Standing Tall
Chef Talia Syrie embraces a made-in-Manitoba mantra inside her urban cafe The Tallest Poppy.
by Robin Summerfield
The Tallest Poppy stands out in the field.
Inside the Main Street restaurant, which opened nearly three years ago, the tables and chairs don’t match and a bear wearing a Mexican sombrero stands in the front window.
The staff doesn’t wear uniforms, regulars are greeted by first name and notes from fans are posted on the wall near the till, giving the 38-seat, breakfast, lunch and brunch spot a homey feel.
The vibe may seem casual and familiar but the meals made inside the cozy galley kitchen are no joke. “It is always about the food,” says Chef/owner Talia Syrie. “Putting food into people’s bodies is a serious thing.”
Her enthusiasm for Manitoba ingredients and locally sourced meat and produce is steadfast. From house-made breads, to from-scratch stocks and stews, to made-in-house cheeses and locally raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free meats, The Tallest Poppy is committed to serving Manitoba regional cuisine.
It’s for those reasons that The Tallest Poppy has earned the 2010 Good Food Manitoba award for Restaurant of the Year. The annual award from Ciao! magazine recognizes a local restaurant and its chef who demonstrates an ongoing commitment to regional cuisine.
The Tallest Poppy easily fits that bill.
Breakfast sausage and Bratwurst come from Harborside Farms, a hormone- and antibiotic-free livestock operation in Pilot Mound, MB. Frigs Natural Meats in West St. Paul is also a regular supplier.
In the spring and summer, Chef Talia buys organic greenhouse cukes and tomatoes from Greenland Gardens. She gets other organic produce from Neva Hydroponic Farms, a local organic hydroponics operation.
By early summer, organic herbs and vegetables, including lettuce, mint, basil, tomatoes, beans, carrots and snap peas, among other greens, are growing in the restaurant’s backyard container garden, providing inspiration for each day’s meal.
When local produce ripens, she hits nearby farmers’ markets snapping up in-season greens. Year-round, dishes are made with naturally raised pork, beef, bison, farmers’ sausage, chicken and eggs.
Chef Talia and her staff, which she calls her family, serve up Manitoba ingredients in flavourful dishes that are long on comfort and originality.
Cases in point: An organic chicken loaf wrapped in bacon and spiked with tart cranberries; a sweet yet savoury, slow-cooked hearty bison stew; and the sticky prairie baklava with roasted pumpkin seeds and Manitoba honey are all simply divine.
While cooking and food were a big part of her upbringing, the creative chef came to her calling by accident.
Originally trained as a heavy-duty diesel mechanic, Chef Talia took a job at a Northern Alberta tree-planting camp a few years ago but within a month of her arrival she injured her foot. Instead of returning home to Winnipeg, she began working inside the camp kitchen.
And a culinary career was launched.
She moved back to Winnipeg with her partner where they started a catering company nearly three years ago. They found rental space attached to the Red Road Lodge (the former home of the New Occidental Hotel) with one condition: The building’s owner wanted them to start a neighbourhood restaurant as well. The couple agreed. But just three weeks after opening day her partner split, leaving the neophyte restaurant owner to go it alone.
Those first few weeks were chaotic as she struggled to find her way. Chef Talia’s family—including her parents, brother and grandmother—all stepped in to help.
Today, that family influence is still present at The Tallest Poppy. All the bread is made on site using recipes from Chef Talia’s grandmother. Her mother’s brisket and baklava recipes are also in the mix. Many other dishes are family recipes or from the restaurant’s nine staff members.
Wherever inspiration comes from, creativity always rules in the kitchen.
A bison brisket puts a new twist on a Jewish classic, for example. House-made, hemp-seed yogurt cheese also add a new dimension to mixed greens.
Whatever’s fresh and available dictates the daily specials, Chef Talia says. And low heat and slow cooking is the mantra at The Tallest Poppy.
Chef Talia likes to switch things up but as a rule they serve a chicken, pork, beef or bison, veggie and summer/farmer’s sausage sandwich every day. They also make several different daily soups, sauces and salad dressings.
The restaurant’s patrons—from architects to artists, ladies who lunch to college students—are as varied as the menu. In the meantime, Chef Talia has learned to embrace the “strategic chaos” of running a restaurant. No two days are ever the same and she wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s the way I live my life and it’s the way I run my kitchen.”
