More Than Steamies: Lafleur Restaurant, home to those amazing steamie hotdogs and crispy fries, has added two items to its menu that will certainly get people talking: its brand-new popcorn and its new popcorn poutine! Lafleur has been offering a variety of quality fast food dishes since 1951. The company now has 16 restaurants. The menu is typical of Quebec restaurants and offers hot dogs, hamburgers, fries and poutines of all kinds. “Lafleur wanted to add something new to its menu,” says Alexandra Tsotsis, Director of Marketing and Communications at Lafleur Restaurants. “The popcorn poutine was the perfect touch of creativity and innovation that we were looking for and adds a little pop to the classic poutine. The crispy popcorn is absolutely delectable. Once you try it, you can’t stop.”

Birthday Cake Cream Cheese: With news that General Mills will no longer be able to continue making  Liberté cream cheese, bagel lovers in particular have gone into a bit of panic. Founded by the Kaporovsky family in 1936, Liberté (initially known as Liberty Dairy Products) was created in a building on the corner of St-Urbain and Duluth Streets in Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough, as reported by CBC. From there, the Kaporovskys sold kosher dairy products such as cream cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream to the Jewish community living in the area, according to Romanow. The company was eventually acquired by multinational yogurt producer Yoplait, and then by General Mills in 2021.

When I stopped by my “go to” Dizz’s Bagel & Deli on Côte St. Luc Road, owner Steve Dizgun was telling customers they have nothing to worry about. Dizz’s has been around for 28 solid years and recently expanded with a West Island location in Pointe Claire Village. They are so ready for the challenge that they have started to unveil their own line of cream cheeses for $5.99 a container.

“We have always made our own, using Liberté as part of the mixture,” Steve told me. “Now we have pivoted to our own recipe and the response has been amazing!”

Presently they come in regular, scallion, lox, truffle, garlic & herb and yes, birthday cake. I can’t wait to try that one. Steve says they are also working on a cottage cheese one as well. I walked away with a container of lox. Manager Jeff Greenblatt insisted I also take a smoking hot fresh bagel. I got back to my office, cut the bagel in half and put on the spread. It was beyond delicious!  Bravo Steve and company. Liberté, we hardly knew you. You can go to https://www.dizzsbagel.com/