Not with those little peppercorns and thin pale looking fries… good poutine french fries (classic casse-croute style) are always thick cut and golden brown a la Belle Province, Decarie Hot Dog, Orange Julep, Chez Ashton, etc… the cheese curds should be fresh and squeaky but meld together with the gravy as they soften into a blobby looking heap of deformed and misshaped curds… not small cubes that look like they belong on a tasting tray with toothpicks sticking out them in the cheese aisle, like the ones pictured above. I like a good poutine occasionally and under the right circumstances; i.e. winter ski slope warmup, road-stop along the Laurentian autoroute, etc. I wouldn’t touch the incompetent looking mess in the above photos.
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THIS is a poutine, amigos:
The curds get melty and a little stringy each time a plastic fork is raised high above the piping hot styrofoam container (welcome to eco-friendly QC!).
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I have never seen Quebec cheese curds that large.
From my favorite casse croute, about an hour north of Mtl:
https://roadfood.com/restaurants/patate-ben-venue/
Basics (fries, curds, gravy) aside, there’s really no such thing as a standard poutine, anymore than there is a standard hamburger. Each spot does it differently. Some even use meat based tomato sauce, referred to as Italian poutine - not like the hearty Michigan style chili dog though, more of a red spaghetti sauce. Gross if you ask me, but they’ve been dishing it up at greasy spoons throughout the province for decades. La Belle Province’s standard version is widely considered the staple QC poutine that most would typically associate with the dish, but I’ve had them in every shape, size, texture…
EDIT: I think those might be Perron cheese curds which are a bit larger. Casse-Croûte Chez Micheline uses them as well.
If that’s a Michigan dog, someone forgot to tell them the “bury the onions.”
Or maybe not.
I don’t get putaine either.
Why would you take perfectly good fries and ruin them by pouring on gravy?
Or perfectly good cheese curd.
Seriously Oliver, Bum Venue is at Mount Tremblant which is more like an hour and a half from downtown Montreal.
And the menu is burgers, dogs, and Les Gatorades.
Unless people have a ski trip already booked, I can’t see this as a destination kind of place…
Do you like the Coney’s? Lafayette or American?
Here is a story you might find interesting:
They are now selling more Coney’s in Vegas than at the mothership in Detroit.
Which is not too surprising if you’ve been to Detroit lately.
I think @RedJim had a thread on this.
Never been to Detroit other than a layover at the train station in 1961. I grew up with Michigan dogs, which (to bring this topic full circle) you can also get at many of the same places that sell poutine in Quebec.
So you call them “Michigan” dogs, but they are actually from New York (and Quebec) ?
And in Michigan they call them Coney Islands, which last I checked is in, New York.
That’s hilarious. It’s like who’s holding whose wiener.
When did I ever call it “a destination”?
There’s not a single casse-croute in the entire province that I would consider a destination for anything; they’re literally fast food canteens.
I just posted it as an example of what decent Quebec-style poutine should look like, in contrast to the trainwrecks above.
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Is it Gus’s or Clare & Carl’s where the floor of the building is sinking and the counter stools are all slanted? I think it’s C&C; I used to stop at that place all the time!
They are “from” Plattsburgh NY and supposedly named “Michigan” Dogs because the sauce was created by a woman who moved there from Detroit. They migrated from there to Canada (a mere 25 miles away) thence throughout Quebec.
In addition to the sauce, they are distinguished by the type of bun and the type of hot dog, ideally Glazier red skin “frankfurts” as we call them, which are made 10 miles from where I grew up.
From your, achem, linked article I was reminded of “red hots” or “Texas hots” of which I’ve eaten many on Rochester “garbage plates.” Saying those look like vomit would be a complement.
The garbage plate is probably a reaction to the boring tidiness of Rochester. Kodak this!
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“The Lodge” on Haight (just a block east of Rosemunde has Poutine…I haven’t tried it. here is a link to the menu…its under
Starters
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Looks like they need a little QC
I’m from Vancouver but have had poutine in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. It is a dish that has strong supporters and detractors. I am one of the former. To me, though, it must have thick fries as described above by oliverb, very fresh, large white cheese curds that still squeak but are at least partially melted and (gasp) powdered gravy by St Hubert (“since 1951”). Yup, it’s a big conglomerate now but the gravy has the right taste and texture. I haven’t found anywhere in Vancouver that does the right kind of fries for poutine – one of my pet peeves is the dearth of decent fries in our fair city – and the best version I’ve ever had was from a food truck near the Byward Market in our nation’s capital. I have never been drunk when I have eaten poutine so while alcohol may enhance the experience, good poutine can be enjoyed sober 
To the OP: Best of luck in your pursuit of the casse-croute experience!
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Brasserie St James has poutine with a pork gravy or a mushroom gravy, and cheddar cheese curds. Damn good mushroom gravy, and overall the dish had the right amount of salt and was a good dish to split with a group. Cheese was fully melted, so the dish lacked squeaky fun, or at least chewy, texture contrast to the soft potatoes. Might as well have been mozzarella.
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