The Provincial Gastro Lounge In Fredericton: 50’s Modern With A Speakeasy Twist
FREDERICTON – The capital city now has a brand new spot to spend the evening as The Provincial Gastro Lounge opens its doors to the public.
Fredericton lawyer and former Liberal cabinet minister T.J. Burke had long considered opening a bar and found the perfect opportunity after purchasing the space at 550 Queen Street. Planning got into full swing after he hired former 11th Mile chef Jay Rosado and they began to conceptualize what sort of experience the gastro-lounge would offer.
Since then, they’ve added Cellar Pub manager Pat Hanson to the team as their general manager.
“[T.J.] hired me on in June and then I just started giving him menu ideas, having tastings,” Rosado said.
“Our designer Traci Price came in and saw the doors and she’s like, ‘Oh wow. That screams mid-century modern.’ That’s where she got all these ideas… From there, T.J. said, ‘What food was good during that era?’ ”
The result of this combining of ideas is a comfortable but roomy space with design elements reminiscent of the 50’s and 60’s and a speakeasy twist, from velour seating to striking geometric decor.
Rosado took this idea of using mid-century elements to find inspiration for the menu he developed in cooperation with Burke.
“It’s kind of like tasting rather than full, sit-down meals,” he says. “We’re going with an old-style theme. The drinks are going to be around that too. It’s all going to be older style food. My whole menu is based around modernized old-school French techniques.”
Rosado’s creations offer a tasting experience that takes classic French cuisine elements and presents them in forms that will be slightly more familiar to Frederictonians. Rosado describes a lobster thermidor dip consisting of lobster, gruyere cheese, chipotle and mustard.
He’ll also be serving up charcuterie boards with local and made in-house ingredients as well as another French classic: chicken galantine, which is a type of chicken sausage served with Cumberland sauce. Rosado is particularly excited about one of the desserts: the canelé, a baked custard served with ice cream from the Chess Piece Pâtisserie & Cafe and lemon syrup.
Rosado says they’ll be putting service and customer experience first. The Provincial Gastro Lounge will begin as a cocktail and wine bar with food and eventually function as a cafe in the morning as well.