Third time’s a charm
Version 3.0 of Fort Amherst Pub set to open in Churchill Square next week
For someone who had a new business flooded not once, but twice, before officially opening to the public, Evan Bursey is remarkably positive.
“You never stop to think when you’re opening a restaurant, ‘What happens if I flood out for the next year?’” says the 25-year-old chef and owner of Fort Amherst Pub.
“You don’t really anticipate having to deal with stuff like this and the only way to get through it is to put your head down and get through it.”
On Wednesday, almost a year to the day after he suffered his first flood at the former Bistro Sofia location on Water Street, and nine months after the second flood shuttered his fledgling restaurant, Bursey will fire up the grills and tap the kegs at the new home in Churchill Square.
“When we were tearing out the bar here, I was picking up quarters and joking by saying, ‘I made more money here than I did in the last year.’ That’s the way you have to deal with it or you’ll go nuts.
“If you’re just looking at spreadsheets every day, saying, ‘This is what I have, this is what I’m out,’ you’d go nuts. You definitely have to make educated decisions, but you can’t dwell on it.”
Last July, Bursey was a few short days from opening his first solo restaurant venture when pipes in the upstairs dwelling of the downtown building burst overnight, drowning a good portion of the ground floor restaurant in water.
Undaunted, Bursey and his brother, Gabriel, the restaurant’s manager, pressed on and spent the next four months getting the place back in order in anticipation for a November opening.
Following two nights of soft opening, disaster struck again with another major leak, this time destroying once and for all thousands of dollars’ worth of kitchen equipment that was remarkably salvaged from the first flooding.
Again, they started work to remediate the restaurant, but when Bursey spotted the vacant restaurant in Churchill Square, formerly occupied by Pizza Hut, he made the decision to uproot the gastro pub style restaurant from the downtown location and move uptown. “At the end of the day there’s a couple of silver linings to being up out of downtown,” he says. “It definitely hasn’t been a pleasure, but I’m happy with what I assume is the final result.”
There’s more parking, access through a supply door, propane kitchen equipment versus the electric most downtown restaurants have to use in such close quarters and the assuredness that comes with dealing with a 40-year-old building as opposed to a 100-year-old building.
And while the new spot accommodates 24 fewer guests at capacity, a larger kitchen affords him the option for more bodies in the kitchen and the addition of takeout service.
Given the level of scrutiny he’s exercised in scouting the new location, and the fact the upstairs neighbours are the Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance for the Control of Tobacco, Bursey is confident he won’t be dealing with another major flood in the days before or just after his third launch.
As anyone who endeavours to open a new business knows, fretting about the unexpected is the least of one’s concerns.
“Any new business, you have worries about how people are going to like it, are they going to keep coming back,” Bursey says.
“The stuff that’s out of your control, you’ve got to push that to the back of your mind as much as you can and try to stay positive and move forward.”
More than that, there’s virtually no competition offering the same types of fare in the immediate area and it could appeal to clientele who may have been wary of downtown dining because of parking hassles and who like to avoid congested areas around George Street.
“I think we’ll attract clientele who want to stay out later and enjoy themselves because they’re going to have a comfortable atmosphere where they’re not encroached by situations where they might not be comfortable.”
It’s not that Bursey is against the downtown scene. He has worked in restaurants there and was a co-owner of the former Social House Kitchen and Bar, now the Fifth Ticket. Moreover, the name Fort Amherst Pub is a homage to his own family’s roots. His greatgrandfather was one of the first to offer fresh fish that was stored in a Fort Amherst chill house kept cold by huge chips of iceberg and then wrapped in cellophane and sold at a George Street retail store.
While the restaurant may be billed as a gastro pub, Bursey says his won’t have the same pretention that’s sometimes associated with the moniker.
The menu can be considered traditional, but with a twist Bursey and his brother expect will entice both the adventurous eater and those accustomed to more elevated fare.
Instead of chicken wings, guests will dine on quail legs. Rather than a potato- and savoury-heavy fishcake, the pub will serve delicate and moist cod cakes battered in panko and deep-fried. Burger meat will be ground on site and fried to medium rare to create their version of a Big Mac. Even the drink menu has a Newfoundland flair to it with cocktails such as the Bakeapple Cloud and the Mudder-in-law’s Sour, Gabriel’s take on a Whiskey Sour.
“We’re not trying to do anything pretentious, but we’re putting all the attention to detail on each plate,” explains Bursey.
“It’s not about how much money you spend, it’s about coming and having a good time in a comfortable atmosphere. The more comfortable locally, the higher the price point and the fewer people who can access it. We’re just trying to allow everybody to access some form of quality dining outside of the downtown area.”