DÉPANNEUR LE PICK UP

Thank you Chef Merida for an enlightening and delicious night of vegan cuisine! We’ll never look at the humble cashew the same way again.

Too broke to jet somewhere tropical this winter? No way to relax on the beach, soaking up the sun? No fear!

Our next special dinner of 2012 will transport you somewhere warmer! We will feature a Caribbean-inspired feast, complete with jerk chicken, tropical desserts, and other spicy delights. The night will be led by none other than one of our own — Jeremy Felker!

The dinner will begin promptly at 8pm on Friday, February 10. The set menu will be $20. Seating is limited, email me at natasha.pickowicz AT gmail.com to reserve your spot!

We hope to see you there!!

We’re thrilled to announce that the first guest chef dinner of 2012 will feature Chef Mérida of Vegan Secret Supper, a supper club based in Brooklyn, NY and Vancouver, BC. Everything is made handmade, in-house and vegan, using only local and organic ingredients.

For her dinner at Le Pick Up, Chef Mérida will present an elegant and beautiful three-course vegan feast inspired by Quebec and the winter. We can’t wait to see what she will come up with!

For more information about Chef Mérida, please visit her website and (mouthwatering!) tumblr.

The dinner will begin promptly at 8pm on Saturday, January 28. The three-course set menu will be $30. To RSVP, please email us at natasha.pickowicz AT gmail.com. Seating is very limited, so get in touch with us soon!

We hope to see you there — vegan and non-vegans alike!

Le Pick Up’s first-ever Novemberfest was a mega success. A sausage-laden, pretzel-dipping, strudel-inhaling success. Thanks to everyone who came out and had a rad time — hopefully it’ll become a Pick Up tradition!

Thank you to everybody who attended Camilla’s most recent pickling workshop. This time around, Camilla showed us all how to make pickled green tomatoes (!!!) and a spicy apple chutney, which we’ve been liberally spreading on our grilled cheese sandwiches. I’m telling you, this lady knows her stuff.

Okay. I have to say, we’ve done quite a few of these workshops now, and they just seem to be getting better and better. (Maybe now would be a good time to link to this nice piece by Eve Dumas about our workshops). It really is so inspiring to be in the company of such talented chefs and cooks, and to observe the participants learning and enjoying themselves.

Camilla’s next pickling workshop (an encore presentation of the one pictured here!) will be held this Tuesday, October 18. There’s just a spot or two left — get in touch now to save your seat!

[All photos by Natasha Pickowicz]

Back in August, we hosted an amazing night with pastry chef and preserves expert Camilla Wynne. Her workshop, ‘Preserving Stone Fruits,’ was a mega success. So much fun, in fact, that we’ve decided to hold another workshop with Camilla — this time focusing on the saltier side of preserves… pickling and chutneys!

Camilla’s pickling workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 4, here at Le Pick Up. Camilla will discuss her favored pickling and canning techniques, including an introduction to basic pickling safety. Together, we’ll make batches of her favorite seasonal pickles. Learn all you can so you can stock up on your own homemade pickles and chutneys before winter sets in!

Let’s learn more about Camilla:

Camilla is a professionally trained pastry chef who has been canning since 2002. She most recently worked at Laloux and Pastisserie Rhubarbe, but has also done stints at Les Chevres (RIP), Anise (RIP), and wd~50 (NYC). Formerly the baker behind Backroom Records and Pastries, she now sells jams, marmalades, jellies, pickles and other preserves under the Preservation Society moniker.

The workshop will begin promptly at 8pm. Each participant will have a hand in making their own preserves, with guidance and instruction from Camilla. The registration fee is $25. We are located at 7032 rue Waverly, and are a cozy and intimate space — so please register soon as there are a very limited number of spots! Cash only, please. To register, please email me at Natasha.pickowicz [at] gmail [dot] com.

We hope to see you there!!

September 21 – 24, 2011
2pm – 6pm daily

WEZY

Join geriatric dandy Peanut Brittle as he returns to Dépanneur le Pick Up for his latest engagement – a low-power radio show broadcasting directly to your picnic table. During Pop Montreal Peanut will host WEZY from DLPU’s psychedelic ice-fishing hut, airing a selection of fine music, rambling monologues about the good old days, and plenty of innuendo. It’s like Quentin Crisp meets Finkleman’s 45s. Come by for your usual DLPU delights and get a side-serving of old time radio.

Peanut Brittle, the alter-ego of Toronto performance artist Lex Vaughn, has been charming the ladies and making the gents blush since the mid-Noughties. Early adopters of DLPU may recall him serving up a Tex-Mex brunch in 2009, haranguing customers and getting salsa all over his polyester pants. Don’t miss this latest incarnation of everyone’s favourite codger-about-town.

Schedule:

Wednesday September 21

Spider Cat House DJ set and sing-along
Jeff Miller interviews PB about lovemaking in wartime

Thursday September 22
As the dep readies itself to sell VPP to VIP at the Arcade Fire show, PB guides us through the afternoon with:

The Gothic and Witchy sounds of DJ Ouija
and the experimental noize jam of DJ Pickles

Friday September 23
Friday is a great night to party, right? So we bring out the big guns with Penny Pickup, DJ Lynne T and a special intimate interview session with FOXTROTT.

Saturday September 24

Brunch.

Watch it live:

Broadcasting live with Ustream

Thanks so much to everyone who came out for Bartek’s Pork Club BBQ this past Friday evening! We were stoked on the blue skies and warm temps, but even more excited about what was on the table for the evening: a grilled pork chop tagged with Swiss cheese and a few slices of local tomatoes, served with all the fixings: green beans dressed in toasted almonds and browned butter, and Bartek’s famous potato salad, made with his homemade mayo, and spiked with salty bacon, dill, and scallions. The night ended with thick wedges of red velvet cake and plastic cups filled with calimocho.

What summer should feel like, friends.

All photos by Natasha Li Pickowicz

Thank you so much to everyone that helped make last week’s canning workshop with pastry chef Camilla Wynne such a mega success. We spent the night learning about the basics of canning fruit and vegetables, peppered with plenty of Camilla’s pro tips. Everyone went home with two hot jars of preserved plums in vanilla syrup, and a nectarine-sapote jam. It was crazy fun and awesome to meet so many interesting and lovely home canners. Stay tuned — we’ll be bringing Camilla back for round 2 as she takes on pickles, brines, and vegetables! Dates to be announced shortly!

Next Friday, on September, 9, we’re stoked to welcome back Szef Bartek to our humble kitchen for a night of grilling + eating. (Remember this magical night?) The food is bound to be magnificent, the company even better. 3-8pm. Be there. After all, who doesn’t need a good porking once in a while?

Hello everyone!

We’re thrilled to announce our next workshop — and it’s coming right up!

Pastry chef and preserves expert extraordinaire Camilla Wynne will lead a workshop on Canning and Preserving Stone Fruits on Thursday, August 25 here at Le Pick Up.

Camilla is a professionally trained pastry chef who has been canning since 2002. She most recently worked at Laloux and Pastisserie Rhubarbe, but has also done stints at Les Chevres (RIP), Anise (RIP), and wd~50 (NYC). Formerly the baker behind Backroom Records and Pastries, she now sells jams, marmalades, jellies, pickles and other preserves under the Preservation Society moniker.

Camilla has been an amazing and inspiring presence in the Montreal food community (she used to make our cupcakes!), and we are so honored to have her host our next workshop.

At the workshop, Camilla will discuss the most important tenets of preserving fruits, including explanations of her own techniques, and an emphasis on basic safety. We will be making jams and preserved fruits in syrup, with a strong focus on seasonal stone fruits.

The workshop will begin promptly at 8pm. Each participant will have a hand in making their own preserves, with guidance and instruction from Camilla. The registration fee is $25.

We are located at 7032 rue Waverly, and are a cozy and intimate space — so please register soon as there are a very limited number of spots! Cash only, please. To register, please email me at Natasha.pickowicz [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks and we hope to see you there!

Our friends Meghan Murphy and Claudia Abbott-Barish, two lovely California-based food and food justice activists, are traveling across North American in their cherry red 1980 Ford Courier pickup truck and touring bicycles… and making a stop in Montreal! They will be hosting the workshop “Radicalizing Herbalism and Activating the Healers” at the Dep on Sunday, August 14 at 6pm.

Both have been local food and food justice activists for many years and have come to look at their herbalism studies as another side of the same coin. Feeling a significant lack of social analysis and activism around herbal medicine as they have encountered it, they have been cultivating a common desire to radicalize herbalism, and mobilize healers to realize the innate activism in their pursuit of an alternative paradigm of healing.

Not to miss an opportunity for broad geographical and social engagement, the ladies have decided to fold their road trip, cycle trip and workshop tour into one jammed-packed adventure of intrigue, physical tests, emotional and psychological trials, community involvement and anarchist hedonism.

Here’s what they have to say about the Montreal workshop:

“Using popular education, our workshop will cover a brief history of corporate power and how herbal medicinal use has been prevented in the past, barring us from actions of self-sufficiency. We will focus on why cultivating, wild-crafting and teaching about herbs creates new possibilities for us to create more healthy, reciprocal systems (social and economic) in the rest of our lives. This analysis will include examples, past and present, of how people have used herbs and herbal medicine to resist exploitation by those in power. The workshop will end with a dialogue on how to engage around these issues with members of our communities; what methods are inclusive, representative and equitable, and how to collaborate with the most people.“

They’ll also be doing fun, hands-on activities like making salves, tinctures, and tea blends. Spots for registration are extremely limited, so please email me at natasha.pickowicz AT gmail.com for a spot. Unlike our other workshops, this event will be charged on a sliding scale of $10-20. Please pay an amount with which you feel comfortable.

This workshop is aimed at healers, herbalists or self-taught herbal-medicine makers, who are interested in how their work can have a greater community impact beyond the traditional forms of engagement. That said, it is open to ANYONE who is remotely intrigued by the subject matter. Your contribution is valuable no matter who you are.

For more information, please visit their website, Root Medicine. We hope to see you there!!