On pairing food and drink

Tabitha Langel: I haven’t tried to pair our cinnamon buns, but I have a lot of fun with sourdough breads. And I can tell you that in the winter, a red wine with our raisin bread definitely helped me deal with – 40 C weather.

VR: I’m a big believer in the individuality of our tastes. There are no two people that taste the same way and no pairing that will be universal. For example, there’s a great fish and chips shop at The Forks, and some people will think that beer is great with that dish, but sparkling wine pairs really well with it, too. Actually, anything that’s fried is kind of fun with sparkling wine. When it comes to bread, I can’t help thinking right away about beer, which a lot of people define as being liquid bread. But because alcohol is made with yeast, you’ll find that sparkling wine showcases yeastiness and has bready notes — for me, it’s a winning combination. With cinnamon buns, I think my tea-loving side takes over!

On the location, being progressive and the idea of community  

VR: The Common is a perfect name. It’s a place surrounded by food vendors of all kinds, a place where you can take your wine or beer and actually walk around the market. I wish we could take this concept and present it to all of the liquor authorities across Canada, because it’s extremely progressive. In most provinces, anything that has to do with the purchasing, selling or distribution of alcohol is highly regulated, but these are all completely outdated regulations that were created in the era of Prohibition and are absolutely irrelevant today.

TL: I always say “Back to the future.” This place points back to a time when we understood clearly that we were not just individuals, but that we were tribal. I grew up in that tribal context, eating communally, and when I’m in a place like The Common, I think about that, how people want to eat together — it’s in our DNA.

On eating and drinking the right way

VR: People are more and more conscious about what they eat, but — excuse my language — they still drink crap. I often say that there’s as much difference between an artisanal terroir wine and an industrial wine as there is between an artisanal raw milk cheese and Kraft Singles slices. That amount of processing also exists in the world of wine.

TL: It’s only in the last year that I’ve become aware of how much processing there is the wine industry — wine has been able to protect its image in a way that food hasn’t — but it’s been a problem in the food business for a long time. To me, the most important things about food are accountability and transparency. When we bring food from South Africa, Chile or California, we don’t know the condition in which it’s grown or what’s used on the land. But when you support local agriculture, you can meet the people who work on the farms, and that’s the beauty of it — they’re the bridge that connects the people that eat the food to the people that grow it.