McCord Stewart Museum launches exhibition on Montreal’s restaurant culture

The McCord Stewart Museum unveiled “On the Menu – Montreal: A Restaurant Story,” a new exhibition running from Nov. 26, 2025 to Oct. 18, 2026.

Inspired by Lesley Chesterman, the show traces the evolution of Montreal’s dining scene from the 1960s to today through archives, photos, objects and personal stories.

“I think it’s great to have an exhibit, not only to celebrate our restaurant scene, which is extraordinary, which sometimes we take for granted, but also it’s another great thing about Montreal,” said Chesterman, a long time writer and food critic.

The exhibition highlights the city’s multicultural food influences, the role of iconic restaurants in shaping neighbourhoods, and the rise of local culinary identity rooted in Indigenous knowledge and new generations of chefs.

“The museum is really about celebrating who we are, what makes Montreal Montreal. And as we know, restaurants are a key part of our identity. So we worked with Leslie and an advisory committee to make sure that we would be true to this wonderful history and to celebrate some of the legacy restaurants and also to celebrate the chefs that make Montreal shine today on the world stage,” said Anne Eschapasse, the president and CEO of the McCord Steward Museum.

Adding: “We’ve assembled a vast selection of objects. We have about 400 objects. We have vintage photographs, we have utensils. We have menus, a fantastic collection of menus. We have audiovisual documents, including vintage commercials. So it’s a great deal of fun.”

It also explores the shift in restaurant criticism from pioneering women writers to modern social-media voices.

Presented with support from several partners, the exhibition includes the Montreal On the Menu contest, offering monthly restaurant prizes and a grand prize of a full year of dining.

The exhibition will even feature family-friendly activities such as eye-spy games and the pig ‘Tire-Bouchon’ bonus challenge. It even includes guided tours led by Chesterman herself, where visitors can learn about the history of Montreal’s most iconic restaurants.

Aside from the museum’s activities, both Chesterman and Eschapasse say the exhibit’s main goal is to hopefully elicit memories from visitors, allowing them to reminisce about moments they’ve shared around the table.

“I love the individual memories that are coming from certain items, certain menus, and that is when I’m overhearing. People talking about, oh, I ate something like this there. Oh, my dad took me there. Oh, that was our family’s favorite restaurant,” said Chesterman.

Eschapasse adding, “We all have stories around a meal, whether it’s a celebration of an anniversary, whether it’s a breakup, whether it’s for a wedding. We have very deep connections to restaurants. And we want this exhibition to be an occasion for everyone to cherish these moments.”