Bathurst’s QUAI Cuisine de Rue Opens for its Second Summer
BATHURST – On May 26, QUAI Cuisine de Rue officially opened its doors for Summer 2023. Annick Mcintosh, the restaurant’s co-owner, says she and the rest of the team are excited to serve the community.
Mcintosh says that QUAI Cuisine de Rue is a “streatery” that has been created inside of shipping containers. Located in Petit-Rocher just by the wharf, people can enjoy the view of the water while they eat.
QUAI Cuisine de Rue first opened in June of 2022, bringing its unique concept to the small village outside of Bathurst. After talking with some friends about what the village needs, the friends decided to bring the idea to life.
“I grew up in Petit-Rocher and my friend, who is also a co-owner, also grew up in Petit-Rocher, and we always thought that something near the wharf would be just amazing,” Mcintosh tells Huddle. “Then we tried to brainstorm on what type of restaurant we could do. Of course, we wanted to do seafood because we’re so close near the ocean and this is how the idea kind of came up.”
Although QUAI Cuisine de Rue is very focused on seafood, it serves a variety of other dishes, including veggie options, burgers, and more.
Along with this, it also serves a variety of cocktails to enjoy on the water. Mcintosh says they are working on setting up some live events over the course of the summer to enjoy their cocktails, although the lineup has not yet been confirmed.
“Last summer we had a band [perform] on top of one of our containers; it was really amazing,” says Mcintosh. “The weather was perfect and the music was amazing and the drinks were really good.”
Mcintosh says that the idea of QUAI Cuisine de Rue is for everything to be outside. There are two shipping containers that they have set up facing each other, one as a restaurant, and one as a bar.
“Everything is outside, so when you come to QUAI you’re going to eat outside or just pick up your food and eat somewhere else or at home,” says Mcintosh.
She says that there is a good amount of outdoor seating that is set up between the two shipping containers, as well as on top of the bar for people to enjoy their food and the great views of the water.
Mcintosh says that although she has wanted to do a grand opening of QUAI Cuisine de Rue, she found that there was never enough time.
“If we look at how it went last summer, as soon as we opened, we couldn’t have any opportunity to do a grand opening because the support was amazing with the community and with visitors as well,” she says.
From the local community to people visiting from out of town, QUAI Cuisine de Rue drew in a lot of new people over the summer of 2022. Mcintosh says that she has found that over the course of last summer they attracted a variety of new people to their little community.
“When we were preparing, actually, to open last weekend, we had a lot of people come in that were from outside of the region that were visiting that wanted to try or come back after last year,” Mcintosh tells Huddle.
She says that she has even had some people reach out to them on social medias in order to plan their vacations around visiting QUAI Cuisine de Rue.
With QUAI Cuisine de Rue being a great hit last summer, Mcintosh and the rest of the team are hoping for an even better run this time around.
“We really aim to offer amazing food, amazing service, and just a beautiful atmosphere where you can just eat great food and enjoy the views and be with the people you love,” says Mcintosh.
Ryley Roach is a Huddle student intern, based in Fredericton. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected]