KITCHENER, Ont. — The team behind The Berlin is opening Graffiti inside Catalyst 137 — the technology accelerator taking shape in a former tire warehouse on Glasgow St. in Kitchener, Ont. The new restaurant, the second joint venture for chef Jonathan Gushue and foodservice veteran Ryan Lloyd-Craig, will include a craft brewery, retail market, bakery, coffee roaster and patio.
The pair have long wanted to open a casual, full-service restaurant with a menu focused on northern-Italian dishes, so when the opportunity came to locate inside what will be one of the biggest technology accelerators in the world, the partners jumped at it.
According to The Record, the 450,000-sq.-ft. building, slated to open this summer, will be outfitted with thousands of sensors and the technologists working there can help Gushue develop the restaurant of the future. “It is really an interesting opportunity,” Gushue says. “It will be a state-of-the-art complex, so we are hoping to lean on a lot of those people in there.”
“People at their desks in Miovision or other places can order lunch right from their desks and just come pick it up,” he says. “It’s time for restaurants to change. That’s what we are embracing and hoping to do, and Catalyst gave us that opportunity.”
The sprawling property around the building will have room for hundreds of vehicles and includes space for a garden in the spring and summer and a skating rink in the winter.
