{"id":193782,"date":"2023-11-10T09:47:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T14:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=193782"},"modified":"2023-11-10T09:47:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T14:47:11","slug":"eastern-townships-restaurant-named-one-of-canadas-best-new-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/eastern-townships-restaurant-named-one-of-canadas-best-new-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Townships’ restaurant named one of Canada’s best new restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Eastern Townships\u2019 restaurant has made a name for itself at the national level after opening its doors less than a year ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

L'\u00c9space Old Mill<\/a> is a historical landmark in the village of Stanbridge East dating back to 1849. It was purchased by Jean-Martin Fortier, a market gardener and owner of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, over a year ago. Fortier and his team transformed the space, which was formerly known as the Cecil House, to open up a farm-to-table style restaurant in Brome-Missisquoi.<\/p>\n

L'\u00c9space Old Mill officially opened in March of this year and now it has been named as one of \u201cCanada\u2019s Best New Restaurants\u201d by Air Canada enRoute<\/em> magazine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the premier critic review of restaurants in Canada. We were nominated in the top ten and we went to Toronto last week where we finished 9th. There were restaurants from Toronto, from Montreal, Victoria, there was one restaurant from Winnipeg, and there was Stanbridge East,\u201d highlighted Fortier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Food journalist Amy Rosen is the critic behind this year\u2019s list and she secretly made a visit to the Eastern Townships to experience L'\u00c9space Old Mill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey come blindly, we don\u2019t know when they come and we don\u2019t know who they are. (\u2026) The list goes down to 30 and she does the 30 restaurants, which is probably a lot of food, a lot of work, a lot of wine, but then she cracks down the list to ten and then goes and eats at all of these restaurants,\u201d explained Fortier. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s a really nice reward. We worked so hard the whole team, from the kitchen to the people on the floor. Also, me and my business partner took a lot of risks to open a restaurant here. (\u2026) It was a mix of relief, of happiness, and oh boy, this is a lot of work and believing in our project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that L'\u00c9space Old Mill has received this recognition, Fortier highlighted that he and his team will continue to \u201crefine\u201d their work for those that visit the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to commit to making sure that we are up to the standings. It\u2019s [more difficult], I think, to stay on top than to get on top. What we want to do is refine what we do, get better at what we do, but we just want to make sure that everyone that comes here has a good experience,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not super pricey, but we\u2019re not cheap. We\u2019re fully aware that when people come here that they are spending their money. We want to make sure that when people spend their money that they\u2019re getting their value for it, they get a nice experience, and they get back home and they\u2019re happy. That\u2019s really what we want to do here, that\u2019s our only goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

While CIDI could not get through to Air Canada enRoute<\/em> magazine for comment, Fortier said that it\u2019s the \u201cconstraints\u201d and \u201cparameters\u201d that are placed on L'\u00c9space Old Mill that sets its apart from other restaurants and that led to finding itself in the Top Ten.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we read and what we know is that first of all, this is a farm-to-table. It\u2019s an authentic farm-to-table where most of the produce - vegetable wise - comes from the gardens. The gardens are 10 meters away from the restaurant, it\u2019s the backyard. It\u2019s a pretty big year-round market garden. We supply the restaurant every month throughout the year with what we grow,\u201d he highlighted. \u201c(\u2026) Everything that we serve at the Old Mill is 100% locally sourced, that\u2019s the parameters that we have. There are a few exceptions with salt that comes from the St. Lawrence and a few bottle of wines from France, but we only use local products from Brome-Missisquoi. Not many restaurants go that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Fortier, the recognition has already caught on and the restaurant received 200 reservations within two days from people that want to visit L'\u00c9space Old Mill, which also includes a small auberge named after the Cecil House.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the massive uptick, Fortier invites all Townshippers to experience what L'\u00c9space Old Mill is all about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really proud to be here in Stanbridge East and the Eastern Townships. We only work with local artisans, farmers, and we are supportive of the community. We really appreciate when people come and eat at our place, so we\u2019re inviting everyone,\u201d concluded Jean-Martin Fortier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To read Rosen's review.<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview with Fortier below:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Eastern Townships\u2019 restaurant has made a name for itself at the national level after opening its doors less than a year ago.\u00a0 L’\u00c9space Old Mill is a historical landmark in the village of Stanbridge East dating back to 1849. It was purchased by Jean-Martin Fortier, a market gardener and owner of Les Jardins de…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":150145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,219],"tags":[2038,16332,1761,32641,7055,15141],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193782"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194269,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193782\/revisions\/194269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193782"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=193782"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=193782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}