By skyforbes 
A glimpse of some familiar and lesser-known parts of Montréal
The Alphabet Café?
When I asked my bestie’s daughter if she had anything particular in mind to see while in Montréal, visiting, I wasn’t expecting her to suggest a café — and a particular one at that.
Had she said ‘the Old Port’, ‘the Underground Shopping Mall’ or ‘Mont Royal’, I would’ve agreed she’d done her due diligence beforehand and was keen on seeing the typical tourist attractions that people flock to when visiting this neck of the Canadian woods.
Nope; she had her phone in her hand, and a TikTok influencer or two were offering suggestions from the best attractions to visit to restaurants and cafés to indulge in.
I rarely venture outside my ‘hood. I’ll even ‘fess that I’ve lived in Montréal for 30 years and haven’t explored most of the city. In my defense, it’s huge. To quantify that, 5 million people live in New Zealand, my birth country and 2.5 million people live on the island of Montréal. Does that excuse me?
Seeing where this café was caused an internal groan. It was miles from my place and in a part of town where parking is notoriously bad. But, off we went with…