Kyle Mortimer-Proulx crafts casual menu for Sandy Hill’s Working Title: Kitchen + Café
Eating & Drinking

Kyle Mortimer-Proulx crafts casual menu for Sandy Hill’s Working Title: Kitchen + Café

Hallelujah! Kyle Mortimer-Proulx, former chef of La Maison Conroy and ZenKitchen, has set up shop in Sandy Hill, keeping busy as executive chef at allsaints event space (previously the circa 1899 All Saints Anglican Church).

Since spring, he has been putting forth his culinary vision in two roles — running larger-volume catering menus for weddings, conferences, and cocktail receptions in the deconsecrated and refurbished church, and setting up the more intimate Working Title: Kitchen + Café.

With the in-house kitchen completed this past fall, the 60-seat kitchen-café is open for business, appealing to both residents and students with an affordable, ever-changing café menu of homemade soups, sandwiches, and salads (the Nuclear Meltdown sammie is calling our name).

Mortimer-Proulx is also serving up fresh and frozen packaged meals for anyone looking to take home some deliciousness. Look for him to start hosting pop-up dinners once the pace settles down.

As noted, the menu is always changing, but here are just a few of the sandwiches in regular rotation:

Cubano, Eh? Seed to Sausage cured ham and capicola, Dijon, quick pickles, Swiss cheese, on focaccia

Nuclear Meltdown Seed to Sausage pastrami, Swiss cheese, kimchi, Russian dressing, on rye

Veg Bomb! Portobello mushrooms, sauerkraut, spinach, sunflower romesco, spicy eggplant, pickled onions, and white bean purée

Your Doctor Loves Us Ferme Reveuse pulled chicken, apple, scallions, celery, dijonaisse, spinach, on a whole-grain bun

The daily take-home menu changes with the chefs’ whims, but these were three of the prepared meals on a recent visit:

— Traditional chicken coq au vin with bacon, mushrooms, and roasted onions

— Pork stir-fry with quinoa

— Beef and root vegetable stew with barley

— Tofu scramble with roasted squash

Find it: Open Sunday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Enter through the red doors on Laurier Avenue East at Chapel, underneath the bell tower.

Hot Tip #1: You don’t have to be looking for a meal to stop by Working Title. Fresh coffee is always on the menu, as are fresh-baked cookies, squares, muffins, and scones; as the menu reads, it’s “Not Your Average Church Bake Sale”.

Hot Tip #2: Remember, Kyle Mortimer-Proulx is a chef with many sides: vegan cuisine (ZenKitchen), upscale pub fare (Lowertown Brewery), and fine dining (La Maison Conroy). With that in mind, be sure to try the “simpler” take-out dishes in order to taste-test the chef’s unique spin on them.