food
The Taste of Others A Montréal aphrodisiac restaurant feeds more than one kind of appetite B Y A L I CE L EVI T T PHOTOS COURTESY OF ÁTAME
44 FOOD
SEVEN DAYS
02.26.14-03.05.14
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
Attache-moi dessert plate
G
aston Barcelo has tried it all: horny goat weed, muira puama, kava. He’s swallowed Viagra and Cialis for the cause. In fact, the restaurateur says he’s experimented with more than 50 different substances known for aphrodisiac properties over the past three years. Barcelo has no problems with his own potency, he notes — he just wanted to make sure diners at his new restaurant wouldn’t, either. Átame Restaurant Aphrodisiaque debuted last October with a menu by executive chef Athiraj Phrasavath that bore the fruits of Barcelo’s research. A restaurant consultant and bartender by trade, Barcelo bills Átame as “the first aphrodisiac restaurant in North America.” That’s not quite true. A quick Google search reveals restaurants with a similar theme in California and Florida. But Barcelo’s concept, executed by chef de cuisine and recent “Chopped
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Canada” competitor Pat Vasiliauskas, is evidently the first of its kind in Montréal, or Canada. I’ve explored the louche side of Montréal dining for Seven Days before, with trips to a topless diner and a free lunchtime buffet at Club Supersexe. At Átame, I was ready for something titillating but a little more refined.
“You’re talking about sex; if you don’t do it the right way, it could be vulgar, it could be cheesy,” Barcelo acknowledges. His goal for the restaurant-cum-cabaret-cum-art gallery is to create a sexy ambience for the over-30 crowd while avoiding those pitfalls. My boyfriend of 10 years and I waded through the slush of rue LISTEN IN ON LOCAL FOODIES...
Saint-Denis on Valentine’s Day weekend to test Barcelo’s guarantee: “If you don’t get lucky, I’ll give you your money back.” We were greeted by an extremely muscular host in a too-tight shirt with a tie and skinny suspenders. He looked like a WWE wrestler at a press conference. The all-white room, plush enough to satisfy the stipulations of J.Lo’s concert rider, was filled with couples celebrating the holiday. Many looked 40 or older, though there was a wide mix of ages and races. I was surprised to see that all of the pairings appeared to be hetero. Átame squeezed nearly 500 people into its dining room on Valentine’s Day weekend, according to Barcelo. The new restaurant was an obvious choice then, but can Átame maintain the traffic? “It sounds lame, but it’s Valentine’s every weekend [here],” says Barcelo, who is well aware that he is walking a fine line between hot destination and
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punch line. “We tell the servers, ‘Keep in mind that these people are having a very special night. Keep in mind it’s none of your business, but these people are going to be making love two hours from now.’” Was that what my server was thinking about me? More comfortable with French than my boyfriend, James, I did all the ordering from the four-course prix-fixe menu that Átame offered that weekend instead of its regular bill of fare. That meant I was stuck telling our petite waitress that I wanted Je Te Mangerais Tout Cru (I’ll eat you raw) and Euphorie de la Chair (ecstasy of the flesh), actually beef carpaccio and a faux-filet in pomegranate sauce, respectively. When THE TASTE OF OTHERS
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