Here’s the bad news: Niagara Street Café has been put up for sale, and its future is uncertain. The good news is that owner Anton Potvin will be bidding the place goodbye with a bit of a flourish. He’s recruited the esteemed Steve Gonzales, a Top Chef Canada contestant and the former chef de cuisine at Origin, to temporarily take over the kitchen starting Feb. 1.
Word on the street was that current chef Nick Liu would complete his last day at the restaurant on New Year’s Eve before moving on to open his own place, but he’ll be at Niagara Street Café until the end of January, Potvin tells us. Liu’s plan, as Toronto Life reported last week, is to eventually open an Asian brasserie.
Potvin wasn’t ready to disclose exactly what Gonzales has in mind for Niagara Street Café, but he said it will be a completely different menu, and, as expected, will probably have heavy Latin influences. Gonzales will be heading up the kitchen for the duration of February, and possibly longer.
As for the decision to sell the restaurant, Potvin says it’s bittersweet.
“I’ve been going through waves of seller’s remorse,” he says. “It’s been a great eight years. I don’t think it’s actually hit me yet.”
Potvin isn’t quite done with the restaurant industry yet, so keep an eye out for new projects from this entrepreneur in the future.