The dinner party meets performance art | Canada Voices

In the first moments after dinner guests arrive at one of Menu Extra’s events, there’s a refreshing absence of phones. Most are so awestruck by the multi-sensory experience that they keep their devices in their pockets, knowing an iPhone can’t capture what they’re seeing, smelling and hearing. These events – part catered dinner, part art installation – are the culmination of weeks of detailed planning by a collective of chefs, a sommelier and design and marketing creatives.

“It puts people in the mindset of really wanting to be present because it’s ephemeral and it’s not going to be able to be enjoyed again after it’s done,” says Samuel de La Courtemanche, Menu Extra’s creative director. In August last year, the team took over Montreal’s brutalist Habitat 67 complex and set up a custom-designed 12-metre-long scarlet table with matching benches. De La Courtemanche, who has an architecture background, was disappointed with how Habitat 67 had become a closed community and was keen to make the space accessible, even if just for one night. “Being able to open the doors of that iconic building and allow people to walk in and experience the space from inside its core and dine outside was really exciting,” he says.

The dishes, music, lighting and service were all planned with a brutalist theme in mind. They served an eight-course tasting menu, which included tuna tartare, artichoke pasta, local trout and duck breast. The dessert was pavlova made with shards of grey meringue and B.C. cherries, stacked in a bowl to resemble the building. That desire to curate all angles of the experience was a guiding principle at Menu Extra from the start. “We go to different places, we can change the light, the music, the path of the client,” says Alexis Demers, Menu Extra’s sommelier. “We have a bit more freedom.”

The collective launched in 2020, then just a venture between Demers and Francis Blais, winner of Top Chef Canada’s eighth season. The two had just opened a small restaurant that shuttered when Quebec went into lockdown. Like many other restaurateurs, they were forced to pivot and launched a high-end bake-at-home meal kit of pithivier, the classic French savoury pie. The pair wanted to offer something more elevated, so they included wine pairings, a written history of the dish, and suggestions for what album to put on.

When restrictions eased, they helped restaurants launch pop-up events and came to appreciate the opportunities for creative curation. So even when restaurants returned to business as usual, they continued and expanded their team to include design and branding experts. In 2024, they served an eight-course dinner around a glowing, 40-foot-long line of taper candles that was inspired by the sculptor Jean Brillant. Recently, they’ve collaborated with Evian and Miele and created the menu for a blockbuster Hermès dinner in Montreal.

This spring, Demers and Blais plan to finally open a casual eatery, but Menu Extra’s high-concept dinner parties will continue. “We’re really creative people,” Blais says. “Being in a box, for us, is hard because we’re always thinking about something else – we’re always evolving.”