Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 15, 1975, Winnipeg, Manitoba The theatre the Anegone. Jutes is Beciri Insari Nom of warm punch or Wassail. The dickensian dinner Cost per person. All the recipes were based on old English originals. The dishes were cooked with care and served with flair and clearly intended to be Long remembered. To Start pickled appetizers mushrooms tomatoes gherkins celery and onions and then a Choice of Hare soup or pheasant consomme. Then came poached turbot in Oyster sauce and a boiled salad with Winter greens. The main course was roast Goose and stewed cabbage with apples and dumplings or if you preferred Saddle of Lamb with creamed turnips. For dessert a Choice of trifle candied chestnuts or Chancellor s pudding with Apricot sauce with plenty of mulled wine or Dickens feast a spiced wine to drink throughout. A meal of course is not captured by its menu or even by More vivid Mouth watering description. It is like a theatre performance something that exists Only in the living passing moment and one has to be there to fully appreciate its rare and special qualities. At Julie s a meal did t merely gratify the senses it educated them. The thickness of the table linens had not been decided by a Cost efficiency expert the silverware and custom made China bordered in Gold and embossed with Julie s imaginary coat of arms were similarly not compromised by stinginess. Julie s was not a snobbish or prohibitively expensive place but it recognized that there is rarely a cheap Way of achieving excellence in anything. The idea that food can be an Art form is not one of the More prevalent sophistication among canadians. When Julie s opened in 1964, it was ahead of its time and went against the Grain of underdeveloped palates. Many times maitre d Alex Flaschner gently guided a couple of culinary novitiate through a meal perhaps two shy single people in their thirties who had come to Julie s to give their awkward assignation a touch of class. Alex would help them through their evening without condescension and just a slight twinkling of the eyes. He was never one to make haute cuisine still singly haughty. His manners were always impeccable and unhurried his patience practically inexhaustible. Each night he played his role to perfection. The Massey House where former governor general Vincent Massey was raised As a youth had gone downhill even reaching the Point of becoming a cheap flophouse in the late 1950s until Julie Fine re equipped it with numerous chandeliers and authentic victorian furniture thick velvet drapes and Oriental carpets. In addition to Alex Flaschner who became one of the Best known maitre d s in North America the rest of the cast included Rudi camper As master chef now with trader Vic s at hotel Toronto and Tom Konis As Captain. Peter Saminoff the peripatetic violinist came from the Toronto symphony orchestra and is now with the Chateauneuf in the Harbour Castle hotel. Dekko von opted a played the grand piano a Superb musician Able to handle any request from the latest pop hit to. Gershwin s rhapsody in Blue in its entirety. During the great years 1967-73, when Julie s was a big hit and no coincidence All of Julie Fine s heart and imagination were invested in the restaurant it was As memorable for a special warmth of personal service As it was for the gastronomic Heights it reached when you hang out a sign that says Julie a it s not the same As calling it three Small rooms or Auberge Fine says. People expected me to be there. They wanted to meet Julie and they were disappointed if i did t show up. So even though it meant incredibly Long Days and tied me up month after month i was nearly always there to talk to when Lauren Bacall came to dinner for the first time the Bombay bicycle club replaced the old Zames thereafter she always ate at Julie s when she was in room upstairs at Lulies but when the Mush she simply Alex you look after louder and the style More casual 5 and left the entire meal to his judgment. Cold room Lent est Heselor Hase Cui jul 5 weekend Magazine nov. 15, 1975 when Pierre Trudeau came he did the same and was so delighted with one particular course sole florentine a hot hours d oeuvre consisting of fresh sole on a bed of spinach in a White sauce that he took Home the recipe. Guests came from the major wine producing Chateaux of France and the most famous British and european hotels and restaurants. The word was when you re in Toronto Don t miss Julie s. Originally i wanted to be an Fine says at least closely associated with show business. I wanted to be a violinist or an orchestra conductor All my aspirations had to do with music. But when it became Clear that i did t have the Talent for such a career i began looking around for something else that would serve As a substitute. In the Early 1960s 1 was a partner in a restaurant in Yorkville called the gaslight and from the Day it opened it was a great Success. That experience taught me there was a definite need for a restaurant that could serve fantasy with food. A place like Julie s not Only attracts those who Are in show business but it is a form of show business in Julie is touch ily defensive about the future Bill of fare at the Keg n Cleaver. It s going to be a Damn Good he claims. Well just eliminate the but it is Clear he is still romantically attached to the Days when serving food was a prestigious adventure. Ironically Julie s went under when there Are definite signs throughout Canada of a gradually growing interest in and appreciation of Good food. Stratford Ontario for example where for 20 years jokes about the local meals got More laughs than the shakespearean comedies and More tears than the tragedies from its Many thousands of summer visitors finally acquired its first Good restaurant this year the Church while Ottawa still serves food As if there were a Law against it. In the Carleton towers mightily expensive dining room the waiters tend to Gaggle and Giggle like embarrassed amateurs in a High school play l opera at the National arts Centre offers a wine list that allows Little More Choice than red or White the Wise visitor to the Shaw festival at Niagara on the Lake will take a picnic hamper. Julie s used to offer a splendid one that included cold lobster and duckling breasts for per person there is Good news from such places As l Escargot in Vancouver the velvet Clove in Winni Peg the aquarium in Hamilton la Ferme Columbia in Hull and the Pickwick in Montreal where a definite Effort to establish higher standards is being Well supported by Many customers. Julie s could have remained the flagship restaurant in Canada an Honor that now goes to three Small rooms in the Windsor arms hotel Toronto. Even if it had slipped a notch it could certainly have stayed in business except that Julie Fine got tired of his dream unlike his staff who Are fiercely Loyal to the concept of meals As great memories and aesthetic adventures and Many of whom will follow Alex Flaschner to a new Toronto restaurant called the greenery opening in Fine was More capricious a dilettante. Upstairs at Julie s once resembled a games Roon for the wealthy handsomely equipped with Pool tables Fine decided to change it into a stand up bar called the Bombay bicycle club and Little by Little the standards dropped. Dress became increasingly casual eventually Down to to shirts sandals and jeans the atmosphere changed the music got louder and More raucous until eventually it consisted of live Rock groups the room got Darker and More crowded and soon the in the downstairs dining room were shaking War horses but i he mu5ic upstairs was h f guests wanted to use the washroom facilities located on the second there ;