The backstory behind Grey Highlands’ latest destination-dining restaurant, The Gate.
by Natalie Goldenberg-Fife // Photography by Anya Shor
ABOVE Chef and proprietor Jonathan Gushue.
The players and stories behind The Gate, the newly opened mediterranean-esque restaurant in Flesherton have all the makings of an episode of The Bear, the high-stakes American drama/comedy that exposes the real-life uglies, pretties, and hustle and bustle of the restaurant world.
But in this episode, everyone has grown up: addictive behaviours, hot-headed reactions, and darkness have been alchemized into wisdom. The themes of risk/reward, master/protégé and a commitment to the greater good of humanity make up the plot.
St. John’s, Newfoundland-born Chef Jonathan Gushue is the quietly confident leading man. This 53-year-old culinary artist and visionary is one of Canada’s most decorated and respected “chef’s chefs,” with esteemed cooking stints in Japan and the U.K. and a Relais & Chateaux Grand Chef designation since 2009. When he was head chef at Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario, Gushue earned that restaurant a Number 77 spot on the prestigious San Pelligrino list of the world’s best restaurants.
Chef Mark McEwan, Top Chef Canada judge, groundbreaking Toronto restaurateur, Southern Georgian Bay resident and owner of Thornbury’s beloved Fabbrica, describes Gushue as “one of the most capable chefs in the country.”
“It’s hard to find that type of pedigree and depth of commitment with younger chefs nowadays, as the industry is different. He’s a pro. It’s as simple as that,” says McEwan.
LEFT Pork belly with fennel cream. ABOVE Salted cod with smoked beets, scallions and cilantro.
“Restaurants are where the most fun is,” Gushue says. “It’s where you can be the most interesting and creative. I have no interest in stopping. There’s still a lot of work to do to get back on track after COVID. We lost upwards of 20 percent of the industry.”
In February of 2022, Gushue met his now business partner, Jennifer Belanger, in Stratford where she was managing The Bruce Hotel, which was struggling at the time, post-pandemic. Belanger, who for 10 years led the front-of-house team at ONE Restaurant in Toronto’s Hazelton Hotel, was looking to bring Gushue on for strategy and culinary development.
The meeting turned into a three-hour conversation and, soon after, Gushue joined Belanger at The Bruce as culinary consultant. They both shared a history of being influenced by France and Europe, spoke the same language, and wanted to impact Canadian hospitality in positive and significant ways.
“What Jen wants to accomplish front-of-house is similar to what I want to accomplish back-of-house: to be a place for Canadian gastronomy and hospitality to shine so that someday there’s no difference between Canadian and European hospitality,” Gushue says.
In August 2022, while working away on their computers, Belanger asked Gushue if he wanted to go for dinner at The Pine in Collingwood, which had earned some of the country’s top honours including being named Number 47 of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants 2023 and Number 9 on Canada’s Best New Restaurant list for 2022.
“I told him it’s two hours away, so we rented an Airbnb in Kimberley and made the trip to Collingwood,” says Belanger. “The next day we went for lunch at Heart’s Tavern and saw a for sale sign outside the Grist Mill. I smacked Jonathan’s arm and asked
‘What’s this building? We have to convert it into a restaurant!’ I called the realtor, and then Mark [McEwan]. I asked him if I was out of my mind.”
“Big risks, big rewards,” was the response Belanger remembers from McEwan, who is one of her former employers.
“Restaurants are where the most fun is,” Gushue says. “It’s where you can be the most interesting and creative.”
Gushue and Belanger’s plan was to renovate the Grist Mill space into a modern French country house-inspired restaurant and wine cave called The Vale—named in geographic honour of its setting in the Beaver valley. The expected opening date was January 2023. But some lengthy and challenging septic and zoning red tape delays in Kimberley led to the unexpected decision to take over Flesherton’s old Bicycle Café in September 2023 and turn it into The Gate, which opened for business in December 2023.
“It was a necessity project,” explains Belanger. “We had a growing team and needed to put them somewhere. And that’s how we opened a restaurant while we were opening another restaurant.” The Vale is now expected to open in July 2024.
“I’d been asked to open a restaurant before, but I never found the right partner,” Belanger says. “Jonathan is deeply intelligent and unreasonable in his quest for perfection and therefore what he makes is delicious. This is certainly a departure from luxury hotels, but I feel that The Gate personifies him. It’s serious but not too serious,” says Belanger.
Belanger brings two decades of front-of-house experience spanning Canada, France and Abu Dhabi to The Gate and The Vale.
“I get timing and execution and Five Diamond hotel standards which I lived and breathed for decades. But here, I want to create an environment where it’s like going to your favourite aunt’s house and when she brings you cookies, your eyes light up,” she says.
Proprietor Jennifer Belanger.
LEFT Scallops with mushrooms and seaweed. ABOVE Winter squash ravioli with buttered crab, apple and celery.
And eyes do light up! Dining at The Gate feels like a big warm hug to your heart and belly. Everyone is welcomed without pretension. Artful and delicious dishes are dropped off with personalized/bespoke explanations. Sharing with your tablemates is highly encouraged. And there’s a sense of sophisticated European hospitality married with the warmth of good ol’ Canadian politeness.
Strengthening this duo is Phillipe de Montbrun, executive chef at both The Gate and The Vale. Montbrun is the former sous-chef at Langdon Hall under Gushue and most recently under Chef Jason Bangerter. Montbrun was also chef de partie at Copehagen’s Noma, one of the most coveted restaurants on the planet, a position he acquired thanks to Gushue’s influence.
“How often does someone get to work with their greatest mentor, not once, but twice in their life? Put that in perspective,” says Montbrun. “We called him a wizard at Langdon. At 3 p.m. he would call everyone into the office to announce we’re going to change the tasting menu—and we would all be freaking out. You make it. You barely make it through, but you do. That’s the team he built. Going into the office at the end of the night, there would be a plethora of books and wealth of knowledge. He would talk to us about food for hours.
“There were some rough days. One day after being kicked off the vegetable section the night before, I was in the fridge acting like a puppy with my tail between my legs. Chef opens the door and looks at me:
‘Phil, what the fuck are you doing?’ ‘I am getting vegetables.’ ‘It’s redemption day. Get back in the saddle.’
He has always believed in me. There are lots of types of love in life and I love him,” says Montbrun.
Both Montbrun and Gushue have developed a food menu for The Gate that speaks to the big flavours they are both passionate about.
“We use the term Mediterranean loosely. Both Phil and I adore spices, so we’ve looked deeply at Sicily and Morocco. We’ve also leaned heavily into inspiration from the late ‘80s California nouvelle-cuisine of Alice Waters and Jeremiah Towers,” says Gushue.
Beverage-wise, the menu is small but thoughtful.
“We take our sparkling water seriously. We have obscure and minimal selections of wines with grapes that go with our food. Beers from Toronto, Europe and France. People ask us if we will put Canadian wines on the menu and we say, ‘We’ll put good wines on the menu,’” says Belanger.
With the level of talent and authenticity behind these restaurants, the “best of” lists will surely be knocking on their door. Whereas these recognitions may have mattered in the past, Gushue says they aren’t what’s driving everyone anymore.
“This community is so interesting. I love how engaged, involved, and attached people are to this place. We’ve had people come in and encourage us to support local sports teams, hockey teams, the Flesherton food bank. They’re telling us we can’t just come here and collect money, like in big urban centers. I enjoy the challenge and want to enrich the community.
If accolades come, they come, and if not, our biggest award will be making everyone really happy,” says Gushue.
LEFT Executive Chef Phillipe de Montbrun. ABOVE A harvest table in the front window for family-style dinners and sharing plates.
