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New Stratford restaurant promises bistro fare and great wine

A former pop-up pizzeria makes a big change, as Chef Jamie Crosby creates a Stratford restaurant inspired by Paris' casual bistros.
lovage
Lovage at 72 Wellington St. has a soft opening this week.

Chef Jamie Crosby has cooked in top kitchens ranging from Copenhagen’s Noma and Toronto’s Grey Gardens to local legend, The Prune.

Now, he’s channelling his culinary talents into his own venture with the opening of Lovage.

Crosby took over the space at 72 Wellington St. last June, initially operating it as a pop-up pizzeria called Pretty Good Pizza.

After a short but successful run, he shuttered the space over the winter to make way for renovations and a permanent restaurant concept.

“It’s taking my experience at high-end places and figuring out how to simplify it and make it accessible for everybody,” Crosby said of Lovage.

Although Crosby primarily cooked in fine dining restaurants during a stint working in Europe, he found himself most drawn to Paris’ casual bistros.

“The older I got, the more I wanted to cook that kind of food,” he said.

Crosby was inspired by creative restaurants he came across in Paris’ outer arrondissements – away from the tourist hot spots – where the menu influences spanned from Italian to Japanese. It’s this kind of eclectic European cuisine, which Crosby describes as 'classic with a little bit of a twist', that guided his approach to the menu at Lovage.

While the full menu is still in development, Crosby says we can expect plenty of cheeses and cured meats, as well as oysters and seafood. He adds they’ll also be making ice cream in- house.

“It’ll be a small menu and change pretty often. In Europe, they call it ‘market cuisine'. "You cook whatever you have that day and it changes really often with the seasons.”

Crosby says the food will be designed to pair with wine, which is another major focus at Lovage.

“We are hoping to have a bit of a wine bar vibe,” he said, explaining that he wants to create an environment where diners can feel comfortable dropping in briefly for a glass of wine and a snack, or staying for a full meal.

Lovage’s wine list currently sits at around 40 different bottles.

“We have everything from funky, everyday stuff to higher-end, iconic stuff – special occasion wines. It’s a little bit of everything."

Diners who previously visited the Pretty Good Pizza pop-up will notice big changes to the restaurant’s interior.

“It has a lot of character, like exposed brick walls and an original tin ceiling. We wanted to play (that up),” he said of the renovations.

The Lovage team refinished the space’s original hardwood floors, created an open kitchen, and added a bar, where Crosby said seating will be reserved for walk-ins.

“We wanted it to feel like it's been this way for 100 years."

The space seats 30 inside and 20 people on the outdoor patio. Crosby is aiming for a soft launch for friends and family this week, followed by an opening to the general public around the May long weekend.

“I want to hopefully turn people on to some new things, but I also want it to feel like an everyday kind of place."