Fat Rabbit in St. Catharines takes the number eight spot on the Top 10 list of Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2024.
Fat Rabbit
St. Catharines, ON
8 8
Prestigious Partners
Street Address
34 Geneva St.
City + Province
St. Catharines, ON
Reservations
Yes
Website
There’s a pig’s head in the cold case. Yes, it’s for sale, but it’s also a reminder that meat comes from animals – a gift not to be taken lightly. The respect for livestock carries through every aspect of this butcher shop and commissary-cum-restaurant. Chef and co-owner Zach Smith comes to it with some serious chops, having worked at Bar Raval in Toronto and then at Matty Matheson’s Meat + Three in nearby Fort Erie.
Not your average gig worker: Zach Smith does triple duty as owner, chef and event caterer – where he cooks cuts over coals on an open-fire grill inspired by the Argentinian asado.
Sous-chef Gareth Burkholder comes from Rizzo’s House of Parm – a 2023 Top 10 lister – half an hour away. These days, it’s not only wineries putting the Niagara region on the map. He lets us know the seasonal burrata plate is closing out on peas. Tomorrow, the podded legume, served puréed with mint and barely cooked alongside a shroud of prosciutto cotto, will be replaced with zucchini sofrito and boquerones. He name-drops farmers by their first names only: Rick and Shirley from Chez Nous Farm are bringing in the zucchini and Evan from Grumpy’s Greens is harvesting bushels between his two garden plots – one across Twelve Mile Creek, the other in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Assorted charcuterie, including salami cotto and rosette de Lyon, is a key part of Fat Rabbit’s zero-waste butchery program.
We tuck into the head cheese, a pink-and-white terrazzo terrine topped with lemon zest confetti – the handiwork of head butcher and charcutier Justin Upper. Tonight, the raw bar is serving smoked B.C. honey mussels, chilled and dressed in jalapeño mignonette, a dish that unites Smith’s West Coast roots and Spanish influence, hard-earned in Toronto’s best-known pintxos bar. On the mixed grill, a feast of tiger-striped Miami-cut short ribs, sliced striploin and Linton Pasture Pork lit up with streaks of Aji Amarillo. For dessert, a long maceration draws the fullest promise of Southern Ontario summer out of strawberries laid over crisp funnel cake.
Turf and surf: Cuts delivered care of Linton Pasture Pork and smoked honey mussels dolloped with crema.
The Fat Rabbit family: Jessie Bridge, Zach Smith, Emily Walker, Gareth Burkholder, and Justin Upper, pictured alongside burrata with boquerones.
From a taste of childhood with strawberry and ice cream-topped funnel cake to a taste of Niagara and beyond via hand-selected goods in the shop.
It all comes together here, in a once-neglected lot at the edge of a five-way intersection in downtown St. Catharines, now crowded with families, theatre-goers, day trippers, farmers and cool kids.
Our award for Concept of the Year goes to Fat Rabbit for its community-driven ethos as a butchery, restaurant, caterer and small grocer.
Don’t miss: The all-day breakfast menu, featuring a pastrami egg sandwich with Gruyère, fermented hot honey and garlic mayonnaise. Add a side of crispy potatoes.
Prestigious Partners
