Dining Out

Karl Wells

Christopher's

281 Duckworth St.

Ph. 579-8585

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

- John Lennon

Friendship is a wonderful thing. Sometimes it means you have especially pleasant company for a restaurant meal, when you otherwise might have dined alone. (For example, the other evening my friend Linda and I got together for dinner at Christopher's - the newest addition to the Duckworth St. fine dining scene.) And sometimes it means you get to own and operate your own restaurant. At least, that's what friendship appears to have done for Christopher Gillard. He is chef and part owner of Christopher's.

For the past couple of years Chris Gillard hasn't been doing much cooking. He had become disillusioned with the trade and was contemplating a career change. However, fate and his friends jumped in to prevent the switch. They offered Gillard a partnership in this new restaurant venture. The goal: to give their friend a reason to start cooking professionally again. Apparently they couldn't bear the thought of this young chef - whose food they adore - moving into a non-culinary career. Now that's friendship.

Christopher’s is a modest sized restaurant with a jazzy soundtrack. It has two rooms similarly decorated in soft colours punctuated by several bright floral themed oil paintings. (The paintings are by a chap named Greg Blackwood who bills himself as an “abstract” artist. They didn’t look particularly abstract to me by the way.) Tables are covered in fresh linens and feature real flowers and stylish stainless flatware. Christopher’s strikes all the right notes in terms of décor and ambience.

It was a cold, stormy night with plenty of snow flying. A bowl of hefty button mushroom soup with smoked duck seemed the perfect antidote. Christopher’s soup was very good on many levels. Lots of meaty mushroom pieces mixed with much smaller bits of smoked duck swam in a fairly thick cream enriched liquid. A simple paper-thin shaving of Parmigiano Reggiano decorated the top. Everything about this delicious soup was right except for one element - seasoning. It was a tad salty.

Scallops are an exceptional food. They require very little cooking, if any. They’re sweet, succulent and full of their very unique flavour. And, they require very little seasoning. I love them. Christopher’s seared scallop appetizer was perfectly cooked. Several quickly seared scallops were arranged on a balsamic reduction and greens. I was impressed with the skilled presentation and preparation of this appetizer -simple but elegant. However, again this dish was a bit too salty. Some may not have been bothered at all by the amount of salt in these two dishes. For me though, a little less enthusiasm with the saltshaker would be welcome.

My friend Linda is an old-fashioned “meat and potatoes” girl. Having seen Christopher’s selection of steaks she quickly decided on a smallish ribeye called a “sissy cut.” Thank goodness she did because otherwise I would not have discovered Christopher’s real forte - STEAK. Christopher’s may very well turn out to be the best steak restaurant in St. John’s. Linda’s steak was a dream – perfectly grilled, perfectly seasoned, juicy, flavourful; well, you get the picture.

You could practically hear the plate groaning from the weight of my braised lamb shank when it arrived from the kitchen.

“Quick! Quick! For mercy’s sake, put me down before I break!”

I asked our friendly (and efficient) server, Megan, if this was a normal portion. She said it was. According to her, shanks, of late, have been small. To compensate, Christopher’s have been giving people two of the “small” ones. (Everything’s relative but they didn’t look small to me.)

They were quite tasty, a very good braise. The great attribute to nicely braised meat is flavour. I don’t believe there is any other cooking method that allows for the development of flavour the way braising does.

This dish also came with a lovely vegetable arrangement - a sweet and regular potato scallop and some fresh snow peas. Christopher’s lamb dish may not have made a good spring or summer entrée but on an evening in Newfoundland in the middle of winter it was life sustaining and delicious.

Dessert is important because the taste of dessert remains with you long after the meal is over. If it is a mediocre closer then it can make you forget, or, at the very least, diminish your memory of anything really good that may have preceded it. To some extent this was the experience I had with Christopher’s lemon tart with meringue topping. It looked nice enough.

However, as soon as I tried the topping I knew I was going to be disappointed. It didn’t taste like fresh egg whites. Rather, it tasted like a commercial, powdered product. I’ve had it before on those mass produced pies that come out of large commercial bakeries. Further, the lemon filling was skimpy and lacked the flavour and tartness of fresh lemons.

Overall Christopher’s food was quite good. There are some issues with seasoning (i.e. salting) that can be easily remedied. Also, I suspect some shortcuts are being taken by using a few commercial preparations – enough to register on my palate anyway. Far too many restaurants have resorted to using commercial soup bases and the like. We need to get back to making food the way mom did. That means fresh ingredients, and, as much as possible, “local” ingredients.

Our meal at Christopher’s - including one martini, a glass of wine and gratuity - cost $127.09.

Christopher’s was not wheelchair accessible and the noise level was low.

Best Points:

Food and service.

Areas for Improvement:

Watch the salt.

Ratings Category:

Christopher’s gets 8 points.

7 points = satisfactory, 7.5 points = good, 8 points = very good, 9 points = excellent, 10 points = perfection