Welcome to Montreal Friday. Every Friday this summer, I will show you what’s new in Montreal, because Montreal is a fun and wonderful city to discover. Here are my two discoveries of the week. (Follow me on Twitter and Instagram for previews and as well, lets engage on Twitter with hashtag: #FRIDAYMTL).

Discovery of the week

Opening soon: m0851 Flagship downtown, and a new Westmount location:

After recently opening new stores in Boston and Madrid, Montreal-based fashion brand m0851 will open mid-August in Westmount. The unique and beautiful 1,500 square foot store will be located at 4925 Sherbrooke Street West.

Westmount's Sherbrooke Street West is a new hotspot for shopping in Montreal. The prestigious retail area includes neighbours such as the recently opened Bois & Cuir furniture store (profiled here last week) as well as some of the most exclusive stores in Montreal including IRO, Aesop, James Perse, Sarah Pacini, Want Apothecary and others.

*Westmount location. Photo : Maxime Frechette*

In September of this year, the existing m0851 store at Complexe les Ailes will relocate and become the brand's global flagship. The existing 1,121 square foot store can only be accessed from within the mall, while the new location will feature frontage on both Sainte Catherine Street West and Blv. Robert-Bourassa, as per the photo at the top of this article.

The beautiful 1,700 square foot space will feature over 80 feet of display windows along both streets, with exterior doors from the historic Eaton Building (which once housed a 1-million square foot Eaton store) -- a beautiful location for m0851's flagship.

*Current m0851 within the mall. Photo: Maxime Frechette*

We're told that the architecture of the new store will reflect brand values, and will include plenty of raw materials with a mixture of wood, concrete and metal as found in its new locations.

Previously, this space was occupied by Tommy Hilfiger (from 2002 to August 2015) followed by La Vie en Rose for a few months. Originally, the space measured 3,996 square feet on the first level and 7,022 square feet for the second level. Complexe Les Ailes will soon merge with adjacent Centre Eaton, with the mall going through a major renovation to host several new tenants, anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue's off-price Saks OFF 5TH which will open in the fall of 2018.

The company now operates 23 stores globally, with 11 of those in Canada. Its Canadian stores are located in Montreal (4 stores including one in Laval), Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto (2 stores), Vancouver (2 stores) and one in Calgary. International cities featuring m0851 include New York City, Santa Monica CA, Boston, Madrid Spain, Tokyo (2 stores), Nagoya, Osaka, Hong Kong (3 stores) and Beijing. M0851 also distributes their collections through a select network of retailers in 35 countries, and has an e-commerce site. Oakmont Real Estate Services is the brand's Canadian brokerage.

The m0851 brand was founded in 1987 by Frédéric Mamarbachi, and its name represents the first initial of his surname, as well as his birth month and year. The company designs and manufactures leather bags, accessories, jackets and outerwear. It started out manufacturing leather belts under the nameplate 'Rugby North America' and in 2003, changed its name to better reflect a refined, urban brand identity. Its head office is in Montreal's trendy Mile End neighbourhood. Its products are designed and manufactured in Montreal, and its store interiors are also designed in-house.

Food of the Week:

Bouffons MTL, July 16 to 30: If you’re in Montreal during this time, I invite you to discover the Bouffons MTL food truck festival. I think it is the best place for people to try everything food-wise that makes Montreal, Montreal. Many prestigious Montreal restaurants will be present in food truck version, and many more. I will discuss it more in next week's Montreal Friday! Don't miss it.

Bouffons Montreal is presented in Juste Pour Rire and Zoofest Festival with more information here: bouffons.ca