The Journal · The Brantford Club

Stillwaters Paris vs The Brantford Club: The View or the Room

Stillwaters Plate and Pour is a restaurant at 61 Grand River Street North in Paris, Ontario, with a rooftop patio over the Grand River and, by its site, a glassed-in private room. The Brantford Club is a club, private and members’ own, at 98 George Street in Brantford, since 1898, where a private dinner takes one room and a menu settled beforehand.

If Stillwaters is the place you were looking for, its own site publishes this. Stillwaters Plate and Pour stands at 61 Grand River Street North, Paris, Ontario N3L 2M3. The phone is 519-302-3000. Hours as its site puts it: Sunday noon to 10, Monday to Thursday 11:30 to 10, Friday and Saturday 11:30 to 11. Tables of one to four are booked through the website, which runs on OpenTable; a party of five or more phones, and the private room is arranged by email. A good share of those who type the name want that rooftop on a Friday and should book it. This entry is for the rest, weighing a dinner in Paris against one in Brantford.

Grand River Street North and George Street, Each on a Friday

Grand River Street North is the main street of Paris, and on a Friday evening the street itself is what people come for: the shops, the river, and a restaurant with a rooftop patio over it. Stillwaters Plate and Pour is that restaurant, by its own description a main dining room and two patios, the upper one open from about mid-May to early October, with an open-air bar pouring ten draught beers. It is a busy public room; its own menu page says the rooftop can send 250 orders to the kitchen at once.

George Street in Brantford is quieter. Across from the Court House stands an Italianate house erected about 1855, predating the City of Brantford, and The Brantford Club has kept it since 1898. On a Friday the 98 George Room holds Cocktail Fridays for the members, and elsewhere in the house a room may be closed for one party’s dinner. Nobody at the next table is a stranger, because there is no next table.

The Evening Stillwaters Should Have

A summer Friday with a view belongs to Stillwaters, and George Street won’t argue. Two people who want the rooftop should book a table on its website and go. Stillwaters also hosts weddings, by its own functions page, and The Brantford Club does not; a wedding in Paris is Stillwaters’ to keep. So is a party that wants catering brought to its own hall. What the house on George Street has, and Stillwaters by its own account does not from the end of May to the end of September, is a room closed for one party in any month.

What is a private dinner at The Brantford Club?

A private dinner at The Brantford Club is a member’s evening in one room of the house at 98 George Street: a table set for your party, a menu planned with executive chef Eric Wasylenky’s kitchen before the date, and service that belongs to that room for the night. No other party is waiting for the room. The kitchen is in the building; its Churchill Pork Chops carry the name of the guest who signed the Visitors’ Register on January 3, 1901, per the Club’s centennial history. The evening starts with an email carrying the occasion, a preferred date, and roughly how many chairs, and someone at the house writes back and explains. The arrangement is set out on the Club’s private dining page, and the older idea behind it is the subject of the Journal’s entry on what a supper club is.

Stillwaters Paris vs The Brantford Club, Settled in a Table

The Stillwaters column is its own site’s wording. The Club prints no seat count for any room; the room is chosen once you write.

Chef Eric Wasylenky’s Kitchen and the Host’s Menu

The Brantford Club’s kitchen writes two menus. The first follows the season and is posted on the Club’s menu page with the lunch menu and the cellar list; this summer’s leans on greens, fish, and the lighter end of the kitchen’s comfort dishes. The second is the one a private dinner runs on, written with the host: courses chosen ahead, the table’s preferences taken at booking, the kitchen told the party’s needs before the first plate. Stillwaters, by its own site, cooks from a market-fresh menu sourced as locally as it can, and will build a group menu for its private room. The difference is who the menu is for. On Grand River Street the kitchen cooks for whoever walks in. On George Street it cooks for the twelve names on the host’s list.

Paris Hosts at a Brantford Table

The Brantford Club’s own booking page names Paris among the places its hosts drive in from, with Brant County, Cambridge, Ancaster, and Burlington. The drive from Grand River Street North to George Street is a short one down the river, and the reason for it is a private dining room in a house older than the city, with the kitchen under the same roof and no other party in it. A Paris host who wants that writes one email; one who wants the rooftop books Stillwaters, and the Club will say so first. The rooms themselves are walked through in the Journal’s entry on the rooms at 98 George Street.

What callers ask

Sources: stillwatersplateandpour.ca, its home, menu, functions, contact, and questions pages; the Club’s private dining, menu, and booking pages; the Club’s centennial history for the Register. How an evening is arranged is on the Club’s booking page. The Journal files every such comparison under one heading.