Boulevard Saint Laurent (Saint Lawrence Boulevard) is the North-South running street that divides the city between East and West. If a street has "West" after it, it is west of St. Laurent; if it has "East" after it, it is east of St. Laurent. Historically, the French lived to the east, the English lived to the west, and the newly arrived immigrants who spoke neither French nor English settled along St. Laurent.
A big chunk of my youth was misspent along St. Laurent between Sherbrooke St. and Mont Royal Ave.
This stretch of St. Laurent has a very bohemian feel to it and is filled with eclectic shops. There's Cafe Frappe where they sold (maybe still sell?) gin and tonic by the pitcher, lol. There's Segal's Market, a dingy grocery store that's been around forever (and looks like it) with cheap prices that allowed me to eat when I was a student on limited funds. There's Schwartz's where staff are surly, but they serve a mean smoked meat sandwich. Prior to experiencing Schwartz's, I had no idea what the smoked meat hype was about, I personally thought it was gross, but my smoked meat adventures had been limited to Shopsy's and Druxy's. I still remember my first bite into a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's, it forever changed my view of smoked meat. There's Barfly, a tiny dive bar with bands that play Bluegrass. There's also a deli called The Main Deli where and bunch of friends and I would get matzo ball soup and vareniki at 3 in the morning, lol. And as of the writing of this review, all these places are still standing!
There's been a bit of turnover over the years, but many businesses along this street have been around for generations.
Although I'm most familiar with the stretch of street that I previously mentioned, if you go north at around Jean Talon, it's Little Italy, and if you go south around de la Gauchetiere, it's Chinatown. So the street passes through lots of distinct neighbourhoods.
It's a cool street to take a stroll down. It has a lot of independent businesses, and is not full of megachains like Ste. Catherine. It has a lot of charm and history. Definitely worth checking out. read more