Limbo turns opening a restaurant in Little Italy into an artistic reunion

“When people are dining, it’s a transcendental experience between two places, between your day job and your bed, going home,” says Harrison Shewchuk, chef and co-owner of the recently opened restaurant Limbo in Little Italy. “It’s between time and space.”

But the project isn’t just between time and space: it’s also between friends, a collaboration sustained by a love of art, music, and making things happen fast. Shewchuk is joined by former Pichai Maître d’ Jack Zeppetelli, as well as Pichai and Pumpui co-owners Jesse Massumi and Xavier Cloutier-Guérard who bring their management and homme à tout faire expertise to the partnership.

Rustic in roots, but not in presentation

Shewchuk’s kitchen is focused on French, Italian and British flavours and techniques, with a reverence for local produce and proteins. Vegetables are from Parcelles, Moulin des Cèdres supplies flour for crusty einkorn bread served with ever-changing compound butters, meats are from Ferme D’Orée, and the first shipments of Nova Scotian seafood included scallops and halibut.

“We’re keeping it rustic in roots, but not in presentation,” Shewchuk says, working with Cédric Larocque in the brightly tiled kitchen emblazoned with the letter L in shiny black and white. The pair had worked together at Salle Climatisée, where Shewchuk had been co-owner and chef until a year ago.

“Cedric and I are aligned in our worship of all the ‘Alains’,” Shewchuk jokes. “Passard, Chapel, Senderens, and Ducasse all influence us.”

Another Salle (and Le Violon) alum, Tamara Gaulton, is on dessert duty and rounds out the team. The desserts are reimagined classics, such as a spectacular oeuf à la neige on offer on the first days.

The menu will keep changing, says Shewchuk, with about fifteen savoury items and daily specials including homemade pastas written on the ardoise above the kitchen.

Focused on what’s in season (or micro-season, as summer approaches), diners can expect sauces that “make sense, tying in the old but bringing in a bit of the new,” he says. “That’s the equation.”

The wine part of Limbo’s equation is directed by Henri Murray, the sommelier at Pichai. Murray is committed to natural, ‘zero-zero’ wines where nothing is added or removed during winemaking that isn’t already naturally present. His list offers a range of big and small names at big and small price points.

“We’ve got Stroebel champagne, the sickest natural champagne producer, and we also have more modest Catalonian bubbles from Anima Mundi. And we have Lieux Communs—that’s as good as it’s going to get for wine made on the island,” says Shewchuk.

Medieval meets postmodern

The room feels familiar, though the pressed tin ceiling from the dining room’s Marconi days has now been painted over.

The walls are warm wood, the banquettes are burgundy, and tiles span the kitchen to the dining room. Designed by the partners and their supporters, the team worked for a few months straight to get the space in shape; even Shewchuk’s 78-year-old father, Ron, helped build the space out. Shewchuk’s mother, Christine Marlow, has a star turn in the Limbo video kicking off the resto’s opening.

“One of the cooler things about this project is that we’ve been able to commission work from local artists we’re friends with,” says Zeppetelli, a former art student (as is Shewchuk). That includes the video, directed by Erin O’Connor, mirrors by Clara Jorisch, and stained glass from Léa Grantham.

“The references that we were interested in for the restaurant were Bosch, Breughel, and Blake, and we love obscure illustrated manuscripts,” Zeppetelli says. And Dante: a quote from Purgatorio (“Here is always spring, and every fruit”) accompanied the release of the video.

Trevor Bourke and Bronson Smillie’s pieces, hanging over the banquettes, are specific to Limbo’s interests. Bourke’s evocative landscape painting with diners and cauldrons, and Brandon Smillie’s coloured pencil drawings on archival ledger paper, mix medieval with postmodern—exactly the feeling the team was looking for.

The band is back together

Montreal’s unique restaurant culture, and the friendships and support of industry colleagues like Mon Lapin’s Marc-Olivier Frappier and Le Violon’s Danny Smiles, complete the circle of friends as Shewchuk, Zeppetelli, and the team embark on this new collaboration.

“Restaurants here can get built easier, quicker, and cheaper, and be as meaningful and impactful as in other places,” Shewchuk says. “But there’s also a whole community of people willing to help. I can call on Marco and Danny for anything. It’s really different here.”

Like the restaurant and the video kicking off their début social media post, Limbo captures a special moment.

“It’s just a scene in time on the corner of the street where we are; a little out of the ordinary, a little playful, a little theatrical,” Shewchuk says.

“It feels like the band is back together,” he adds, as Limbo dances into its first month, hitting its stride.