here is a certain type of high-priced adult restaurants that is spreading over the landscape like kudzu: urban, multiplex dining rooms, often with outdoor terraces, lubricated with recorded top-40 and reasonably priced California reds, overstated architecture and conversation.

Enter Pur, the latest of the breed. One of the more unlikely players in the resto business, this resto-bar in the construction-heavy part of Old Montreal near McGill Street, has learned the formula by heart. Pur is trying to be a party restaurant, and there certainly appears to be no expense spared. Located in this chronically hard-to-park-in hood, Pur has kept the high-timbered ceiling of its refurbished space.

The owners of Pur (the Beniamino & Co) have given designer Jean-Pierre Viau free-reign to put together Pur’s grey-fuchsia schematics. The high-ceilinged space is bright in stark contrast to the fuchsia walls still in vogue at some places. The main level is spacious and open, featuring large designer lighting fixtures. Light through the large front windows bathe the room in light, and large screen TVs are irritatingly abundant.

So, is Pur a restaurant or sports bar? Or perhaps a lounge? Well, is there a steak with accompanying sugar-sweet coleslaw? Caesar salad with monster croutons? Bland sushi? Check, check and check. Still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy my meal there. It’s just that, with every bite I took, I was very aware of how much I was gambling. In the past, I would have been quick to condemn a venue that was quick to go the sports bar route, trying on different resto personas.