I Love Neon/Neon Productions
8. Hello Darlin’ Productions
9. Suoni per il Popolo
10. Mikki Michelle

Best Strip Club
1. Chez Parée
2. Café Cleopatra
3. Amazones
4. Wanda’s
5. Kama Sutra
6. Super Sexe
7. Kingdom
8. Downtown
9. Solid Gold
10. Stock

Best LGBT Bar/Club
1. Notre Dame des Quilles
2. Sky
3. Unity
4. Cabaret Mado
5. Le Stud
6. Aigle Noir
7. Play
8. Cocktail
9. Cagibi
10. Club Date

Best Burlesque
1. Audrey Ivory
2. Lady Josephine
3. Lavender May
4. Miss Sugarpuss
5. BonBon Bombay
6. Elle Diablo
7. Magenta Haze
8. Velvet LaTouche
9. Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière
10. Cabaret Mado

Best Pool Hall
1. Fitzroy
2. Sharks
3. Fatz
4. Snack N’ Blues
5. McLean’s
6. Frappé
7. Idée Fixe
8. Bifteck
9. Scoops
10. Skratch

Best Bowling Alley
1. Rose Bowl/Quilles G Plus
2. Notre Dame des Quilles
3. Darling
4. Sharx (RIP)
5. Forum de Montréal
6. Laurentian Lanes

Best Comedy Club
1. Comedy Nest
2. ComedyWorks
3. Le Bordel
4. Théâtre Sainte Catherine
5. Wiggle Room
6. Yuk Yuks (RIP)
7. Montreal Improv

Best Comedian
1. Sugar Sammy
2. Tranna Wintour
3. John St-Godard
4. Louis José Houde
5. Joey Elias
6. Martin Matte
7. Mike Ward
8. Mike Paterson
9. Jacob Greco
10. Steve Nash

Best Stand-Up Comedy Night
1. Ladies and Gentlemen (Shäika Café)
2. The Brunch Club’s Arts & Laughs (Comedyworks)
3. There’s Something Funny Going On (Blue Dog)
4. Open Michelle (Comedy Nest)
5. Voix de Ville (Wiggle Room)
6. Shut Up and Laugh (Burritoville)

Best Drug
1. Marijuana
2. MDMA/Molly
3. Cocaine
4. Acid/LSD
5. Mushrooms
6. Hash
7. Caffeine

Best Drink
1. Beer
2. Gin & tonic
3. Wine
4. Old-fashioned
5. Whiskey
6. Jameson
7. Negroni
8. Mojito
9. Rum & coke
10. Dark & stormy

See the rest of the Best of MTL here:

* PEOPLE & PLACES
* MEDIA
* MUSIC
* FILM & ARTS
* GOODS & SERVICES
* FOOD & DRINK