Four Days of Tableaux Vivants From Montreal’s Menu Extra and Artist Dan Climan

Photo by Alex Lesage

Over one July weekend, a rarefied collaboration between the nomadic fine-dining collective Menu Extra and painter Dan Climan turned a raw industrial studio in Montreal’s east end into both a dining room and a living artwork. Equal parts installation, performance, and tasting menu, the project transformed Studio Giovanelli into an ephemeral restaurant for visuals, materials, and flavours to engage in conversation.

Perched on the sixth floor of a former garment building in Hochelaga, the setting framed a near-panoramic view of the city and its iconography: Mount Royal, the Olympic Stadium, the Molson sign. It was a fitting stage for Climan, whose paintings often centre the uncanny in familiar scenes of washed-out light and stark geometry.

“I’ve always been drawn to analog technologies and older spaces and places without being overly nostalgic. There’s just something that feels good about old bones,” Climan explained in the days leading up to the event. “There’s a visceral reaction to being in a room that feels older, and there’s a lot of soul within all of these windows and the way that the freight elevator feels.”

From left to right: Menu Extra’s chef Francis Blais, creative director Samuel de La Courtemanche and sommelier Alexis Demers. Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Photo by Alex Lesage

As guests began their night in the freight elevator, they were handed a retro View-Master loaded with Climan’s work. “We want people to slow down, be present, and truly connect,” said Menu Extra’s creative director, Samuel de La Courtemanche. “There’s something nostalgic and disarming about it, like tapping into that childhood sense of wonder, when looking at something simple felt magical.”

At the top, the space opened into a dining room remade as both gallery and stage. A massive modernist sculpture—previously only seen in Climan’s paintings—anchored the room, while a hand-painted diptych mimicking the studio’s window grid played with ideas of perspective and reflection. “It’s kind of like walking into something that would be my ultimate inspiration,” Climan said.

The menu followed suit: an eight-course seasonal journey that subtly mirrored Climan’s aesthetic vocabulary. Sea urchin served in a vessel that felt half sculpture, half shell; a veal and chanterelle dish that drew out the warm mineral tones of the room’s dusk-lit palette.

“Certain elements from his paintings were reinterpreted as edible components,” said Menu Extra’s co-founder and co-executive chef, Francis Blais, noting how techniques like camaïeu—variations within a single colour family—were echoed in layered plates.

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

“We built it from the ground up each time,” sommelier Alexis Demers added. “There’s no set formula. This time, Dan’s work shaped the context that informed everything else.”

Despite the design-heavy nature of the project, both parties were careful to avoid too much theatricality. “Some of the ideas almost felt like set design,” Climan admitted. “We had to find that push and pull where it still felt like an experience, without overdoing the ‘walking into a Dan Climan painting’ thing.” Still, the experience was unmistakably shared and collaborative. Even the ephemeral nature of the event echoed themes in his work.

We live in a time where people experience everything through their phone, Climan said. “There’s going to be installations and art that only live in a certain space for a certain amount of time. Maybe the placemats get wine on them. Maybe the coasters don’t survive the night. But the memory does. That’s the point.”

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Photo by Hugo Beaupré

Blais agreed, saying the fleeting nature made it more intimate, more intense, and it invited people to be fully present, knowing that the moment won’t be repeated. Though brief, the project marked something more permanent in intent. “This is no longer just an experiment—it has become our work,” he said. “More and more, people want something created with intention, something that breaks the ordinary.”

Climan echoed that clarity. “I like to paint, and wanted to make something beautiful. And I wanted them to make food that inspires them. We didn’t step on each other’s toes. That’s collaboration.”

Menu Extra’s next move is back to the land—literally. From August 1 to 3, the team brings their tasting menu to the fields of Ferme des Quatre-Temps in Hemmingford, where an eight-course farm-to-table and farm-as-table dinner will be served outdoors among the summer harvest.

Ingredients come straight from the farm’s own soil—Japanese cucumbers, cornue tomatoes, pasture-raised beef—transformed with Menu Extra’s signature precision. At sunset, diners gather around a long garden table under a glowing canopy, where brushed steel and ceramic art subtly echo the landscape.

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