A new baked potato shop opened in Niagara-on-the-Lake today and offered comfort food with enough toppings to warrant a second fork.
Scrape restaurant was opened by Gizem Afsar, former executive chef at St. Catharines’ Dispatch restaurant, and her husband, Emre, following the restaurant’s closure in March.
Located at 207 Victoria St. in Old Town, the restaurant’s menu is built around loaded baked potatoes, with touches of Turkish flavour inspired by Afsar’s roots. It’s open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. until mid-fall, with hours to be determined after that.
“We put all our hearts and effort into this place,” said Afsar.
“I hope we can be here for years and years.”
Each dish, except for one, starts with a russet potato base topped with butter and cheese, with the option to upgrade to a sweet potato. Customers can choose from house creations or build their own.
“Sort of a street food, but our way,” said Afsar.
The surprise menu item, “The Cool One,” is a sourdough brioche filled with housemade mascarpone ice cream and assorted sauces. This one doesn’t include a potato.
In fact, Afsar said it’s the only item on the menu that doesn’t.
Afsar’s personal favourite is “The Summer One,” she said, which is topped with roasted zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomato sauce and a cucumber-yogurt salad — a mix of flavours she grew up with in Turkey.
“It’s sort of like my childhood,” she said, adding that another item, the carrot tarator, follows one of her family’s original recipes.
But if you’re after the most popular picks, she said those would be “The Wild One” and “The Runny One,” featuring truffle-parmesan and breakfast-inspired flavours, respectively.
After Dispatch closed, Afsar and her husband set out to build something of their own and said choosing the right place was key.
“We fell in love with Niagara-on-the-Lake when we first came in,” she said. “I’m like, ‘We need to do this.”
She said she enjoys the opportunity NOTL provides to serve a mix of locals and tourists.
The couple got the keys to the building on April 1 and spent three months renovating the space.
“It’s been a huge three-month renovation,” said Afsar, adding that much of the shop’s interior was built by Emre by hand, with help from a cousin.
“We are hoping to turn it into a chain,” she said. “Maybe we are going to be spreading all over Ontario (and) Canada.”
“Why not?”
