Simple Plan member Jeff Stinco and partners Éric Lefrançois, Cindy Simard and co. will showcase the full Laurier BBQ makeover to a select group today and to the public at large on Thursday. They do so with a popular participant in the competitive culinary show Les Chefs!, Hakim Chajar, on the burners.
With Laurea, the lavish facelift of the moribund, former Gordon Ramsay bollix is mercifully over. From a pure aesthetics angle, the conversion looks spectacular. While other Stinco-financed projects like Mangiafoco and Rufus Rockhead have been heavy-handed with the glitz, Laurea seems, on the surface, like a more muted and elegant project. Designer Rebecca Bourque is largely responsible for that.
How Laurea develops as a complement to Lorbeer, the West Shefford brewpub on the first floor of the Danny Lavy and Stephen Shiller property, is another matter. Much of the burden is on Chajar and his charges in the kitchen, as they deliver a cuisine de consensus, as Lefrançois calls it, to a new crop of Laurier BBQ customers.
· Laurea [Official Site]
· Jeff Stinco and Partners Talk New Laurier BBQ [-EMTL-]
· Gordon Ramsay Sues Montreal Restaurant for $2.75 Mil [-EN-]