Whether motivated by ethical concerns, environmental impacts, health benefits or rising grocery costs, many Canadians are seeking to incorporate more plant-based items into their lives. Fortunately, restaurants like Portobello Road are making plant-based alternatives more enticing than ever.
This Oshawa-based vegan restaurant is co-owned by long-time vegans and partners Lindsay Cotton and Alex Van Camp who are proving that a diet change doesn’t have to be intimidating or mean sacrificing flavour and enjoyment.
As a trained chef, Alex dabbled and trained in many areas before finding a passion for Japanese and Korean cuisine. (In fact, a few years ago, he was sent to Korea to help open a new restaurant.)
As Alex worked as a chef in Toronto, Lindsay’s initial venture into food began at the end of her maternity leave in 2019 as a side hustle called Lindsay’s Vegan Food. “I was looking up recipes on Pinterest and did not expect the prepared meals to take off. I kept getting busier and busier, so Alex started helping me, and once he got involved and was making everything, the food got a lot better,” laughs Cotton.
In peak pandemic times, the pair was preparing meals out of their home for customers to pick up once a week. As word of mouth continued to spread, they found a small kitchen space on Bond Street in Oshawa to prep and provide their meals out of, with different program offerings ranging from meals and soups to smoothies, baked goods and more.
Their offerings grew last summer when they invested in a mobile sourdough pizza oven for events (you’ll find them at Whitby Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and Bowmanville Farmers’ Market on Fridays). The pizza was such a hit that they got pizza ovens for their kitchen space so they could offer it to patrons year-round.
After a couple years of focusing on prepared meals, and then introducing pizza, the duo was thrilled to be able to open their own 18-seater dining room in January of this year, after securing the unit next to their kitchen space on Bond Street. Currently, in addition to offering prepared meals on Tuesdays, their restaurant is open four days a week for dine-in or take-out, with Fridays and Saturdays being tasting menu events.
We make every single thing ourselves here from scratch, “ says Van Camp. “We don’t use any processed fake meats or anything like that. I know the word vegan kind of scares some people, and understandably so. We’re just doing really cool things with vegetables in here, like smoking, curing and fermenting them and offering a lot of flavours that many people haven’t experienced. Diners tell us they’ve never tried vegan food, but they’re blown away, and that’s really nice to be able to offer.”
We make every single thing ourselves here from scratch, “ says Van Camp. “We don’t use any processed fake meats or anything like that. I know the word vegan kind of scares some people, and understandably so. We’re just doing really cool things with vegetables in here, like smoking, curing and fermenting them and offering a lot of flavours that many people haven’t experienced. Diners tell us they’ve never tried vegan food, but they’re blown away, and that’s really nice to be able to offer.”
They are creating quite a name for themselves with their five- or eight-course secret menu tasting events. “The response was incredible,” says Cotton. “We just kept adding more and more dates, and now we’re doing it every Friday and Saturday! It’s awesome to see all of the adventurous people come in. I would say there are more non-vegan guests than vegan, which is really cool. We had a couple in recently and the woman was 92 years old, and she was so sweet. She sat down and said: ‘I don’t know what any of these things are, but I can’t wait to try it!’ She and her husband ate everything and loved it so much, and he said he’s going to tell all of his friends at pickleball. We hope he does because it was really nice to have them here!”
Cotton and Van Camp are dedicated to sustainable operations and supporting local, and in the summer months they source their produce from Graze & Gather, a company that works with a network of local farmers to provide wholesale produce. They also work with City of Greens, who provides lettuces and herbs that are fresh-picked in the morning and dropped off to them. “There’s no waste, no packaging or anything like that, and it’s the best of the best. It’s so fresh, and it’s all organic as well,” says Van Camp.
Also, when Portobello Road says they ‘do it all’, they mean it — including milling their own flour! “We have our own grain mill here,” says Van Camp. “We have to buy in some of the pizza flour because they mill it differently in Italy and you need a certain amount of the Italian flour, but we grind most of our own flour. We’re gradually incorporating our house-milled flour and it’s currently about 50 percent in our bread, 20 percent for the pizza, and for our pasta the percentage depends on what type it is. We get the grains in from a local farmer, and we mill it so it not only tastes really good, but it’s full of nutrients and minerals. Nobody’s doing that kind of stuff.”
“We think the residents of Oshawa downtown specifically need a place like this with healthy, whole food, and we try to make it as affordable as possible,” says Cotton. “It would be really easy for us to go open in Toronto, where there is a massive vegan population, but we stayed here, and people appreciate that. Recently someone said: ‘I’m sitting in this beautiful place eating this top-notch food, feeling like I’m in a Michelin-star restaurant.’ People thank us for being here on a regular basis, and it’s nice to be so close to the growers and producers that are just outside this part of the GTA. We’re really close to some really great farmers who are doing awesome things.”
“Our favourite part is our fantastic customers,” adds Cotton. “We don’t love doing the meal prep service, but we continue doing it because we have people that come back here every single Tuesday to pick up their prepared meals. A lot of them have health problems, maybe they’ve had a heart attack or are having cholesterol issues and have been told to try to eat less meat or dairy, and so they depend on us for these meals. And they are here all the time, and they’ve gotten to know us and have watched our kids grow. And they’re so appreciative, it makes it worth it.”
Cotton and Van Camp do it all, and they do it all with only one employee and two induction burners. Life is certainly busy for this dynamic duo with two young boys at home, plus a business to run, but their journey has only just begun. A new music venue is going in across the street from Portobello Road, and they’ve been hired to manage the beautiful restaurant that’s being built on the third floor. While not exclusively plant-based, the menu will be very vegan-friendly, and we can’t wait to see what new culinary experiences the pair will create for the community.
SWEET POTATO PIE
This delicious sweet potato pie has the texture of
cheesecake; it has been a big hit with Portobello Road
patrons. The maple syrup enables the top to be nicely
blackened, which contrasts with the sweetness in the crust.
SERVING SUGGESTION
Serve with your
favourite vanilla
ice cream and a
caramel drizzle
1. Crust
1/2 cup
coconut oil, melted2 tbsp
sesame oil1/2 cup
cane sugar2 cups
walnuts1/2 tsp
sea salt1/2 tsp
cinnamon
- MIX all ingredients in bowl.
- line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper then spread crust ½-in. deep along the bottom.
- PLACE0n the fridge to set while you make the filling.
2. Filling
300 g
cashews540 g
sweet potato300 g
coconut cream60 g
white miso paste1/2 tsp
vanilla150 g
maple syrup1 tbsp
nutritional yeast2 tbsp
tapioca starch125 g
yogurt, non-dairy
- Wash sweet potatoes, then roast in a 350ºF oven for 45 to 60 min, until a cake tester or fork can be inserted easily.
- Leave aside to cool slightly. Peel while still warm, then give them a mash.
- Cover the cashews with water in a medium pot. Boil for 10 min, then drain.
- Add the mashed sweet potatoes, miso, coconut cream, vanilla and maple. Cook for about 5 min over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid scorching.
- Add nutritional yeast and tapioca starch; cook until dissolved.
- PurÉe in high-speed blender, while adding the yogurt. Scrape down the sides as needed and blend until completely smooth.
3. Bake
- Fill a shaker with ice.
- Add all ingredients (except Prosecco) to the shaker.
- Shake and then strain over ice into rock glass.
- Float Prosecco over the top.
- Garnish with a twisted orange rind.
Connect with Spark
Twitter: @spark_centre
Instagram: @spark_centre
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/spark-centre
sparkcentre.org
