About 35 minutes south of Project Bench is a waterfront community on Lake Erie called Crystal Beach. And within Crystal Beach is a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Matty Matheson called Rizzo's House of Parm. This is a Niagara Region restaurant that has been on our team's list since it opened in 2022, but we've just never been able to make it work — until yesterday.
If you're in the mood for some Italian-American comfort food and are somewhat proximate, I would definitely recommend it. The food is solid, the portions make me happy, and the place has a great overall vibe. But here's what I would also say: you don't need to make a special drive from Toronto. Save that for you know what.
"We pick as close to service as possible. When we do tomatoes, tomatoes get picked, they never see the fucking fridge. Ever, ever, ever."
—Shane Harper, Farmer, Restaurant Pearl Morissette
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may remember me writing about Restaurant Pearl Morissette in the Niagara Benchlands.
In 2024, they were awarded the first Michelin star in the region, as well as a Green Star for sustainability. Then earlier this year, Canada's 100 Best named them the best restaurant in Canada. This is in addition to a myriad of other accolades that I'm surely missing.
What is clear is that this place is not only the best in Canada, it's one of the best dining experiences anywhere in the world. It's that good. And I think the above video by Vice does a great job outlining what co-chefs Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson have created with their restaurant and farm in the Bench.
Everything they serve is immediately local and/or Canadian, and they're constantly experimenting. Equally admirable is their commitment to reshaping Canadian cuisine and putting it on the world stage.
You hear that throughout the video. At one point Hadida says, "I'm interested in slightly better. So I'm willing to go significantly harder to achieve slightly better." That's what it takes to be exceptional at anything, and I think Canada could use more of this kind of attitude.
What is also clear from the video is that farmer Shane Harper needs his own YouTube channel. As a general rule, I have deep respect for anyone who approaches their work with passion and enthusiasm. He has that in spades.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal review of property and corporate records, Travis Kalanick's ghost kitchen startup, called CloudKitchens, has spent over $130 million over the past two years buying more than 40 properties in about two dozen cities.
Travis is co-founder and the former CEO of Uber and this latest startup provides commercial kitchens to restauranteurs who are looking for a low-cost way to launch delivery-only food concepts.
In some ways, it can be compared to coworking spaces for delivery-only restaurants. Instead of renting a full restaurant space, you lease 200-300 square feet of real estate at a lower cost address. CloudKitchens then handles all of the distribution and fulfillment, effectively lowering the barriers to entry for food startups.
Some of the properties that they have been buying include a vacant restaurant space in Miami Beach for $9.2 million (May 2020) and an industrial property in Queens, New York for $6.6 million (March 2020). They've also bought in cities like Portland and Las Vegas.
As you might imagine, now is a pretty good time to be buying some of these properties. And if you think about it, there are some real cost advantages to what they are doing, not to mention some co-working-style arbitrage on the real estate.
The company is apparently going to great lengths to conceal what and where they are buying. But what is perhaps more interesting is their asset-heavy approach. They're buying lots of real estate, which is inline with what companies like Opendoor are doing, but is distinct from Uber's asset-light approach.
It is also different from what many other ghost kitchen startups are doing. It seems that most are leasing their spaces. There has to be a reason for this difference.