Why I love Our Lady of Grace

I have extremely fond memories of living at the corner of Regent and Sherbrooke (right above La Louisiane and directly across from famed greasy spoon Cosmo's). I would look out my window to gauge how long the line-ups were on the weekends and when they seemed to temporarily subside I would make a mad dash for a place that still, to this day, makes the best home fries a girl could ever hope to find.

While I no longer reside in the West End, the past nine months covering the area as editor of The Monitor have managed to rekindle my love affair with NDG and I catch myself thinking it may be time to return to my old stomping grounds for good.

NDG, with its tree-lined streets, gorgeous old brick buildings, a laptop-toting student at every corner, urban Lululemon-wearing hipsters sipping coffee at Starbucks on Monkland or beer at Maz Bar on Sherbrooke has been called the 'next Plateau' on many occasions, yet still manages to fly under the radar and elude that fame.

An area that was once referred to half-jokingly as 'No Damn Good' and the 'Wild, Wild West' as an acknowledgment of its issues with crime and drugs, has managed to clean up its act as more families and homeowners have moved in, but there's still something about this area that manages to mix in the old with the new, the uptight with the laid back, the impossibly upscale with the grimy, the old school diners and greasy spoons with the latest in urban dining trends.

Being the most populous borough in Montreal, it makes sense that NDG is also one of the most interesting. A regular influx of immigrants and young students keeps the area on its toes and offer a remarkable diversity of things to cover. This is a place of feisty community activists and ecologically friendly citizens' groups – NDG's Coop La Maison Verte has over 6,000 members.

There's a real sense of community here. It's an area literally bursting to the seams with talented artists and musicians and young families who are putting down roots in an area that keeps changing, evolving and mirroring the ever-morphing face of Montreal.

There's something very comfortable and welcoming about NDG and it's always felt like home to me. I suppose that once you've lived here, you never truly leave. Vendome metro, the 105 bus slowly inching its way down Sherbrooke St, the boarded up Empress Theatre patiently waiting for another lease on life, the smell of Chalet Bar-B-Q chicken wafting through the air at the corner of Sherbrooke St. and Decarie, being served by those no-nonsense waitresses we've all grown to love… that's NDG to me… that's my Lady of Grace. Lord knows, she's not always graceful, but I love her anyway.