by Andrew Morrison | The major staffing points are set, the seismic upgrades are done, and so are the pop-up dinners at Ask For Luigi — I don’t want to jinx anything but the long awaited, Quebec-inspired St. Lawrence (they took possession a year ago) can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I took a look inside the address (269 Powell St.) with co-owner JC Poirier late last week and though it appeared very unfinished they reminded me that all the millwork was being done off-site. Their best case scenario now is for an opening in June. “I really want it to be open by June 24th,” Poirier told me. That’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, which is essentially the national holiday of Quebec.” Nothing has changed regarding the food concept as they first described it to me last year. Menus will be seasonal, changing four times a year. Expect the same tourtière we sampled here, chicken ballotine, Quebec-style rillette ‘cretans’, hangar steak with pommes aligots (made with cheese curds instead of gruyere), lots of terrine and en croute stuff — country cooking, really, cuisine de campagne. “It’s simple and generous”, Poirier says. “There will be nothing precious about anything we do. It will be honest but technical, and you won’t ever see the technicality.” In the shots below you can see two bar fronts. One is for the actual bar, a five seater led by Yacine Sylla) and the other is a kitchen bar, where you can watch JC and chef de cuisine Ashley Kurtz (interview) do their thing, with no reservations required.

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