CALEB NICKERSON
FORT COULONGE March 4, 2021
On March 4, the Bryson Bistro du Bucheron in Fort Coulonge held a relaunch, inviting their suppliers and local media to get a taste of their new and improved menu.
Owner Jane Toller addressed the group and gave a brief history of the restaurant, which opened in August 2013 and is situated in . . .
an old barn that used to belong to one of her ancestors, George Bryson Sr.
“I wanted this to be a tribute to the lumbering and farming,” she said. “In December of this year, partly because of COVID-19, and because of Christmas, I … closed my doors and decided to rebrand my business. Through that experience I found a wonderful chef whose name is Rodney Kaufman.”
She explained that the new theme of the establishment would be “hand-crafted Pontiac cuisine” and would feature many products from local producers and establishments, such as Les Serres Paul Amyotte, Ceder Creek Trout Farm, Rolling Acres farm and several others.
Kaufman hails from the Toronto area and has 30 years experience in high-end dining and catering. He said that they started from the basics when he arrived in the Pontiac.
“We basically started from scratch, we threw out all the old menus, we redid the old kitchen, and we revamped the whole food service from the ground up,” he said. “As an executive chef, when you do that it’s measuring everything to the gram, costing everything, it’s a huge process just to get a menu off the ground. So that took up quite a bit of time, and then with the COVID it was very difficult.”
He added that the new menu was smaller, but had an emphasis on products that are grown and created locally. He spoke highly of the producers in the area and added that he has found his new home of the Pontiac to be incredibly relaxing.
“The stress level is incredibly low in Pontiac, just because there’s no … white noise all the time and it’s been really beneficial for me just as an individual to be here in the Pontiac,” he said.
