Mile End is the quarter that argues about bagels and means something else by it. The rivalry between Fairmount and St-Viateur — two shops, two blocks apart, the same hand-rolled, wood-fired, honey-boiled bagel — is really an argument about belonging, and everyone takes a side. Three and a half kilometres, two bagels, one improbable church.
Start at Fairmount, the older shop, open all hours; eat one warm on the sidewalk. Two blocks north to St-Viateur, the rival, and buy a second so you can pretend to judge. Partisans swear the difference is everything; the truth is the quarrel matters more than the verdict.
Then the church — Saint Michael's, Byzantine-domed, Irish-built, Polish-kept, with a tower that looks like a minaret and confuses everyone. One building holding a century of arrivals: that's Mile End. Drift down Rue Saint-Viateur past the cafés, bookshops, and a dépanneur (corner shop) or two, then up Avenue du Parc, the old Greek spine where the souvlaki houses still hold a few doors. Rosemont station closes it at the northeast edge.
