Grand Opening Of My First Restaurant Ever l Blue Bovine

Hey everybody! Very, very, very special night tonight. Yes, Chef! Wonderful here right outside of my first restaurant ever, Blue Bovine. Very unique location attached to the Sculpture Center where the Maple Leafs play hockey. Now, what that means is traffic, lots of people. So, where do they eat before they watch the game? And remember, it's not just hockey games; there are over 270 events here every year. So, this place is in a unique location.

The concept right here? B and Sushi. Yes, well, Nick is the, I guess, visionary, along with his wife Nadia, who designs all this stuff, which is incredible. But he's also done—well they’ve done together—11 restaurants, and so this is the 11th, is it not? The 11th that we have open right now. Yes, right. But it's unique in one respect: I invested in it, and I never invest in restaurants. Never! But the compelling economic argument for this place was just too good.

Okay, Nick, give me the concept of Blue Bovine. What's the idea?

Well, the idea is, uh, steak and sushi. And people may think it's not that unique and different, but really, in Japan, typically, they have sushi and steak. So, it is a kind of common restaurant in Japan. Bring it here to North America, and we're basically saying we have the best steaks in the world, and now we're combining that with the best sushi in the world. And we've done something really unique in this restaurant—we've created an anazi bar, a small restaurant within the restaurant itself. So you can have fresh Japanese fish from Japan imported daily with our executive sushi chef.

Great! Okay, Nadia, you've won so many awards on design of restaurants lately—Designer of the Year, right? What else? Global recognition for Don Alonso. Don Alonso is your multi-Michelin-star restaurant, right? Okay, that's—I’ve eaten there; it's spectacular! Spectacular! This is number 11, the first one I've ever invested in.

What about all this? This texture and leather and wood, and the floor, and these pillars, and the lighting? I mean, how's that all come together?

So, I wanted to marry the sushi concept and a little Japanese clean line with a classical steakhouse feel. It's a juxtaposition of very modern versus classic that comes out in the woods that we've used as well. We've used a modern walnut versus an oak grain that is a more classical style of, uh...

Wow, there he is! There's Chef Sean!

Hey Kevin! Oh goodness, what's going on here?

Just, uh, you know, just blowtorching a beautiful Australian Wagyu Tomahawk.

Yeah, that is so fantastic! You know, a bit of Hennessy, set fire to it, why not, right?

Oh, are you kidding? This is amazing! This is the signature dish! This is a Tomahawk! Look at that! We're going to put the flames out just before it all burns out, so we still taste some Hennessy.

This is Wagyu beef from where?

Australian Wagyu beef. Are you kidding? Now, how do we know it's the very best beef?

This signifies—see that cow's made of gold! It did not die in vain! That cow is a Wagyu cow, and it begged to be put in here so we could flame them up and eat them down. Believe me, these Wagyu live the best life they've ever had! Fantastic! I'm not kidding; they're treated very, very well.

Alright, ready? I get rid of this, please. So beautiful, right? Oh stop the madness! Slice it nice and thin; it's going to melt in your mouth! And then we're going to finish it off with a bit of red wine. Incredible!

Oh come on! I love that! What are you going to do with the bone?

We’re just going to garnish on the plate. This is fully—this is very flavorful meat.

Yes, I know! I was going to eat it right off! A lot of people just pick it up Flintstone-style and have at it. That’s me! I love doing that!

If you just watch yourself with that! Okay, back. So that's the presentation. Right on with the meat, beautifully sliced, a little bit of red wine...

Oh goodness! So now we got red wine and Hennessy! There we go! So why don’t you cut me a little piece off to try?

Yeah, no problem! I mean, my mouth is just watering! This is so—you like a nice bit red bit from the middle?

No, I want it from the end!

From the end? Oh perfect! Beautiful! At that, give me just a little slice there now.

Okay, this is the moment! This is the moment! Cheers! Ready? Here we go!

[Applause]

The best I've ever had! Of course! 100%! That's all we do at Blue Bovine!

Oh, okay, Nick, this is the opening night! We're all here to celebrate this! What have you done to make this special?

Well, listen, we've been overwhelmed with people wanting to come. Trust me, there's going to be people trying to crash the door! We actually had to take a section of Union Station outside the restaurant as a holding area because people want to be here! And you know what? The strategy works! I got Mr. Wonderful involved; everybody wants to meet Mr. Wonderful! I love that guy!

That great Mr. Wonderful here—that's fantastic too!

Mr. Wonderful! Cheers, Mr. Wonderful!

I got Mitch Marner, three-time All-Star, Toronto Maple Leafs! Who doesn’t love a Maple Leaf and an All-Star? He was a big player in the All-Star game—he was! He's a tremendous young gentleman, a partner in this restaurant. He's our partner, so he's a partner! Just like you. Think about that—26! If I was 26, thinking about investing, that's incredible! This kid's way ahead of his time.

Listen, we—we just had the Super Bowl! We had a private room for the Toronto Leafs watching the Super Bowl. This is where they watched the whole Super Bowl! It was the whole team with their wives—only them! And this is their home!

There you have it! This is the first time, right?

Right! Very first time we're serving this dinner for you! Thank goodness I'm... [Music] here!

[Music]