The first thing to know about Upstairs: It’s downstairs. It’s also Montreal’s most respected jazz club, which began in 1995 as a piano bar and hangout for college kids, evolving over the years into a serious jazz listening room of the sort owner Joel Giberovitch fell in love with in late-’90s New York. Catch touring acts on off-nights from the International Jazz Festival or local legends, like Ranee Lee or Jim Doxas, at the club’s weekend showcases.

The Rue Saint-Denis strip was once overrun with cozy jazz bars; today, Diese Onze carries the torch for the city’s former jazz hotbed. Tucked in a basement theater in the heart of Plateau Mont-Royal since 2007, the snug joint has the vibe of a neighborhood pub with low ceilings and wood-paneled walls. At street level is owner Gary Tremblay’s used-vinyl shop, where he also runs the club’s namesake label, releasing records by the musicians you can catch downstairs.

Martha Wainwright, of Montreal’s venerable Wainwright-McGarrigle music clan, opened this low-key venue in 2019 below the POP Montreal offices in Mile End. The cozy café and arts space channels a bohemian coffeehouse of the ’60s, with a small stage for local jazz and folk musicians and an intimate dance floor for left-field DJ nights. Meanwhile, Wainwright might be working the kitchen, serving drinks, or occasionally taking the stage, as she did with her brother Rufus for the grand opening.

The original downtown location opened in 1981 as Biddle’s Jazz and Ribs and went on to launch the careers of locals like Oliver Jones and Ranee Lee. Having survived a few name changes and a legal battle between owners, the House of Jazz closed in 2020, but its suburban spinoff (opened in 2015 by one of the owner’s widows) endures. Unlike some of the city’s more tasteful jazz dens, this one is gaudy, glitzy, and entertainingly over the top, if you couldn’t tell by the “limo service” option.

They don’t make ’em like Barfly anymore: The hole-in-the-wall dive has been a local favorite on Boulevard Saint-Laurent since 1996. Bands play a handful of nights per week on the small, makeshift stage backed by a banner emblazoned with the drunken fly mascot: think punk and psych-rock bands or weird DJ nights, plus a weekly Sunday night bluegrass jam, the bar’s marquee event. (On nights without music, hockey’s on TV.) Bring cash and expect to stay late.

This frozen-in-time country bar is a true Montreal original, hidden in the basement of a former office building in the west-end Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood. Originally a veterans’ social club, the endearingly no-frills club is now Canada’s oldest honky-tonk, whose famous weekly Hillbilly Nights have been running unchanged since 1966. (Well, not entirely unchanged: The “no songs written after 1965” rule has been amended to 1969, though drums and electric instruments remain banned.)

Less a formal jazz club than an upscale French bistro with nightly live jazz, this Old Montreal restaurant is all old-world European charm, nestled along the cobblestone streets of the touristy but nevertheless romantic historic district. Amid the vintage Parisian decor and a menu of French classics, local jazz, swing, and blues ensembles contribute to the Montmartre circa 1920 atmosphere.

Nearly 50 years into being, as the late-night club prominently declares on its “Depuis 1975” sign, this blues institution retains its original soul. Sets from hometown heroes like Marjo and Éric Lapointe lent the downtown venue credibility over the years; meanwhile, it amassed its extensive collection of local blues-rock memorabilia, such as guitars signed by Jean Millaire and Joe Bonamassa. Performances from a roster of Quebecois blues outfits go down seven nights a week.

Around the corner from the hustle of Rue Sainte-Catherine is one of downtown’s last real dives, a beer-and-a-shot joint whose basement digs block out what sunlight remains of the day. A famously sordid local literary haunt in the ’80s, today the low-key pub hosts folksy open mics on Wednesdays, bluegrass jams on Thursdays, and a grab bag of bands on weekends.