This past Thursday (March 13, 2025), over 260 individuals gathered at a restaurant in Montreal’s east end borough of Rivière-des-Prairies to celebrate being Italian. Nothing else. Nothing more.
Conceived by Steve Vecera (aka DJ Stevie V) of Insieme Montreal, La Cena’s fifth edition was bigger than even Vecera himself anticipated.
“I’m stressed out! We’re too many people,” Vecera joked when he took the microphone to address Thursday’s attendants.
“La Cena was never supposed to be that big,” he explains the following morning.
“People still had a great time, but they stayed with their crew. It was like a hall party. We’re going to go back to a small venue for the next one,” he adds.
The first edition of La Cena took place in August of 2024 in St-Leonard at a 45-seat-capacity Italian restaurant. The event sold out in a week. So, with each edition, the venue got bigger in order to keep up with demand.
“We’re a non-profit organization. We don’t make a profit on these events. I just want to get people together. I want to meet our Insieme followers, I want to meet people. That’s how I conceived it,” Vecera comments.
Vecera founded Insieme Montreal after Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
“We organized a party to celebrate the World Cup. Then we started playing the tarantella in clubs and the party kids loved it.”
Fifteen years later, Insieme boasts over 38,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok combined.
Insieme’s early social media content featured Vecera’s posts about growing up Italian with his grandmother. Today, the platform has a 10-person team of contributors who roam the city to create videos and stories about their favorite Italian-Montreal shops, restaurants, cafés, hangouts and events.
“It’s not just about me anymore. We have a great crew. They’re young. They’re motivated. They have great ideas. They’re good people,” Vecera proudly boasts.
“We don’t do pretentious. Nothing too serious. We try to do some cool stuff. People want to know what’s going on in our community and they like our content. We post seven days a week, and we need to post seven days a week, or else followers will ask what’s going on,” he adds.
Insieme Montreal also hosts an annual “Insieme” club party which caters specifically to the younger generation.
At Thursday’s Cena, a group of cousins and lifelong friends found themselves at Table 16. For them – some returning participants, some first timers – it was an opportunity to get together. The evening was filled with gossip, catching up on kids, work and relationships and loads of laughter. There was even dancing.
At one point, two female cousins got up to head to the dance floor to dance to a waltz. One husband lovingly yelled out, “That’s why cousins are great to bring to a party! I don’t need to dance!”
At every other table, the ambiance was the same. Friends and family coming together – on a weeknight! – to share a meal, good conversation and a few laughs. For some, the get together was long overdue. For others, La Cena was the outing of the week.
Thursday’s menu was reminiscent of the traditional Sunday meal many Italians and children of Italians in Montreal associate said meal with; focaccia, pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, fried calamari, chicken all parmigiana, and coffee with zeppole and cannoli.
“Growing up, Sundays were magical. The smell of sugo at 11:00AM. CFMB Radio in the background. Grandmother in the kitchen. People screaming, laughing. All the family together. But today, people just got busier. And if we don’t have our grandmothers, it’s hard to replicate,” Vecera comments.
“La Cena is a chance for people to come together, to converse, and to have a great time with other Italians from the community.”
The fact that the party was still going strong an hour after it was supposed to end, a good time was indeed had.
The next edition of La Cena will return on May 1st.
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