Stop

May 1st is our anniversary! And what a ride it has been so far. 2 years at our current location. A race against time that seems to be the constant given our short lease...but here we are!
Thank you to everyone, and I mean everyone since so much of the restaurant is the people. Thank you for trusting us and accompanying us on this journey. Thank you for giving us a chance and a reason to keep striving to do better, to keep learning and growing.
From a COVID move to Sheridan, to post fire move to Roncesvalles, I really cannot express how much your support has been a driving force for me to not stop, all puns intended :)
Love you all, truly and apologetically. Nothing captures restaurant better than the images above. A small and dedicated team, a cat, a perfect cigarette, smiles and an after work dinner.
Bonne table and meow, meow! Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️🥂❤️🥂❤️🥂

Spring is apparently here, in intervals, pleasant intervals.
Spring menu is also here. Dressed down, with an opportunity to dress up, white asparagus, cleaner fresher flavours and scents. Rabbits, god, I love a rabbit, and a rabbit likes a carrot.
Striking colours, too many dogs and strollers and joggers. And remnants of the rich decadence of winter.
New dishes:
Leeks in "blood", Savoy Cabbage nest, Sweetbreads with ramps and white asparagus veloute, Rabbit in a sauce of beetroot, black garlic, red wine and beef stock, a feature dish of Rabbit saddle Rossini.

Spring.

Winter is nearly over.
Through all the snow and cold, spring is peaking out? This winter we cooked many birds, were number 1 on some list, dabbled with cassoulet, honored P.Bocuse, got shouted out by the GOAT M.Johnson, had the loveliest time at Mhel 🫶🫶🫶
Very much looking forward to warmer days and seasons' first offerings. Menu will be changing throughout the next few and fully in spring mode by April!
Meow for now ❤️

A chicken in the garden, a faux poached pear, duck leg in foaming butter with sage, and rustic country cooking. They all have a common denominator - they are delicious. And days are getting longer, which is nice. Spring may just be around the corner.
"Chicken in the garden" or my version of poulet a la creme is such a comforting dish. So relaxed and thoughtful.
Chanteclere chickens are small, with yellow fat, almost blood red dark meat and darker breast meat. For this dish they are lightly dry brined for 72 hours. Legs get deboned and filled with a mousse of the tenders from the breast, truffle and lemon zest, a layer of spinach is added. The leg gets rolled and roasted. The breast is left as a supreme, slowly cooked sling side down all the way in duck fat, butter and thyme. A simple cream sauce with the base of chicken, duck stock, white wine is the base, little glazed atlas carrots as garnish, and the garden - chervil and alyssum flowers.
"Faux poached pear" is a golden beet glazed with a reduced brine of pastis, vinegar and sugar. It retains the earthiness and savouriness of the beet, while highlighting natural sweetness and complexity of earth's candy. Creme fraiche with horseradish serves as the base, a round of Savoy cabbage adds texture and depth, beet sprouts.
Roasted duck leg, cured, cooked low and slow for an hour and a half. Finally to be injected with a healthy dose of foaming sage butter. To get drunk on butter.
"Cassoulet" is as rustic as it gets.
I like chickens and beets and ducks :)))

End of January. Simple and classic dishes. Roasted duck leg with port wine sauce, la rattle potatoes, foie gras and preserved peach from autumn, cooked first low and slow, then finished during service in butter with sage. Foie gras on toast, sauteed fennel with truffles, pear jam. Pretty slices of truffle.
Cat with her spider toy. Cabbage and smiles, hands covered in blood and salt.

New year is coming inevitably, and a celebratory dinner is a must!!!
The theme for our Nye 2026 dinner will be - Ducks and Beets.
Coursed out meal, where every dish will feature one or both of these magical ingredients, except dessert. Along side all things caviar, truffles, butter and champagne.
Reservations will be open December 1st with a cut-off date on December 23rd.
More importantly, will once again resume her role as Grand Lady chef, we will wear our whites and tall hats!!!

-More details will follow at the end of this week!
Let's make some memories, share a laugh, drink all the champagne and feast!
🥂🍾👨‍🍳👩‍🍳

Romance and beauty that I long for.
Produce that speaks for itself, throw back dishes that provoke memories, art that shows simplicity in its most complex form, layers of pastry under amber lighting, cook books and empty bottles of champagne, a tray of meringue.
This was October at Stop :)
Winter menu is inevitable.
A thank you to my muses and inspirations. The past and it's traditions, and for giving me the tools to bring my ideas to life, for the decadence, for being my inner voice of reason and my muse for cooking.
I am sharing this because it is important to me.

Our second wine maker's dinner with is going to be taking place once again at on DEC 18.
We will be featuring our yet to be released and yet to be figured out by me winter menu, PM will be pouring the finest sauce known to mankind.
Which is quite exciting!
Reservations will be open November 18th.
Capacity is limited to 36 seats. Don't miss it, because we will miss you!

Stop Restaurant is many different concepts to many different people.
I always feel emotional around this time that I'm born into this world, not for another week though, so it's fine. Not sure why, maybe it's the anxiety, uncertainty, fear, all of the above really.
My cooking is personal, my style of running a business is personal. It's different to whatever else is happening around me and the industry of hospitality in this city.
It's a tragedy in best form and the best representation of a person with a Russian heritage.
"Beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip"- T.Robbins
I like beets. I try to find new ways to use the beets. Beets stain, they linger, but treated right, they will be glorious and unforgettable.
Beets are bloody.
I hate a 25$ small plate restaurant, I dislike dishonesty in food and in general. I cook the way I think cooking should be. Everything matters, the taste, the vision, the generosity, the care.
And I have come to accept that I like classical cuisine, I like to eat food that tastes good, not the food that is painfully extracted out of a silly and unnecessary need to impress.
"Why change a winning formula" - P.Bosuce
So around this time, I feel emotional. I miss , I am nostalgic for comfort, comradery, honesty.
And unlike a turnip, blood squeezes out of me just fine. :)
The dishes pictured are unapologetic and raw:
Salmon and beet tartare with caviar
Torchon of foie gras, wild blueberry jam, basil
Sea bass crudo with peach and tomato
Lake Huron trout
Our best Bocuse impersonation. Grand Lady chef and moi.
If you read this to the end - thank you, you didn't have to.