It’s an edible hodgepodge to help you stay on top of the hits and happenings in Kingston and beyond. Get the latest — from the this-just-opened and give-backs, to new bites, libations and don’t-miss events.
Stone to Bean
Richard Ottenhof was introduced to coffee at a young age, when his stonemason dad would let him drive the truck to weekend jobs and pay him in cups of coffee. He followed his father into stonemasonry, but when he decided he was ready for change, he turned to the world of coffee. He opened a news café on King Street with newspapers and magazines from around the world. Unable to access the coffee beans he liked, he decided to learn to roast his own. He bought a roaster from an A&P grocery store in Baltimore, had it shipped to Kingston, and within eight months had sold the café, convinced that wholesale roasting was the real business.
Nearly thirty years later, Ottenhof moved North Roast Coffee Roasters into a purpose-built roastery just off the Highway 401 to support the company’s growth. Ottenhof describes the new space as winery-like: pallets of green coffee on the floor, with the roasting process in full view, making it interactive and educational. North Roast also offers barista training and workshops on cupping and latte art. It is a working roastery first and foremost, not a café, but visitors grab a takeaway coffee to sample the finished product. Transparency is the goal. “You can stand six feet from the roaster as we’re roasting,” he says.
North Roast Coffee Roaster
590 Cataraqui Woods Drive, Kingston
northroast.com | @northroast
Aussie Brekkie
When Jess Huddle and Cade Pentland-Boyce packed up their life in Melbourne to move back to Huddle’s home-town of Kingston, they brought a deep appreciation for the famous café culture they had left behind.
“We’re not a coffee shop, we’re a restaurant,” Huddle is quick to clarify. The distinction matters to them. in Melbourne, the café experience meant exceptional espresso with an equally exceptional meal. In Ontario, they found that the two existed, but did not necessarily go hand in hand. Northside Espresso and Kitchen, opened in 2017, was their attempt to change that, and a major career pivot for both. Huddle had been working in financial services, while Pentland-Boyce worked in the non-profit sector with youth. With a move across the globe already upending everything, the timing felt right. “If we were ever going to do something like this,” Pentland-Boyce says, “that was the time.”
The name is a nod to the north side of Melbourne’s Yarra River, home to large Greek and Italian communities that brought espresso culture to Australia in the 1950s and 60s. As Pentland-Boyce describes it, a good cup of coffee is never about rushing. “It’s about sitting in the sun, enjoying having a moment to yourself,” she says. That ethos shapes their daytime restaurant, where the menu draws inspiration from current Melbourne menus while leaning on local farmers and suppliers. Along with the third-wave coffee offerings, the brunch menu includes bright cocktails and popular items like avocado toast, eggs Benedict, tiramisu milk bread, and ever-changing fresh-baked goods and sandwiches.
Neither had run a restaurant before opening their first location. The move to their current spot on Princess Street in 2025 allowed them to design a place from scratch — a bigger kitchen and an optimized layout —and the foot traffic at the corner location has been a revelation. Though the Yarra River may be a world away, a street patio offers the opportunity to enjoy an Australian brekkie in the Kingston sun.
Northside Espresso and Kitchen
198 Princess Street, Kingston
northsideespressoandkitchen.com | @northsideespresso
Wine Curious
For a bottle to end up on Robert Elvey’s wine list, he has to like the producer’s approach to farming and winemaking and, perhaps more importantly, the winemaker themselves. These are his three criteria for narrowing the wide world of wine down to a focused list of 200-plus bottles. “At the end of the day, a wine importer is a conduit between the farmer and the consumer,” he says. It’s the story behind the wine that matters most at a bar where the guiding philosophy is “be wine curious.”
Elvey opened Bobbi Pecorino’s Italian Bar — the name a wink to a nickname bestowed upon him by friends in the Italian wine industry — in 2024, with his business partner Stev George, the head chef and co-owner of Olivea around the corner. The collaboration combines Elvey’s decades of experience as a wine importer and educator and George’s culinary background in a 950-square-foot wine bar in Kingston’s historic market.
The tagliere is prepared in a space roughly the size of an office cubicle, built around their Italian slicer. “Italians don’t drink without food,” Elvey explains. The menu of fresh cheeses, cured meats, marinated olives and varied crostini is built to complement the primarily Italian wine list. Wines are poured in three- and five-ounce measures to encourage varied tastings and that spirit of curiosity. The bottles on the menu are also available for purchase from the retail shop. Elvey and George also offer guided tastings and winemakers’ brunches featuring special menus paired with the wines of visiting producers.
Come spring, Bobbi Pecorino’s is open seven days a week, and reservations are recommended to snag a seat inside the cozy bar or on the small patio facing the market square. With their longtime involvement in the food and wine industry, Elvey notes that the pair is always keen to direct folks enjoying an aperitif at Bobbi Pecorino’s to their next destination. “Kingston is alive with food and wine; we simply complement a community,” he says.
Bobbi Pecorino’s Italian Wine Bar
326 King St E, Kingston
pecorinowine.ca | @pecorinowine
Legacy Cambodian
When Sophat (Pat) Vann opened Wok In Restaurant in Kingston in 1991, he started by serving just a few dishes. “It was simple Chinese food, like fried rice, egg rolls and chicken balls,” his son Saveth Vann recalls. Pat went home to Cambodia for six months and learned to perfect Cambodian cuisine that he would bring back to Kingston. With the updated menu, Saveth recalls the Wok In surging in popularity, becoming a go-to spot for local students and families.
Over the ensuing decades, Pat would go on to open several Cambodian restaurants across Kingston, building a kind of informal network of opportunity for fellow Cambodian newcomers to Canada. He trained staff and then sold the businesses to them so they could own and operate them. After trying out retirement, Pat found himself itching to get back into a restaurant, and so the eponymous Pat’s Restaurant opened in 2008.
Today, Saveth runs the restaurant with his brother Savon, and Pat is usually there daily, spending a couple of hours in the kitchen. “He is the hardest worker I’ve ever met in my life,” says Shannon Bennett, Saveth’s wife. Bennett came in for a few shifts while on maternity leave with her first child, serving tables while the baby was in a carrier. That was twelve years ago, and she hasn’t left. She officially joined the family business, too.
Regulars have been returning for the spicy hot and sour golden chicken for years, as well as Saveth’s favourite: the phanaeng kai, a red curry chicken in coconut milk with basil, lime leaves and peanuts. The restaurant shifted to takeout-only during the pandemic, and they’ve decided to keep it that way for now. “It’s consistently busy, even when we did dine in, as well as we did a lot of takeout orders,” Saveth says. For a family that has spent so much time together in restaurants, more time together outside of one is a welcome evolution.
Pat’s Restaurant
455 Princess St, Kingston
613.344.0450 | partsrestaurant.ca
Corner Fixture
Norah Petersen and her partner Erik opened Daughters General Store in the fall of 2020. In the midst of the first year of a pandemic, Petersen says it was a crazy time to open, but with everyone staying close to home, they got to know their community very quickly, a silver lining.
The couple’s concept revolved around providing the neighbourhood with an old-fashioned corner store focused on good, local food. At a moment when Kingston saw an influx of residents from larger cities, Petersen had an early focus on comfort foods and stocked products from the GTA and Ottawa, including frozen pizzas from Toronto’s Pizzeria Libretto and regular donut drops from Ottawa’s Suzy Q.
Just over five years on, the store has found its rhythm. Petersen’s own family is vegetarian, so she began sourcing plant-based products she couldn’t get locally and demand followed. Gluten-free offerings have grown in response to customer requests. “We’re not a health Cheese ballers food store, but we have healthy products,” she explains. The aim is to provide an “inclusive food community.”
There’s fresh bread from Wilton Wheat Kings, baked goods from The Coffee Plant, coffee beans from Canadian roasters, beer from Ontario brewers and some international treats, too. In the growing season, Daughters has also begun selling fresh vegetables and flowers from nearby farms.
Though Petersen says the store opening still feels recent, it’s been gratifying to begin to feel like an established part of the community. “For people moving into the neighbourhood, it feels like we’ve always been here.”
Daughters General Store
63 John St, Kingston
daughtersgeneralstore.ca | @daughtersgeneralstore
