Adventure and Inspiration: The Hunter & Co Londonlicious Experience

Londonlicious has returned for its winter edition, taking place from January 16 to February 8 with over 40 London and area restaurants participating in the nonprofit-run food festival. Londonlicious inspires restaurants to introduce new menus that highlight produce from local farms across Southwestern Ontario. 

Antler River Media had the pleasure of sitting down at one of those restaurants Hunter & Co, to hear from Chef de cuisine Anthony Abdullah and front of house manager Renee Vecchio about their perspective of the festival 

“It’s been a positive experience,” says Abdullah. It’s helped expose our brand to people that wouldn’t regularly know us.”

Vecchio agreed, adding that the restaurant has seen a lot of new faces. “A lot of younger people see us on the Londonlicious website and they’re interested. They just want to try something new that they’ve never seen before.”

The Londonlicious festival has been a staple of London’s food scene since the 2000s, when it was started by real estate developer Andrew Wilson. It initially sought to provide a “value menu” of sort. This succeeded in its goal to draw people in during slower periods of the year, but it put pressure on restaurants to squeeze more out of the already paper-thin margins typical of the industry.

“Early days, I hated Londonlicious as a line cook,” said Abdullah, recalling long hours and unrealistic expectations. “It used to be about a cheap bottom line for the customer, and restaurants were forced to make their profit through high volume.” 

By 2023, the festival was facing a restaurant industry devastated by COVID. To its new caretakers, local food education charity Growing Chefs! Ontario, it was clear the festival needed to shift away from being a purely financially-driven event and become something that could help rebuild London’s restaurant scene. Growing Chefs transformed the festival, using it as a vehicle to emphasize local producers, seasonality and building relationships within the local agri-food industry. Restaurants were also given more freedom with pricing, allowing for greater focus on quality and creativity. From both the front of house and back of house perspective, Vecchio and Abdullah have felt the difference.

“The first few times I did Londonlicious, most places were just doing smaller portions of their original menu. It’s really cool now that you have a totally different menu. People are going to keep coming back to try new things,” recalls Vecchio.

Abdullah added, “Now there’s leeway for restaurants. We’re not forced to do volumes outside of our capacity. We’re still able to provide exceptional service and have an interesting menu with quality ingredients. It’s a win-win for the restaurants, the customers and food purveyors around [London.] We’ve also been encouraged to source local ingredients and collaborate with local food purveyors. It pushes us a little bit outside the box, but it’s definitely a challenge that I’m up for.”

Hunter & Co is no stranger to challenges. They’re well aware of the space they occupy as London’s wild card dining spot.

“We’re the small restaurant that doesn’t stick to a certain cuisine. We like to get creative and we draw inspirations from all cuisines. Out of the bunch, we’d be considered one of the most adventurous. We have bone marrow and tongue and cheek, we’re playing with nose-to-tail cooking.” 

Nose-to-tail cooking is nothing new; in fact, it’s how our ancestors survived. But as industrialized food systems swept across the Western world in the 50s and 60s, more and more people wanted to emulate the diet of the upper class. Using every part of the animal had fallen out of favour and food had become a status symbol. 

To this day, discussions of sustainable food practices are often missing this crucial piece of the puzzle. Many restaurants in this city try and fail to introduce these same concepts to a less-than-willing audience, so how does Hunter & Co take culinary risks on behalf of sustainability without taking financial ones? 

“[Offal meats] have truly cheap price points, so knowing that it’s a hard thing to push, we prep a small amount, we keep it at a low price point for the customer, and that way we’re able to get them to try it and slowly win them over,” said Abdullah.

“Here at Hunter, people already know to expect something a little bit different and a lot of our guests are open to trying something new,” added Vecchio.

For someone nervous to try something new, a server relating to them and inserting their shared experience into the conversation can be a game changer. This is something Hunter & Co recognizes as being crucial to their brand.

As a leader in the restaurant’s front of house, Vecchio has made it her mission to get people to take that leap. “When I started here, I was like ‘I’m not trying the chicken liver brulée.’ But it’s so delicious, and now that’s the one dish that I really try and get people to try.” she shared.

Another way Hunter & Co has managed to encourage this exploration is by delicately bridging the gap between the familiar and the adventurous, exhibit A being their pig ear caesar salad.

“Sometimes they devour it, and sometimes that’s the only thing left in the bowl,” said Vecchio. “But at least they tried it.”

For fans of local produce and sustainable butchery, Hunter & Co’s Londonlicious menu doesn’t disappoint either. Butternut squash from Elgin County’s Common Ground Farm, mushrooms from London’s Shogun Mistake, and sourdough from London’s The Whole Grain Hearth all make an appearance. Diners can enjoy Abdullah’s comforting spin on brisket, a cut of beef that any pitmaster will tell you takes a lot of patience and technique. And Coq Au Vin has come a long way from its roots as a way for French peasants to tenderize the tough meat of retired roosters. For fans of adventurous small plates and comforting classics alike, Hunter & Co brings something for everyone.