Seven courses as they stand this week, with the farm, the lake or the herd named on each one. It changes every Monday.
This week's menu
The shape of the menu holds; the contents move with the season. Below is the menu as it stands this week, with the producer named on every course, because that is the part worth knowing.
In June this is peas and their shoots with a whey dressing; in February it is stored roots, fermented since autumn, with sunflower seed and dill oil. The point of the first course is to show you the state of the year rather than the skill of the kitchen.
from
Course 1
vegetable, raw and pickled
Bought from a co-op fisher out of Gimli, filleted here, and cured for four hours only — long enough to firm the flesh, not long enough to make it taste preserved. The broth is the frames, roasted, with dill stems and a little vinegar.
from
Course 2
Lake your city, day-boat
Red Fife from a farm near Portage, milled weekly, and a starter that has been going since the room opened. The butter is cultured here for two days and salted with your region lake salt. Most guests ask for a second loaf; the answer is yes.
from
Course 3
baked at 3 pm
From a herd near Ashern. We cook it over birch rather than charcoal because the smoke is sweeter and the animal does not need much help. Saskatoons picked in July and held frozen, cooked down with juniper into something between sauce and preserve.
from
Course 4
over open flame
Hand-harvested rice from a family operation on the Whiteshell lakes, toasted until it pops, then cooked like a risotto in a mushroom broth. The most-requested recipe on the menu and the one we will not give out.
from
Course 5
hand-harvested
The honey comes from hives twenty minutes north of the Perimeter, and it tastes of clover and canola in a way that supermarket honey does not. The tart is thin, sharp, and deliberately less sweet than the custard it follows.
from
Course 6
two small plates
Beans roasted eight blocks away and ground to order. The last bite changes constantly and is usually whatever the pastry side has been arguing about that week. Herbal alternatives if coffee at nine o'clock is not for you.
from
Course 7
with the bill
Gratuity, wine beyond the pairing, corkage and metered parking on Bannatyne until 5:30 pm.
Everything that can be added to an evening, with its price, so there is nothing to discover on the bill.
Wine pairing
Five glasses chosen for the menu, mostly local.
$95
Non-alcoholic pairing
Five drinks, made here — ferments, tisanes, shrubs.
$55
Reserve pairing
Five glasses from the back of the cellar. Twelve available a week.
$165
Corkage
Per 750 ml bottle, two bottles maximum per table.
$35
Cake service
Bring your own cake; we plate and serve it.
$18
Whole-room booking
All twenty-eight seats, one party, any night we are open.
From $4,900
How dinner unfolds
Sixty days of calendar, a card to hold the seat, and a note about anything you cannot eat.
The menu is finalised on Monday around what the growers and the fisher actually have.
The whole room sits together. Coats taken, water poured, first course inside ten minutes.
Coffee, the bill, and a cab if you want one. We never rush a table out.
Reviews
4.9 from 720 reviews · nine years in the Exchange
“We went for an anniversary and stayed three hours. The pickerel course was the best thing I have eaten in this city, and nobody once made us feel hurried or under-dressed.”
“I told them four days ahead about a shellfish allergy and they rebuilt two courses rather than just removing something. My wife's plate and mine arrived at the same time and looked equally considered.”
“Expensive, and worth it once or twice a year rather than monthly. The wine pairing is where it gets steep — the food alone with a bottle from the list is the better arithmetic.”
We take the whole room at 6:30 and cook one menu. That is why the kitchen can be this small and the produce this specific — and why a Saturday in December needs booking in October.