you may have heard about hof kelsten. in a short time, the legend has grown about the bread guy, jeffrey finkelstein. he is montreal’s prodigal son, who has worked at some of the top restaurants around world. his list includes toque, french laundry, per se, and even el bulli. now back in montreal he has been making bread over at hof kelsten and also has some other items that are a little more than just bread. simply put hof kelsten does brunch. so one saturday morning, the montreal food divas were miraculously awake and not hungover so it seemed logical to do brunch. now finding a spot that will impress the divas is not always an easy task but we knew that hof kelsten would not disappoint. hof klesten is an un-assuming place, not too fancy, with a long table on the right, some smaller tables on the left and a counter by the window. lots of people come in for take-out as the space available is limited and you may have to wait a while to get a spot. the process is that youplaceyour order, pay, they take your name and call it when it’s ready so you can pick it up and seat yourself. food brunch is available saturday and sundays from 10am to 4pm. the menu has a handful of items each priced at around $12-$14 with coffee at $3.75. so your bill will get to a little under $20 when you factor in taxes. there is no filter coffee so no refills, and payment is by cash or debit card , so no credit card. the menu draws inspiration from an historical montreal jewish breakfast food scene – the use of challah , schnitzel and salmon has the old school eastern european influence you can still find after all these years, and the shakshuka has that north african (morrocan) flavour that we are seeing more and more of in brunch menus which is great for mixing things up on the menu. shakshuka $12 schnitzel $14 salmon croquettes $12 french toast $12 we started with the french toast $12 which uses challah bread and is topped with a fried egg and veal pancetta and maple syrup. using challah