"It's pretty simple," says chef Ludovic Eveno. "We went through so many different names and Agricola just ended up making sense." He's talking about his new bar and restaurant, Agricola Street Brasserie (2540 Agricola Street, next door to the also brand new enVie) a project he and partners Mike Hase and Rachel Knox have been brainstorming for three years.
But, it's not as simple as naming the venue for the street it sits on. It's also a nod to the pen name of John Young, an advocate for Nova Scotia's agriculture in the 1800s. And the Latin meaning of Agricola is farmer, well-suited to the resto's plans to work closely with local products and the people behind them. It's straight-forward but smart, clever but unpretentious, kind of like what Eveno, Hase and Knox have planned for the soon-to-be hangout.
“My friends, we love good food. We love going out and love making food,” says Eveno of the inspiration for the spot. “We always make big dinners for our friends. That’s what started the project, what we wanted to do was basically get all of our friends in a restaurant.
"Food is important, service is important, but it's about having friends around to share that good food and atmosphere. We want people to be comfortable.”
The 120-seat restaurant will include 15 seats at the bar, and 10 at an open concept kitchen bar, offering up plenty of room for casual, drawn-out, social eating and drinking. The cuisine coming out of Eveno’s kitchen will be home-made, locally-sourced, slow-cooked and, of course, French-inspired. Born, raised and trained in France, he’s worked in Europe, the UK and across eastern Canada but has been living and cooking in Halifax for nearly a decade.
The trio behind the Agricola Street Brasserie says it won’t be “fancy”, or “pretentious”, just a welcoming place to share great food and great drinks with great friends.
“Everybody feels more comfortable to laugh and share dishes in a set up that’s not too upscale,” says Eveno, “But you can recreate the ambience. And, as a chef you can share the same kind of food.
“We want every night to be special, whether it’s Saturday night or Tuesday night,” says Eveno.
And sights are set on late October for those nights to begin.
Keep your eye on Agricola Street Brasserie here, we know we will be.