Among the pristine dishes at The Pine is this inventive creation by chef Jeremy Austen: Gin and prickly ash-cured albacore tuna, long pepper lao gan ma, egg yolk jam, and pickled turnip. (Photo courtesy of The Pine)
On April 18, The Pine, an award-winning fine-dining restaurant, moves from the historic main street of one small Ontario town to the edge of an even tinier little municipality. It’s a 25-kilometre (15-mile) change of location but the shift from Collingwood to Creemore marks the chance for The Pine to increase its capacity and narrow its vicinity to its most significant out-of-town market, Toronto.
Within two years of opening the 12-seat eatery, co-owners Jeremy and Cassie Austen had accumulated a loyal following. And accolades galore. They were living their dream, having created a place inspired by their travels and deep Canadian roots.
They were ready to expand.
Why Creemore? everyone asked. ““We found an old, run down building and saw its potential,” Cassie Austen says. “It needed a lot of love and serious transformation. Our kind of challenge. The bonus – Creemore is a town we have always loved.”
The challenge that would boggle the mind of anyone with less imagination and vision than this couple makes for a good story.
In its new location, The Pine will accommodate up to 24 guests alongside a retail space to offer a selection of handcrafted tableware and accessories, like those featured in the restaurant. The contemporary, clean lines, white walls and functional blond furniture couldn’t be further away from the building’s previous incarnation.
The Pine is bringing its fine-dining panache to the darling little town of Creemore in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario. This dish features chrysanthemum greens, crispy chicken skin, and black-skinned peanut dressing. (Photo courtesy of The Pine)
The prix-fixe 18-course tasting menu, paired with local wines, consists of some signature dishes that don’t change and others that change regularly. “It keeps the menus fresh while pleasing returning clients eager for a dish they really love,” explains Cassie.
There’s a story behind every dish. The staff – from the chef down – take the time to explain each. The result makes for an intimate, casual experience. Not to mention mouth-watering and memorable.
A little one-biter, the tea egg, often serves as the first dish. A coiled egg, soaked in black tea and Chinese spices with a little devilled egg filling on top made with smoked mustard is finished off with sturgeon caviar. First taste becomes the “oh, wow” moment when guests realize they will be in for an extravagant experience thanks to the talents of chef Jeremy Austen.
Carrot Jiaozi, a carrot-and-brown butter dumpling with sweet soy and chive butter, gives diners an opportunity to see how the chef’s experience in China and Italy come together in a dish that almost reminds you of ravioli.
When it’s time for dessert, Hong Kong Toast served with chopsticks represents the couple’s favourite snack from their Hong Kong days. A cube of fried white bread soaked in caramelized condensed milk and a bit of grated cured egg yolk and dotted with sea salt sits in a milky sauce. Guests are encouraged to “enjoy the sauce right from the bowl” so they don’t miss a drop.
And in between, dish after amazing dish.
The Pine’s Culinary Roots
The Pine is an immaculate restaurant that has recently relocated to Creemore. (Anna Hobbs photo for Vacay.ca)
The couple met in their 20s when they worked at a South Georgian Bay restaurant. Cassie was in the front of house and Jeremy was in the kitchen. Their dream to see the world and create their own restaurant took root in Montreal in 2011. Cassie was attending university and Jeremy worked in the kitchen at the W Hotel. They moved to Toronto to enroll in George Brown College, where she studied food and beverage management and he attended chef school.
At graduation, he won a stage at Italy’s Antica Corte Pallavicina, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Emilia-Romana. The restaurant is famous internationally for culatello, a “musky-sweet, cellar-cured ham” delicacy. “I developed a strong Italian mind set,” he says. “But when I was offered a job to cook Italian in China, we packed up and moved — first to rural Wuxi, then Hong Kong, and eventually Shanghai. I was cooking Italian while learning about Chinese cooking.”
A light bulb lit up during a vacation in Bali and a visit to the only farm-to-table restaurant doing a tasting menu. “We realized this was the type of casual vibe restaurant we wanted to open,” said Cassie. It was the summer of 2019.
It was time to come home.
The couple posted on social media that they would be setting up a pop-up restaurant on Cassie’s family farm. Within a week, they were fully booked for three summer months. They came bringing Chinese influences, an Italian mindset, and a commitment to seasonal and local.
The Austens credited their network in the Collingwood area for the amazing reception. “I come from this area,” Jeremy says. “My friends had been following me on social media. They were curious to see what I was cooking and what I would do.”
At the end of the summer, Cassie remained on the farm, Jeremy returned to China for a consulting gig. When she found the space in Collingwood’s historic downtown, it was time to say, “Let’s just do this thing we’ve always wanted to do and see what happens. Let’s leave every door open and see if the right thing will come back to us.” It did. “Fifteen years of dreaming we were finally doing it. It was better than we could have imagined.”
The pop-up opened in summer 2019; The Pine, in August 2020. Word spread quickly attracting diners from Toronto and beyond.
The tea egg is often the start of the exceptional dining experience at The Pine. (Photo courtesy of The Pine)
The Pine Creemore offers an opportunity to expand while reimagining the space in Collingwood.
Asked if they have a goal such as getting a Michelin star, Cassie said, “That’s like asking an actor if he would like an Oscar. There’s no doubt it would be a thrill. But it doesn’t drive the choices we make. This allows us to have a lot more freedom and courage rather than trying to fit into what we think Michelin would want. But it would be a huge honour and validating, especially because Jeremy works so hard.”
Currently, The Pine is outside of the Michelin guide’s coverage area for Toronto, though that hasn’t seemed to impact business as culinary travellers have sought out its tables.
“We never want to take ourselves too seriously,” Cassie added. “We want to enjoy what we do and we want guests to enjoy the experience. If you want to drink the milky sauce from the bowl, go for it.”
MORE ABOUT THE PINE CREEMORE
Location: Creemore, 7535 County Road 9 (see map below)
Menu Prices: The tasting menu costs $185 per person; wine pairing is an additional $75. The Pine Creemore is open Wednesday through Saturday. For reservations, visit the restaurant’s booking engine (reservations can be made 45 days in advance).
The Original Location: The main street location in Collingwood has been reimagined as Mockingbird, to focus on authentic Chinese-inspired cuisine. “We want to show people what we love about Chinese cuisine and why it deserves to be celebrated as one of the world’s greatest,” Cassie Austen says. Location: 203 Hurontario Street, and is open Wednesday through Sunday with one seating at 5:30 p.m. and a second at 8 p.m. Menu Prices: The set price for a six-course tasting menu per person is $85.
