At Last it Can be Revealed

Luc Devroye, a.k.a. RestoSpy at Isakaya

B ack in the day, some people asked me who the mysterious RestoSpy was on montrealfood.com. If you were with us back then you'll remember that he was a shadowy figure who seemed to frequent the most expensive restaurants in Montreal -- certainly nothing I could ever have paid him for or afforded myself -- and wrote up some of the best restaurant reviews I have ever seen by anyone, including the food critics at the New York Times.

If RestoSpy really wanted to, he could easily make a living as a food writer. He would grow rich, popular and famous, things I'm sure the real RestoSpy would shun like Greta Garbo.

RestoSpy is, actually, none other than Luc Devroye, who actually is a well-renowned personality, but not in the world of food. He's a master mathematician at McGill and perhaps the world's foremost authority on fonts and typefaces.

For a while back in the early-2000s, Luc and I were the terrorists of the Japanese food scene, going to local restaurants and sometimes trashing them, sometimes not, occasionally in the company of the Gazette's fine dining critic, Lesley Chesterman (at the time of that article, Luc was not yet RestoSpy, so was not undercover). We had absolutely the most uproarious times and I'm sure we scared the bejeebers out of many a sushi chef.

I had the happy experience of meeting him for lunch yesterday after a gap of perhaps seven years. It was as if we had never parted, and I was quick to assure him that even through the vicissitudes of time, he doesn't look a day younger than his 39 years.

He doesn't do food reviews any more, but if I ever revive montrealfood.com again, he'll be at the top of my list on who to call for dining company.

Do yourself a favour and read every single one of his reviews, and if you're an aspiring food writer -- or indeed, ANY type of writer, weep. The quality of his pieces elevated montrealfood.com into the stratosphere of food review sites before there was any UrbanSpoon or Yelp and I was lucky enough to stumble upon some of the best writers in the world, who all worked for nothing more than a few drinks occasionally at Luc's house or mine or theirs, and monetizing montrealfood never occurred to any of us.

I still own montrealsushi.com, and who knows . . . if I ever decide to start it up, Luc will be the first person I call.