A bittersweet evening at The Niagara Cafe on Sunday, January 29, 2012. Chef Nick Liu pushed his last service through the pass for a sold-out 10pm sitting of restaurant industry friends and fans. Jamie and I were there, and in between a lot of well poured, Anton Potvin selected, wine and the cavalcade favourite Liuwellian dishes photographically displayed in Jamie’s slideshow above we did pretty exceptionally well late into the evening and into the early hours of Monday morning.
Chef Liu is tight lipped about his next venture… but we can surmise it will be in Toronto and we can hope that his signature of local ingredient driven, wine friendly with an Asian accent cuisine will continue to please as it (inevitably) evolves.
Niagara Street owner and acclaimed sommelier, Potvin is surely chagrined that Liu is leaving, but there were only smiles and love in the room – Potvin organised the ‘last suppers’ and a big farewell party afterwards.
Steve Gonzalez late from Caludio Aprile’s kitchens (and famed for his contestancy on Top Chef Canada) will take over the stoves going forward. – Malcolm Jolley
Jamie Drummond and Malcolm Jolley are the principals of Good Food Media and editors of Good Food Revolution and big fans of the Niagara Street Cafe and Nick Liu. They are also still rather tired from Sunday night.
“Speak for yourself Mr. Jolley” – JD
