It’s 9am when Annie Brace-Lavoie starts her day. The coffee maker is trickling as she begins to pull containers and produce from refrigerators. A tray of nest-like wheels made of praline-flavoured choux pastry make its way into the oven. After baking they’ll be cut horizontally and piped full of hazelnut creme. Desserts are always done […]
Annie Brace-Lavoie
Best Chef
Gold Winner Renée Lavallée, The Canteen Silver Winner Annie Brace-Lavoie, Bar Kismet Bronze Winner Andy Hay, Andy’s East Coast Kitchen It was a pretty incredible nominees list for this year’s Best Chef category, with six of seven standouts being women—an unfortunate rarity in this readers’ survey—and five first-time noms. It’s a repeat win for Reneé […]
A night at Bar Kismet
Bar Kismet 2733 Agricola Street Tue-Sun 5pm-12am One of the biggest downsides of writing about a restaurant that you really love is the potential to ruin your chance of ever getting a table at that restaurant ever again. When there are only a few dozen seats, you kind of want to keep every single one […]
First look: behind Bar Kismet’s classic decor
Bar Kismet 2733 Agricola Street Tue-Sun, 5pm-12am It’s 22 degrees and Jenner Cormier’s forearm is covered in goosebumps. He’s recounting the first few days of service at Bar Kismet, the seafood-focussed restaurant he and his partner Annie Brace-Lavoie (who’s also the chef) opened quietly to Agricola Street last weekend. “The last few nights we’ve had […]

