JP Karwacki is the managing editor of The Main. Before that, he worked nearly three years as the national creative writer for the Canadian architecture and design firm Lemay.
He has written about food and drink, architecture and design, culture, and urban life alongside curating best-of lists and reporting local and national news for publications such as the Montreal Gazette, the National Post, Time Out, Eater, NUVO Magazine, Time, Compound Butter (RIP), Tourisme Montréal, Concordia University, Mashed, MTL Blog, and more.
Find an abbreviated list of clips below:
The Main
- The Little Store That Runs Montreal: A Complete History of the Dep
- Montreal Wanted the Michelin Guide. Now It Has to Live With It.
- Our Patron Saints of Diners: Montreal’s Next Generation of Casse-croûte Owners
- Angine de Poitrine Is Exactly What the Internet Was Waiting For
- Who Killed the Late-Night Dinner?
- Are Cafés the New Bars?
- Why Being Weird Works in Plaza St-Hubert’s New Era
- The Story of Montreal’s Joe Beef (the Man, Not the Restaurant)
- Firing Ceramics by Hand in the Laurentians With the Pottery Collective Goregama
- The Century-Long Smoked Meat Legacy of Schwartz’s Deli
- How Montreal Found Its Place in Quebec’s Long Embrace of Cowboy Core
- How Gibeau Orange Julep Became a Montreal Icon
- Remembering Claude Masson, the Philosopher Behind the Bar of L’Express
- His Restaurant Almost Broke Him. Does It Deserve a Second Chance?
- Wellness Culture Has an Optimization Problem
- How Montreal Falls in and Out of Love with Brutalist Architecture
- If You Want to Understand Montreal’s Dance Scene, Start With Ferias
- How Monkland Tavern Shaped Montreal’s Restaurant Scene Over 30 Years
- What Will Happen to 128 Years of Chinatown History When Wing Noodles Closes?
- Inside Au Pays des Géants, the Workshop Behind Montreal’s Most Iconic Parade Floats
- The Gothic Mansion Where the CIA Broke Minds With LSD and Electroshock
- Operation Fish: When Montreal Hid Britain’s Fortune During WWII
- ināt: Crafting Perfect Imperfections in Montreal’s New Chabanel
- The Fancy Cocktail Bar Isn’t Dead, But Andrew Whibley Wouldn’t Open One Today
- Vincent Tsang on Dime MTL’s Early Days, His Artistic Evolution, and Montreal’s Creative Class
- What Hot Cocktails Tell Us About the Slow Burn of Montreal’s Bar Scene
- A (Mostly) Spoken History of Mano Cornuto, Griffintown’s Unexpected Italian Institution
- Wild Catches and Japanese Imports with Sushi Nishinokaze in the Mile End
- Laurent Dagenais Builds the Restaurant He Always Wanted
- The Dining Theatrics and Dark History of Montreal’s Infamous Restaurant Au Lutin Qui Bouffe
Montreal Gazette
- Montrealers and the risky business of pandemic dating
- For Montreal restaurants, smaller is often better
- Urbex: A peek inside the lives of Montreal’s rooftoppers, trespassers and urban explorers
- No more tipping at Mile End café Larrys, please: Here’s why
- Montreal restaurants aim to turn the table on no-shows
- Idle Garage and Café is Montreal’s one-of-a-kind combo of motorcycles and coffee
NUVO Magazine
- Club Med Charlevoix’s Grand Slam Into Canada
- Flavours of Quebec: Chef Stéphane Modat of Le Clan
- Putting Brome-Missisquoi on the Menu: Espace Old Mill’s Circular Farm-to-Table Approach
- Hinter’s Natural Model for Hotels in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom
- Architecture Framing Nature at Atelier Pierre Thibault’s Résidence des Stagiaires
- Le Monastère’s Nouveau Cirque Sets Its Stage in a Neo-Gothic Montreal Church
- Exploring Thermotherapies of the World at Quebec’s Förena Cité thermale
- The Sky-High Restaurant, Bar, and Terrasse Trifecta atop Montreal’s Place Ville Marie
- The Metcalfe Brings a Montreal Brand of Hospitality to Ottawa’s Hotel Landscape
- The Craft Creations of Empirical Spirits
- Manoir Hovey’s Apiculture Experience Offers a Distillate of the Eastern Townships
- Ivy Studio’s Piatti Redesign Is Forged From Fire and Built on Ashes
- Inside Projet Pilote’s Circular Food and Drink Ecosystem
- Bar Bello: An Italian Social Club in Montreal’s Little Italy
Time Out Montreal
- When will bars open in Montreal? No one knows, and nightlife is at risk
- Time Out Market Montreal unveils the first slate of chefs and eateries
- Time Out Market Montréal reveals more stellar chefs and eateries
- (and over 100 guides to the city)
Eater Montreal
- Rosemont’s Ma Mère en Feu Is on a Mission to Become Montreal’s Weirdest, Wildest Diner
- Montreal’s Restaurant Industry Mourns the Loss of Joël Robuchon
- Old Montreal Just Got a ‘Blade Runner’ Remake in Cyberpunk Ramen Bar Neo Tokyo
- A “Vegetarian Act” of Vandalism Strikes Boucherie Grinder
- Forthcoming 9 Tail Fox Wants to Shake Up Montreal’s Korean Restaurant Scene
- 28 Classic Restaurants Every Montrealer Must Try
- A New Tapas Spot in Saint-Henri Has a Party Vibe and a Mos Eisley Cantina From ‘Star Wars’ Look
- The Matriarch of Wilensky’s Light Lunch Has Died
Tourisme Montréal
- A journey through ice hockey’s history in Montréal
- The best Montreal-made spirits worth stocking up on
- (and more)
Concordia University
- Châtelaine’s new editor-in-chief wants Quebec women to see themselves in the magazine
- ‘Knowing you’re not alone can help eradicate feelings of impostor syndrome’
- Filmmaker Junna Chif brings stories of sex, disability and human rights to the big screen
- Corinne Cluis takes Quebec’s maple spirit to new, rarefied heights
- Filmmaker Marie-Julie Dallaire explores the power of music
- Meet Lorraine Carpenter, creator of Cult MTL
- How 1990s skate culture and advertising led business grad Erik Lavoie to one of the world’s largest media companies
Cult MTL
- Kitchen bitchin’ with Jen Agg
- The urban sugar shack experience – is it worth it?
- Antonio Park dishes on Montreal’s culinary scene
- Heather O’Neill envisions a mythical city
- Sports bar gourmet?
- Is the best Chinese restaurant in Montreal Papa Jackie?
- The Au Pied de Cochon cabane à sucre wasn’t all that
- Old Montreal’s Jiao flips the script on a Chinese staple
- DIY urban farming gets a boost with the modern chicken coop
- This chicken is worth a bit of a pilgrimage
- Hochelaga restaurant Hélicoptère proved to be the sh*t