Ethel & Mary’s Bringing Locally Sourced, Home-Style Cooking to Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN – A restaurant opening in uptown Saint John this fall will serve fresh, local ingredients with a side of nostalgia.
Ethel & Mary’s is expected to open at 107 Princess Street in uptown Saint John this October.
The business, founded by chef Matthew Elliott, will be a diner-style restaurant that aims to give customers a sense of nostalgia and surprise by applying culinary knowledge to home-style, family favourite dishes, using locally sourced ingredients.
Many of the dishes are inspired by old New Brunswick cookbooks, and recipe’s from Elliott’s grandmothers, Ethel and Mary, the women the restaurant is named after.
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“It’s a farm-to-table version of a diner. We’re going to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” says Elliott.
The location is in its early stages of renovations, but it will feature an open kitchen and seating for around 20 people. During the day, the restaurant will offer meals that are easy to grab-and-go if needed. Elliott has been testing out some of these dishes at his stall at the Queen Square Farmer’s Market on Sundays.
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“The goal is for it to be something that you could grab during the day for breakfast and lunch – something that is good and locally sourced and high-quality, but still relatively quick,” says Elliott. “Lots of sandwiches, soups, salads and stews and chowder, bread, things like that. I want people to get in and out quickly if that’s what their needs are.”
In the evenings, the pace will slow down.
“We have no goal of being a fancy restaurant, but the food will be very high quality and prepared carefully,” says Elliott. “You are going to have plated dishes and you are going to be able to have a few courses at night. You are going to be able to bring a date or your parents and have good service experience.”
Elliott says the restaurant’s menu will evolve with the seasons and what fresh ingredients are available locally.
“My hope is that people will be excited about what we’re trying to do and the fact that we’re trying to be a part of a natural agricultural cycle,” he says. “That is really the goal of what we’re doing.”
Though the menu of offerings will always be changing, Ethel and Mary’s will always be guided by one principle: Would Ethel and Mary eat here?
“If they wouldn’t be comfortable in the space, or if they would look at the menu and not know what’s on it, then that’s the mistake. I’m not going to name something after my grandmothers and then it’s a menu of french cooking terms. when I could just have a pot roast,” says Elliott.
“I could come up with a fancy French way of saying ‘Pot Roast,’ people do that. But I personally don’t see the point. I would rather you just look and be like ‘that sounds like it would be good to eat.’ “