It’s official: The Starlight is up, up and away one of the best new restaurants of 2024 – at least according to Air Canada’s enRoute magazine.
Megan Jones and Tim Pritchard, who own The Starlight, were thrilled to wake up to that news September 11, as Jones called it surprising but a great way to get their day started.
“We definitely didn’t see this coming,” she said. “They do their reviews in a ‘secret shopper’ kind of way, so someone came in unannounced and tried the food. Stratford is on the radar as a culinary city and we have so many amazing restaurants, so to have a larger publication like this show that they’re watching us is pretty amazing to be part of.”
As it happens, this turned out to be an early anniversary present for The Starlight, as they’ll be celebrating one year in business at the end of the month. Jones said one of the reasons why she feels they got this recognition is in no small part to the work the kitchen team does in coming up with amazing menu items that people can’t seem to get enough of.
“We can’t thank our hardworking team enough, both front and back of house, but a special mention has to go to the menu created by executive chef Yva Santini and executed by our chef and kitchen manager Chris Knight along with our small but mighty kitchen team,” Jones said, heaping praise on her team. “The idea with our menu is it's meant to be shared, since that’s the way we like to dine when we go out. By splitting a bunch of dishes between people, you get to try a little of everything.”
The menu will change as summer turns into fall, but Jones said that things like the arepas with salsa, ginger hoisin wings and their ‘mini-Mac’ burger are popular, but she was sure to point out that the burger gives a nod to one of Starlight’s food producers they deal with regularly.
“We use Macintosh meat, which is why we called it the Mini Mac,” she said. “We make most everything we serve in-house, and I think that’s another thing that people appreciate about us – local businesses supporting each other, supporting local farmers. It’s just an awesome cycle I think.”
Destination Stratford helped break The Starlight’s good news, and Executive Director Zac Gribble said this is just the latest in a string of culinary success stories to come out of Stratford.
“Our incredible culinary scene continues to punch way above its weight, as evidenced by Air Canada enRoute magazine’s selection of The Starlight as one of the 30 Best New Restaurants in Canada for 2024,” he said. “A huge congratulations to Megan, Tim, Yva and all the staff for this well-deserved recognition.”
So while it’s a great anniversary present, Jones doesn’t want to let that define them.
“We’re still very new to all of this, and it’s exciting because we’re just really starting out,” she said. “But, there’s a lot of room to grow, and we’ve got lots of plans that we can’t wait to get to.”
