April 2026.
This is a remarkable eating experience combining high-class fine dining with a convivial large-group single table with a fixed menu. The owners are genuine culinary entrepreneurs and have a couple of other restaurants nearby in the Fingers Lake region of upstate New York along with catering and other businesses. We were impressed with the quality of the food and food-wise it was well worth the price although there was a multiple-wine accompaniment that was twice the price of the food and we ended up paying more than expected.
Walking in there’s a large room with ten or so other people chatting excitedly. We took a seat at the end of this table and reviewed the drinks menu, chatting with one or two of the other prospective diners. Shortly we were directed by the man who was the sort of MC for the whole show to move next door into another room were 12 places were set at a big table and we were all sat down while MC explained the dinner like a foreman giving directions to new employees, In front of us were a lovely warm flat loaf of white bread and a bunch of flavoured butter with vegetables each, which was the first course called “farmer’s board”.
We decided to accept the “notorious” wine pairing which was the high-priced one and got ready for the next four courses.
The courses were the farmer’s board, then a bluefin tuna belly, campanelle (meyer lemon, bay laurel, and Szechuan liquid combination), braised lamb, and a “Manjari grand cru” (a thin slice of a passion fruit and caramel tart). I couldn’t keep up with the wines that were served, but they were very varied, sometimes two to a course, and generally matched to the dishes although for me not classically or noticeably so which is often the case when I go for a wine pairing with a meal. All the courses were tiny and delicious without exception, preceded by a rapid-fire sotto voce description by the chef. Our MC was also voluble and I too loud even for someone as deaf as I am.
The bluefin tuna belly had been sous vided and topped with caviar on a fabulous lightly sour sauce. The campanelle was a puddle of the ingredients which amounted to a rich mix of separate flavours that I soaked up with some of the bread left from the farmer’s board. The braised lamb pieces were tiny but set on a homogenized masa polenta with a black squid ink aioli and wilted chard. Individually these components were lovely but together they gave a fantastic flavour combination. The two bites of lamb were succulent. The tiny (less than 1 cm at the thick and) slice of dessert tart was three or four bites of sweet contrasting joy.
Our dining group was as far as I could tell five young couples although two of them were probably in their forties. Beside me was a young lawyer from New York City with his pretty French Canada wife with whom after a couple of drinks I tried out my French. Across the table we shouted back and forth with a smart gorgeous Indian woman with her intense high-speed husband.
We were herded into another small rooms after dinner for some toasted marshmallows (burnt) more drinks if desired while after our 2 ½ hours the second sitting replaced us at the big table.
Overall impression is apositive surprise positive for the unmistakably haute-cuisine quality of the food, even though the presentation and accompanying descriptions were a little intense. It’s certainly a young and upwardly mobile crowd this place attracts. If we ever went there again – about as likely as being struck by some kind of benign lightning – we would simply order a bottle of wine to go with the C$110 meal and the very high cost would be about 60% less.
Food 9.5, service about 7.8 but could be higher if you enjoy entitled intensity, ambience uproarious, value good if you avoid wine pairings not so much otherwise, peace and quiet forget it.
