Many in Fort Frances, Couchiching First Nation and surrounding areas were disappointed when Chester Fried Chicken shut down at the CC Complex, but the new restaurant in its place is serving up more fresh foods and fewer fried ones.
High Council Café moved into the complex when the owner of the nearby dispensary The High Council realized business had slowed, according to co-owner Lena Morelli.
“My partner, who owns the high council, I had catered a few events for him,” Morelli said. “One day he just approached me and said that the space had been vacant and he was noticing a dip in people being around since this had closed. So he threw it out there if I’d be interested at all in like starting something up completely from scratch, he didn’t want to do a franchise or anything, and I said yes.”
The process of starting from scratch was a big task as Morelli set out to turn the former fried chicken restaurant into a place that sold more fresh food.
“I was in here for probably six months, from last July to December cleaning up the place because it was a grease trap,” she said. “I was ready to open in January and it’s been trucking ever since.”
It took six months, in part, because formulating a menu for a new restaurant doesn’t happen overnight either.
“In those six months of cleaning I also took all that time because with my catering business and just being a passionate foodie, I’ve always had little menus kind of created and thought of,” Morelli said. “This kind of concept has always been a dream of mine, even when it comes to the greenery and the plants and stuff in here just to have a fresher atmosphere.”
The dining area of the restaurant has potted succulents and a feature wall with faux greenery and a neon sign on it.
The menu does still include a few of those old favourites like fried and popcorn chicken and wedges, but mostly it’s a lot fresher than it used to be.
“There wasn’t anything that was geared towards tak and go healthy options or home-cooked style food,” Morelli said. “We were very much lacking there, so I did a little survey of just like friends and family and people that (business partner) Ron knew and just came up with the idea that we wanted to do sandwiches and breakfast all day and just a nice sit-in place that was going to be vibey and stuff like that. So that’s how it came to be. I just sat in my office for those six months cleaning half the day and then working on the menu and just configuring how this kitchen was going to work because obviously it was made to be a deep fry spot. So I had to really reconfigure how things were placed and the flow of the kitchen and all that. I really used my culinary management diploma to make it all happen, I got to put my training and skills to good use.”
While the restaurant has been busy, Morelli says it has faced its fair share of challenges while getting up and running.
“I would definitely just say the workforce (has been a challenge),” she said. “There’s not a lot of experienced cooks around that are looking for jobs. They’re either already settled into something or they work camp jobs two weeks in, two weeks out or something like that.”
So the challenge for Morelli has been training her kitchen staff.
“I’ve been training people from the ground up, which seemed like a setback at first but now it’s actually seeming like a wonderful thing because it brings my skills forward,” she said. “I also like that people are enjoying their job here. I have a lot of people that love coming to work, they don’t stress over it, they don’t dread it, and that’s the kind of environment I wanted to create when I was first planning this whole thing out.”
Morelli says that even if staff members don’t always stay in the culinary or hospitality industry, the skills they learn at the restaurant are valuable as they move on into other careers.
“Even if people don’t stay in kitchens forever, this is a really good place to learn fast pace and team skills,” she said. “How to work independently and how to keep things clean, and time efficiency, all those things. Even if I can just be a training ground for younger people. It’s actually really cool because I taught at the Seven Gens culinary program last year then I had one of my students work here to start us off.”
Supplies have been another hurdle in running the restaurant. Costs have gone up everywhere and even using wholesalers like Sysco doesn’t lessen the cost.
“Food cost is definitely our biggest struggle,” she said. “People seem to think Sysco is cheaper and it’s not, it’s just bulk.”
Morelli has tried to source ingredients locally where possible.
“It’s obviously a little bit more organizing stuff that you have to do working with numerous suppliers but it’s all worth it to me, because that’s why we do it to support the local economy,” she said. “The fact that you get to have those face to face conversations and even like the issues that arise with it’s still you’re talking to a real person rather than going through numerous Sysco representatives.”
Local items include beef from KB Ranch, eggs from Gerber Farms and different meats from Sunrise Meats and plants in the restaurant have come from Lowey’s Greenhouse and Market Garden.
As far as the menu goes Morelli says some of her favourite things are yet to come, but there are some obvious favourites.
“The burger for sure, and then obviously we sell a lot of breakfast stuff but all our breakfast items go pretty evenly. I would say the new breakfast burger that we have is a big hit. It has pickles and spicy aioli on it,” she said. “Some of the menu items have a lot of inspiration from where I’ve worked down south in Ontario. I went to school in Kingston and finished my apprenticeship there, so the breakfast burger has influences from Toronto, the BC (balsamic chicken) panini has influence from Kingston, my first job there in a kitchen. So it’s kind of cool to bring it back to life because these are sandwiches that I’ve missed in places I’ve lived before.”
As staff become more proficient Morelli hopes to widen the menu options.
“I’ve just been waiting to release more of the grab and go and dinner style things for when my prep team is more ready for it,” she said. “My goal is to have bowl options like power bowls or chicken shawarma bowls, things that you can’t get anywhere else in town, but that would be readily available, especially for people that are heading up to the lake or fishermen.”
To check out the menu for High Council Café you can visit their facebook page or go right to the source at the CC complex on Highway 11 in Couchiching First Nation east of Fort Frances. Their hours are 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.- 7p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m.- 7 p.m. on Saturdays. They are currently closed on Sundays.
