HUNGRY IN HEADWATERS: BISTRO OFFERS 2 LEVELS OF VIEWS

When Brett Jaggard launched her bistro on a busy corner of Orangeville's downtown district a decade ago, she and her first business partner were stumped for an establishment name.

"We kept throwing names out back and forth with one another to try and describe the restaurant, but we'd always land back on the word 'rustic,'" she recalled. RustiK Local Bistro was born. "I added a few pieces of reclaimed barn board in various parts of the restaurant and brought in some of my horse art that I had at home. I wanted to create an atmosphere where anyone would feel welcome to enter, whether they had just stepped out of the barn in their leather chaps or were dressed up for a night out with friends."

Natural light cascades into the bistro's floor-to-ceiling wide windows fronting Broadway, and facing First Street, to capture the eastern sunbeams of the day while long corded, industrial light bulb chandeliers, finished in dark bronze and coupled with hand-picked Georgian Bay driftwood, extend from the high ceiling to provide intimate lighting in the evening.

Although the sun has since set on Jaggard's first business relationship in her early days as a restaurateur, she has enthusiastically welcomed chef Adam Lusk to the team at RustiK.

Lusk once worked in the building at the back of house as a dishwasher in his teens in the former restaurant at 199 Broadway. He then set off to pursue a career in cuisine at George Brown College's culinary management program, to then return to his restaurant roots at Jaggard's RustiK Local Bistro.

Jaggard said she is so thankful for Lusk's involvement in the restaurant for the last five years, as together they've been able to keep the restaurant operating during a worldwide pandemic, a hospitality labour shortage and through Jaggard's cancer journey that she's been navigating since the beginning of 2017.

"Adam has been great; he's helped me push the restaurant in the direction that I wanted to go for years and has created an excellent, uncomplicated menu with simple-to-execute dishes, including a decadent triple-decker grilled cheese sandwich — which, in my opinion, is the best grilled cheese in town," Jaggard said. "It's brimming with Brie and white cheddar cheese, then layered with bacon, tomatoes and chipotle."

Along with their next-level grilled cheese, Lusk adds that their duck dish is also a customer

favourite.

"Our duck has been a very

long-standing dish here at RustiK. It's a duck breast done a bit

differently than most people are anticipating," said Lusk. "It's panseared, then oven-roasted, accompanied with a celery purée and market vegetables."

Jaggard and Lusk are both big supporters of shopping locally for ingredients found in most dishes on their menu. "We have amazing locally grown produce on farms in Dufferin County," explained Lusk. "This is where we like to source our mushrooms, sprouts and our fresh market vegetables."

RustiK's comprehensive drink menu also showcases a wide variety of domestically produced craft brews from Goodlot and Caledon Hills to Mono Centre Brewing and Hockley Valley.

A second-level balcony doubles as a private dining space and jazz corner. From 6 to 9 p.m., RustiK's Friday night music lineup features local and long-standing jazz musicians, including regulars Stan Chang and Charlie Cooley.