(A little backstory: Sally and I wrote this story for a new Edmonton food magazine…alas it never hit the news stands. You, dear friends, can still enjoy our glowing words about Culina. Then, you can go there and enjoy some of the best food in the city. – Jeff)
Some friends, and friends of friends, enjoy their wedding meal at Culina-Mill Creek. So don't worry, dress is usually a little more casual at the restaurant.
Taking the Latin word for kitchen and cooking, and combining it with some Ukrainian heritage, Brad Lazarenko christened his neighbourhood bistro “Culina,” six years ago.
Growing up in a Ukrainian home he knew the translation of the highbush cranberry plant was known as “kalyna” in his parents’ native tongue. That sealed the deal on the restaurant’s name.
“The name is very important,” Brad says. “I see a name [of other restaurants] and think ‘You’re not going to make it.’ I knew I didn’t want to be a ‘Brad’s Grill.’”
Culina-Mill Creek’s name is one of any number of things that make the establishment memorable.
For one, this cozy, 40-seat restaurant is impressive without being pretentious; it’s the sort of place you can wear a suit or dress one night, and return the next in your favourite jeans and feel just as comfortable.
“It’s my baby,” says the owner. “Well, my first baby.”
That correction comes as Lazarenko notes Culina isn’t merely the six-year-old venue off 99th Street, in the Mill Creek neighbourhood (9914-89 Avenue). There’s also Culina-Highlands, in north-central Edmonton (operated by Lazarenko’s sister Cindy), Culina catering, and three wine bars know as Bibo (the first is one door over from Culina-Mill Creek; the other two are in British Columbia).
You need to try Culina's brunch. They're always busy for reason.
Culina-Mill Creek blends neighbourhood bistro with some of the finest fusion you’ll find on a menu. And it strikes that balance as best that could be done. “I always tell people it’s ethnic comfort food. That puts people at ease.”
Brad’s sister, Cindy Lazarenko, owner and chef over at Culina Highlands, agrees. “It’s all the foods that he loves, but it’s very comforting food. It’s a lot of like starch, and meat, and vegetable side dish.”
Culina-Mill Creek serves lunch, dinner and very popular brunches.
“It’s food I like to eat myself,” says Brad. “Every dish is something I’ve eaten and wanted to recreate. I look at Culina as a compilation, a mix tape.”
When we meet, Lazarenko looks the part of relaxed business owner. He is wearing jeans, a shirt with the top button undone, and comes to the table with a slight tousle in his hair. The owner comes through, as he monitors the restaurant through the conversation, greets guests (including a business partner in from B.C.) and occasionally fiddles with his cell phone, ready to take on emergency needs of his businesses.
Culina-Mill Creek (as it’s now known with the expansion of the Culina brand) was the culmination of Lazarenko’s self-education in the kitchen and the restaurant business.
One of the places his family lived when he was a kid was right around the corner from where Culina-Mill Creek currently sits. Brad found himself in Kelowna by the end of high school though.
“That got me into the restaurant business,” he says of the move west. “I moved to Vancouver (shortly after) with Cindy, she got me a job at Mama Rosa’s.
Mama Rosa’s would be the first restaurant job, and Brad talks about it with a hint of nostalgia in his voice.
Of “Mama” he recalls “She taught me how to taste food.”
He also had a chance, at the age of 18, to do just about everything in the restaurant, from the kitchen to the front of house.
After that stint in Vancouver his passion for food was ignited. He found his way back to Edmonton and a number of years at the precursor to Old Strathcona’s Packrat Louie: Boccalino’s, on Jasper. He learned even more about the business that would become his life from Boccalino’s owner Peter Johner.
“You’ve got to be a sponge,” Lazarenko says.” You need to see both the good and bad.”
In the kitchen, he feels like he’s just recently found confidence with Culina’s menu.
“I feel like I just finished university, like now I can apply my knowledge and go learn more. I want to go to Spain and Italy, get inspired. I think we now, just now, have a menu where I’ll look at the menu in 10 years and it will mostly be the same items. I want to be that Bistro Praha, Cafe Select, where you have mainstays people come back for.”
The self-taught chef says he’s about putting flavours together and balancing the dish. Presentation, colours and flair all come second to taste.
“Once people mash into it and taste it, they can have selective memory of how it looked when it arrived.”
He sticks to the basic flavours of salty, sweet, sour and bitter, making sure none overpowers the other when you sit down to eat at Culina.
“The four tastes, that’s how I train apprentices. I ask them ‘Why is there lemon in that,’ ‘Why are you doing that? If you don’t have the basic balance of the dish it won’t matter what else you had, which herbs.”
Lazarenko has an example, and as he talks about putting together food he’s animated, his arms motioning as if he’s putting together your next meal.
“Thai soup. They squeeze lime in at the end. That’s not to add lime flavour, it’s to balance the stock, it’s a fish stock and salty. The lime, you could do lemon, it cuts that saltiness.”
“A lot of people look at recipes and say ‘Oh, I don’t have that,’ but what is it? That’s your salt, so use another item that’s salty.
The amalgamation doesn’t end with the Culina menu.
It might not be Brad's idea, but it is a great addition to the table.
“Is putting water in wine bottles my genius?” he asks as he motions to such a bottle on a nearby table. “No, that’s Bin 941,” (in Vancouver).
“ Candle bags?” He excitedly picks up the one on our table.
“I was at a place in Cologne, Germany and said ‘That’s so fucking cool,’ I came back here and did it.”
“I was in New York, at Mario Batali’s wine bar, and said to our designer ‘This is what I want in our wine bar (in Nelson).”
Speaking of Bibo, there’s one just two doors over from Culina-Mill Creek (it was first known as Passa Tempo) and two in B.C.; in Nelson and Osoyoos.
In Nelson, the wine bar has become a full-menu restaurant.
“It’s a good problem to have, people want to come and want to eat. But we’re feeling the repercussions,” he says.”
“We didn’t plan for that; the kitchen wasn’t designed for it. There’s labour, food costs. We were shopping at the grocery store and should have had a supplier. It’ll correct itself.”
That confidence of correction may come from the fact Lazarenko hasn’t had to close a restaurant. He owns the five Culina group restaurants and catering business, and he’s part owner of Edmonton’s “Soul Soup.”
“I’d rather be doing $30,000 a month and making money than $100,000 and losing money.”
It seems unlikely, though, that Culina-Mill Creek will have to draw that distinction. Their culinary style is attracting no shortage of loyal customers. In fact, Edmontonians Heath Sperling and Mina Hideshima recently tied the knot at Culina Mill Creek.
The food at Culina never lasts long. You should try and savour it though.
“What originally drew us to Culina was their use of local producers and comforting food,” explains Hideshima. “We always love to go to the downtown farmer’s market so a restaurant that used some of those vendors was a big plus. “
Hideshima says she and Sperling originally intended on having a larger wedding, and approached Culina Catering to do the food.
“After trying their food and making the decision to get married a year early…we started to entertain the idea of having it at the restaurant.”
“[The] goal was for friends and family to gather around delicious food, relax and have a great time,” she says. “We planned the entire day around our meal including the ceremony site.”
It was a choice that was applauded by guests.
“They loved the food so much that when one table got a second serving of bourbon glazed bison short ribs they cheered so loudly the rest of the guests thought it was meant for us to kiss,” Hideshima laughs.
And Culina-Mill Creek’s success is being echoed by the chain’s other Edmonton location.
Across town, Lazarenko’s sister, Cindy, runs Culina-Highlands, recently named one of Canada’s ten best new restaurants by Air Canada’s in-flight magazine.
Cindy had been one half of Bacon, a popular local eatery. She bought out her partner and re-opened the restaurant as another arm of the Culina brand in October 2008. Unlike Culina-Mill Creek, in the Highlands they focus on Ukrainian food.
It’s a large part of the Lazarenko’s background, says Cindy, and one area of cuisine Brad doesn’t do at the original Culina.
“I said we do everything, but we don’t really do Ukrainian food, and that’s kind of how it started,” she explains. “It just felt like absolutely the right thing.”
With Culina’s imprint firmly planted on Edmonton, Cindy is likely bracing for new-found popularity with the in-flight magazine story, and Brad may find his next steps take him back to B.C. on a more permanent basis.
“I just met a nice woman in Nelson. I might move there to be with her. I’m also thinking about teaching a kids’ cooking class.”
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For more information on the Culina family of restaurants, go to their website. You can also see what the Culina gang is up to at their new blog.
Find out what soup’s on by following Soul Soup on Twitter.
Absolutely one of my fav restaurants in the city. Everything is yummy!