Pitcher’s Place

It takes a village to raise a child. Everyone’s village is different and everyone’s child is different but the concept is universal.

LAST FALL, I MET WITH FRIENDS AT PITCHER’S PLACE, a small restaurant in Gores Landing. As the evening progressed, the sound of our party’s laughter bounced off the stark white walls and the arborite tabletops. But the food on the menu and the enthusiasm of the owners, Shanna Layton and Allan Gordon, captured our party’s attention and the restaurant’s atmosphere soon became secondary.

The twenty-something couple purchased Pitcher’s Place last winter and with the energy and determination of youth on their side, they poured their savings and their hearts into the building and restaurant fixtures. Shanna and Allan lived on site, sleeping in a tent pitched on the unheated second floor, while they undertook the preliminary renovations. The kitchen was enlarged and new commercial appliances arrived but their budget couldn’t handle much beyond that.

Around the same time, Pitcher’s Place was discovered by Sven Kraumanis and Christine Jenkinson, co-owners of Legacy Vintage Building Materials & Antiques in Cobourg. They were also smitten by the young restaurateurs, and as luck would have it, they generously offered to help Shanna and Allan continue with their dream of transforming Pitcher’s Place from a cold, impersonal space to a casual cool oasis for diners.

Sven and Christine brought their warehouse of skills, labour and materials to the table – and the team began their version of TV’s Restaurant Makeover.

While most people were cursing the frigid temperatures and fighting their way through a bitterly cold January, the construction at Pitcher’s Place was heating up. Iron skillets and razor sharp kitchen knives were traded for buzz saws and hammers. Pots, pans and wooden spoons were temporarily replaced by paint rollers and brushes. Sven and Christine raided their restoration supply business for materials – barn beams, sheets of decorative tin, wainscotting, lighting and artifacts. Fluorescent lights were replaced with individual hanging lights over each table, and a feature wall was created using weathered hardwood strips. Walls, ceilings, chairs and tables were painted and a new vestibule was added to protect diners from the winter drafts. When all the sawdust was swept up and the hammers and screwdrivers put back in the tool kits, the only things that remained the same at Pitcher’s Place were the smiles on Shanna and Allan’s faces and, of course, their innovative cuisine.

Through all of the changes, Shanna and Allan never lost sight of their real love: fresh, hearty, country cooking using as many locally-sourced products as possible.

The variety and complexity of the items on their menu suggests that the couple isn’t new to the culinary scene. In Allan’s words, “Everything I know, I learned from the amazing slave drivers that I worked for in the restaurant business.”While working at the CN Tower’s 360 Restaurant, Allan was used to topping and tailing green beans – 50 pounds at a time – and peeling potatoes by the crate, experiences that seared the value of hard work and fresh ingredients in the kitchen of his mind.

Shanna started her career trajectory in high school, working her co-op hours at Centro, one of a stable of fine restaurants that helped put Toronto on the culinary map. She often arrived early and stayed late, intent on learning as much as possible. But it was her stint in Italian kitchens that opened her eyes to new horizons and fresh ideas: “In Italy, the staff and family generally live above or beside their restaurant. They start early, serve lunch, take a mid-day break, re-open for dinner, clean-up and either go home or take in a light charcuterie meal at the end of the day. I dreamed of creating the same atmosphere at Pitcher’s Place.”

Armed with a vision and their experiences, Allan and Shanna scoured the province looking for a restaurant where they could practice their passions. The Gores Landing location was a perfect fit.

As new kids on the block, they had a hard row to hoe. Locals were accustomed to ordering a hamburger and fries with a fountain Coke, not confit chicken cassoulet, brined in salt and sugar, cured in herbs and served with house-made Braut sausage, navy beans, carrots, fennel and celery, served in a chicken demi-glaze, with a glass of locally-made cider to wash it all down. Mind you, Shanna and Allan do have burgers and fries on the menu – hand-cut fresh fries – seasoned with salt and fresh thyme.

Gradually, the restaurant’s reputation is spreading and with spring on our doorstep, customers are awakening from winter hibernation, ready and willing to make the short trek to Gores Landing to check out the new hotspot.

Thanks to the kindness and support of Christine and Sven and the determination of a couple of young entrepreneurs, Pitcher’s Place is well on its way to success.

…

AFTER CHRISTINE and her gang had worked their magic, Pitcher’s Place held a special dinner to celebrate their new look and to show it off to friends of Legacy and Watershed. Despite the blowing snow and howling wind, the inside atmosphere was warm and inviting. Guests arrived – 32 in all, not including Allan’s parents – and were welcomed with a glass of Prosecco and an appetizer. Laughter resonated as the kitchen heated up and hummed like a well-oiled machine. Shanna and Allan were in their element and the guests were certainly not disappointed.

Standing in the parking lot at end of the evening, I cast one last look over my shoulder towards the restaurant. With only one light left on, Shanna and Allan were silhouetted in the window, their arms around one another – a Pitcher of happiness!

Pitcher’s Place, 8642 Lander Road, Gores Landing