The Vine Bringing a "Plant-Forward" Pescatarian-Friendly Menu As Peterborough's Newest Restaurant
/Showcasing vegetables and incorporating seafood in a ‘plant-forward’ approach is the philosophy of Peterborough’s latest restaurant, The Vine which is having its soft opening over three days from Thursday to Saturday.
Flowers had the soft opening on Thursday and Friday with the brunch on Monday. Bookings for the first two days have already filled up. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
The business is owned by couple Tyrone Flowers and Lauren Mortlock and is located at 165 Sherbrooke St. at the former Electric City Bread Company location. Flowers took a leap of faith when he discovered the business was closing down.
“Just on a whim, I came to look at it and then decided, 'You know what? We talked about this five years ago when we moved to up Peterborough that we wanted to open a place,'" said Flowers.
Flowers has worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years from dishwasher to head chef. He worked at the Publican House for four years.
The menu showcases salads, soups, sandwiches, entrées and pizza. A brunch menu that also incorporates eggs and dairy is available on Sundays. Pitchers of Gatorade and Kool-Aid and a tater-tot waffle are ‘hangover specials’ that are featured in the brunch.
Despite Flowers being a meat-eater, he believed offering a pescetarian-friendly restaurant and beyond would offer a different dining experience for Peterborough. He still strives to make plant-based ‘meat’ taste like the ‘real thing.’
“I was given the idea from a former colleague and we went with it,” he explained. “We did some research and we saw all the fun things we could do with making everything like all the vegan options seem real and everything so that's why we did it.”
He recognized the vast and diverse range of restaurants that already existed in town and that going pescatarian would be a unique take that would not trample on other businesses.
“There's already a bunch of great places in town that do the meat well, you've got some vegan restaurants too and we didn't want to step on anybody's toes by doing one thing so we decided, ‘Why don't we combine it?’” explained Flowers.
The Vine is having its grand opening on Tuesday beginning at 11 a.m. The restaurant is currently trying to obtain its liquor license at the publication of this article.
The following are the restaurant’s operating hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Monday: Closed
