Matthew Elliott outside Ethel & Mary's on Princess Street. (Cherise Letson/Huddle Today)
A new restaurant planning to bring refined home-style cook to uptown Saint John is asking the community to be a part of their journey with an online campaign to raise start-up funds.
Ethel & Mary’s, slated to open at 107 Princess Street, has launched an Indiegogo campaign in hopes of keeping the restaurant on track to open next month as unexpected issues with renovating the space have piled up.
“The renovation process has been a non-stop thrill ride of incredible surprises, which isn’t hugely surprising in and of itself because it’s a hundred-year-old building and there’s bound to be unpleasant surprises along the way,” says Matthew Elliott, Ethel & Mary’s owner. “However, we have to come up against more than our share. Basically, we’re at a situation now where the funds that we had to get to opening day have been depleted more than we had hoped.”
Ethel & Mary’s diner-style restaurant is designed to give customers a sense of nostalgia and surprise by applying culinary knowledge to home-style, family favourite dishes, using locally sourced ingredients. Many of the dishes are inspired by old New Brunswick cookbooks, and recipe’s from Elliott’s grandmothers, Ethel and Mary, the women the restaurant is named after.
“We’ve already been seeing a lot of support already from the community and people do seem really excited for us to open,” says Elliott. “This is a way to help us get to opening day while also being involved in our story and being a part of what we’re doing in the city and getting some cool perks as well.”
Choice of “perks” for doners of the campaign include an Ethel & Mary’s bread subscription, a cooking class for a pair or a group from Elliott, private dinners and more.
“We’re not asking people to give us money,” he says. “We’re asking people to become a part of the process by purchasing things from us in advance.
Elliott’s personal favourite perk is the “Grandma Wall” where for $50, Ethel & Mary’s will hang up a picture of your grandmother in the restaurant.
“We’re going to have a wall in the restaurant that’s just pictures of grandmothers from the community,” he says. “One way you can help us is making a donation, send us a picture of your grandmother and we’ll frame it and put it on the wall in the restaurant. There will be this section of the wall that’s just people’s grandmothers from Saint John.”
The goal is to raise $10,000 from the campaign, but even if they don’t reach that goal, those who pledged will still receive their perks. Elliott says he’s looking to secure other forms of financing if the goal isn’t met.
“Rather than trying to take on an investor who would want to have some sort of say about where the products come from and things like that, we thought it might be better to just be open with the community and just say, ‘we’re doing out best to get open and revitalize this tiny spot of uptown and provide a service.’” he says. “We just hope people want to be involved.”
The goal is to still have Ethel and Mary’s open sometime in November.
“I just want to get to that point where we can be operational because I believe in what we’re doing and I think that the products that we make are good and I think our role in the community is valuable,” says Elliott.
A version of this story was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
