On The Curve Restaurant

Hot Stove & Wine Bar near Square One Shopping Centre Mississauga Ontario

When Olaf Mertens and Brian Meikle launched On The Curve Hot Stove & Wine Bar across from Mississauga's Square One Shopping Centre, they were hoping that the 'location, location, location' of their first restaurant under the HIP Restaurants banner would attract clientele from the surrounding office towers and the smattering of nearby condos. And, nearly a decade later, On the Curve's site 'on the curve' of City Centre Drive has proven to be the right place. Here's what they had to say:

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On the Curve - The Original HIP Restaurant!

"This location has been very good for us," Mertens says. "Who could have seen then that, in 10 years, we'd be located on 'centre ice' in Mississauga?" Mertens is executive chef of HIP [Hospitality Inspired People] Restaurants, Meikle is president, and, along with partner Mark Williams, they now run three restaurants in Mississauga.

The newer restaurants, too, are in good locations. "We still use the same realtor," says Mertens. In 2005, they opened TEN Restaurant & Wine Bar in trendy Port Credit; in 2006, West 50 Pourhouse & Grille, in the Sussex Centre, near On The Curve, (see more about West 50 on Ontario Craft Brewers page).

TEN takes its name from its location on Highway 10 (Hurontario) at Lakeshore, and West 50 from its location at 50 Burnhamthorpe West. Catering From The HIP, the catering arm, predates the restaurants. "We men are the three musketeers," says Mertens. "My wife, Jennifer -- she's an interior designer and does all the decor and the seasonal decor -- she's the one who reins us in."

Practical, logical, fun

Tagging each restaurant's location in its name shows a practical side; Mertens' creativity shines in his imaginative recipes and presentations, and focus on local products. "We make all our food from scratch," says Mertens. "It's all home cooked, using fresh local ingredients and local suppliers wherever possible. We keep [our suppliers] as Canadian as possible. Did you know that the best Gouda cheese in the world comes from Thunder Bay? And that Niagara Cheese makes a great triple cream Brie? Our butcher is on Cawthra, just down the Lakeshore from TEN. And at all three locations, we serve beer from Old Credit Brewery in Port Credit." (see Old Credit on Ontario Craft Brewers page)

Family friendly, too, and dancing . . .

All three restaurants are family friendly, says Mertens, and have special kids' menus, and all have dance floors and entertainment. But there are differences, too, in the menus and the ambiance. "TEN has a 35+ age group, a more 'meat and potatoes' crowd," Mertens says. "For example, we did a menu for Harbourlicious [Port Credit winter promotion] with oxtail soup, roasted pork bacon belly, and mango custard tarts that was popular. At West 50, there's a fun, younger crowd, so there's rock music -- classic, soft, easy-listening or new age -- and fun foods and a very comfortable diner style.

The West 50 menu is beer-inspired, with hearty, lite-German fare like the Sausage Sampler, the Chocolate Stout cake, the Bacon and Swiss Grilled Cheese. Foods are designed to go with beer, and the beers are local sources as much as possible. West 50 has 115 taps including 40 microbreweries, all Ontario craft beers, with a few from Quebec and one from the U.S."

On The Curve sees more of a business crowd during the week, and a wider clientele on evenings and weekends, Mertens says. The 9,000 square foot, 250-seat On The Curve has a modern, trendy feel. A see-through curtain of shimmering metal ball bearing beads separates the dining area from the dance floor, and a two-sided Santa Fe stone fireplace takes the chill off year round. The recently redone lounge seats 40 on chocolate leather sofas; there's room for 70 to the right of main room; a private room seats 40, and the patio seats 80.

Pick your On The Curve night . . .

Tuesdays nights are Italian Dinner Party night, with a family style menu. Wednesday nights feature Latin music, salsa dancing, and free dance lessons. Thursdays are Ladies Night Out. "For Ladies Night Out, we have a spa-inspired menu," Mertens says. "We use salsas and chutneys, not cream sauces. It's a lite menu with portion control, so there are 450 calories maximum per dish. There's a new cocktail list, with drinks like fresh berry mojitos and dessert martinis."

Chef Mertens demonstrates recipe from latest cookbook

When he's not busy developing recipes and creating menus for three restaurants, and for Catering from the HIP, Mertens finds time to author cook books. The first, Cooking from the Hip: Amazing Recipes from a Master Chef, published in 2002, is joined this month by his new cookbook: Olaf's Kitchen: A Master Chef Shares His Passion.

"About one third of Olaf's Kitchen is recipes from dishes from all three restaurants," he says, "and one third is recipes for traditional German dishes. I took my great grandmother's handwritten recipes and made them lighter for today's tastes. The rest of the book is recipes prepared using a method called Scientific Cooking, which is more like baking, with set ingredients, cooking times and temperatures," he says. "Most of the time I test by touch for firmness [to check when a food is cooked].

"With Scientific Cooking, I cook a salmon by weight, at the optimal temperature and time. I put marinated salmon in an airtight bag, submerge in the perfect temperature of water for the scientific time period, and it's one hundred percent perfectly cooked in the middle."

Included in the new cookbook is his recipe for Wiener Schnitzel, Mertens says. "My signature Olaf [Pork] Schnitzel is the second-best selling entree in all three restaurants, and it's the only one served in all three restaurants."

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On The Curve | 55 City Centre Drive | Mississauga, ON L5B 1M3 | 905.804.9582 (googlemap)

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Go to Mississauga Restaurants page to read about more places to eat in Mississauga.
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Update: Chef Olaf has now moved on to other ventures, but the restaurants he helped found are still among the Mississauga's finest!

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