Everyone knows that the best parties always end in the kitchen. With the Kitchen Party Series, we’re sitting down with Feast On Chefs to get to know them, and the local foods that inspire them, a little better.
Laura Carr
Chez Nous Wine Bar
Toronto, Ontario
Check out their Feast On profile here!
In 10 words or less, what’s your restaurant all about?
Home away from home, where our wine is the star!
Why did you decide to go all Ontario with your wine list?
It’s what I love to drink! We have such an abundance of interesting, complex, diverse, challenging, mouth-wateringly, DELICIOUS wines right here in our own backyard. Everywhere else in the world places great value on their own terroir, and I thought it was high time we started catching up.
Do you have a favourite pairing?
Impossible to pick just one – here would be my shortlisted contenders:
- Riesling with a juicy, sloppy, smashed double-patty cheeseburger
- Gewurtztraminer with a really spicy curry
- Bubbly with plain, salted kettle chips
- Cab Franc with pepperoni pizza
Most underrated Ontario wine?
RIESLING!!! In all its noble forms! I can’t get over how amazingly diverse this one grape can be. I continue to urge anyone who will listen to ditch those ‘Riesling is always sweet’ notions immediately and try as many as you can! I love surprising people with a zippy, high-acid, bone-dry example and totally throwing their preconceived ideas out the window. The flavour profiles of our Ontario Rieslings differ so wildly I feel certain that there is a Riesling out there for everyone!
What’s your favourite cocktail ingredient?
I’ve never understood the fascination with cocktails. I drink my whisky neat.
Fill in the blank: “If I entered a competitive eating contest, I’d definitely win if the item was _______”.
PIZZA!
What does your perfect weekend in Toronto look like?
Two days off… in a row?? Madness!
Definitely eating/drinking as much as I can at as many new places and old favourites as possible. Oysters and wine on a patio somewhere, lunch at Allen’s or the White Lily, afternoon pints. There’s got to be a Descendant pizza somewhere in the mix – or trying out any one of the million new joints in our booming east end! Apart from that, I’d try to catch some live music or the TSO, maybe make a trip to Cherry Beach with friends who have dogs, or take an impromptu little jaunt down to wine country to see what’s new and exciting! (That counts as ‘in Toronto’, right?)
