MORE THAN A MEAL

The Private Table — Edition No. 1 · Autumn 2026 October 15, 2026

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A Word from Rob

Dear friends,

Thank you for being part of The Private Table and for the encouragement you've given us. As the nights draw in, the season ahead is the busiest and the best we've built yet: three flagship evenings between now and Christmas, a guest chef, a special guest with twenty years of Canadian work under his arm, and a winter that does not go dark while we travel. I wanted to walk you through all of it — the dishes, the guests, and for the first time, the honest arithmetic behind our pricing.

The Season at a Glance

Sat, Oct 31 — Harvest Table: Ontario Fall — 4 courses, wine pairings, 12 seats, $235 + HST

Sat, Nov 14 — Chef Collaboration with Cathy Goodwin + special guest Martin Weinhold — 5 courses, wine pairings, 12 seats, $300 members

Sat, Dec 5 — Holiday Reserve Table — 5 courses, reserve pairings, 8 seats only, $375 + HST

Jan–Mar 2027 — An Evening with Jorge Faundez — three winter evenings, dates and menus to come

Harvest Table — Ontario Fall

Halloween night, Saturday, October 31 · 7:00pm · 12 seats · $235 per person + HST, wine pairings included

A celebration of Ontario's autumn harvest on the most atmospheric night of the year.

I · Roasted Squash Velouté — butternut & acorn squash, toasted pepitas, crème fraîche, smoked paprika oil

II · Heritage Grain Salad — farro, wild rice, roasted beets, candied walnuts, aged goat cheese, apple cider vinaigrette

III · Braised Ontario Lamb Shoulder — slow-braised 12-hour lamb, root vegetable medley, rosemary jus, celery root purée, crispy leek straws

IV · Apple Tarte Tatin — caramelized Ontario apples, buttery puff pastry, vanilla bean ice cream, salted caramel

Wine pairings throughout: Oaked Chardonnay · Pinot Noir · Côtes du Rhône · Late Harvest Riesling

Chef Collaboration Dinner

Saturday, November 14 · 7:00pm · 12 seats · $300 per person for members, wine pairings included

Five courses from two kitchens: Rob and guest Host Cook Cathy Goodwin split the menu, built on Ontario squash, pork, lamb and apples.

I · Squash Velouté — brown butter, spiced pepitas, crème fraîche

II · Cider-Glazed Pork Belly — parsnip purée, pickled mustard seed, charred apple (guest chef's creation)

III · Herb-Crusted Rack of Ontario Lamb — port-rosemary jus, potato dauphinoise, glazed rainbow carrots

IV · Ontario Cheese Course — spiced honey, walnut crostini

V · Warm Apple & Frangipane Tart — cider caramel, vanilla chantilly (guest chef's creation)

Wine pairings throughout: Crémant · Niagara Riesling · Niagara Cabernet Franc · Riesling Icewine

A Special Guest for November 14 — Martin Weinhold

The Collaboration table has a guest of its own. Martin Weinhold is the documentary photographer behind The WorkSpace Canada Project: twenty years, 65,800 miles, 152 communities, and more than 4,850 photographs of Canadians at work — a Master Warrant Officer in the North Atlantic, a tavern owner in Dartmouth, an Inuk elder preparing meat on the shores of Hudson Bay. It is the largest contemporary collection of workplace portraits in North America, and it reaches completion this year. An evening about craft, work, and what we choose to build second — we can't think of a better guest for a table built on exactly that.

Holiday Reserve Table — The Flagship

Saturday, December 5 · 7:00pm · 8 seats only · $375 per person + HST, reserve wine pairings included

Our most anticipated evening of the year.

I · Champagne & Caviar Amuse — house blini, crème fraîche, Canadian caviar, chive, Brut Champagne

II · Lobster Bisque — classic bisque, cognac, tarragon cream, puff pastry dome

III · Seared Foie Gras — pan-seared foie gras, brioche, Sauternes gelée, fig compote, microgreens

IV · Prime Beef Tenderloin Wellington — individual Wellington, wild mushroom duxelles, prosciutto, truffle jus, pommes dauphine, haricots verts

V · Bûche de Noël — classic yule log, dark chocolate ganache, chestnut cream, candied chestnuts, brandy cherries

Mignardises & digestifs: house-made truffles, salted caramels, fine cognac, Islay single malt.

Reserve pairings throughout: Brut Champagne · Sauternes · White Burgundy · Margaux · Late Harvest Riesling · Vintage Port

Winter at the Table — Jorge Faundez, January through March

In January, Derrick and I finally take the honeymoon we've been promising ourselves — which means the table does not go dark while we're gone. Chef Jorge Faundez holds down the fort for January, February and March, with Shari as his backup and the full weight of The Private Table behind him: our producers, our playbook, our cellar, our standards.

Jorge began his working life as a dentist before cooking won — three years as Head Chef at El Gringo Taqueria, a style rooted in Mexican technique and his Chilean heritage, and a pastry hand as precise as any I've worked beside. I'm looking forward to what he does with Canadian ingredients: Chilean warmth meeting Ontario winter is exactly the kind of second-language cooking this table exists for. His three winter evenings are on the site now — dates and menus to be announced.

Why the Price Is What It Is

I get asked this honestly and I want to answer it honestly.

Every ticket covers five things: the courses (four or five, fully composed), the wine (pairings poured throughout the evening — not one glass, a progression), the room (twelve seats, set and served properly), the ingredients (Ontario producers, specialty proteins, and the house-made things restaurants buy in: stocks, breads, pastry, charcuterie), and the people who make it happen.

Two things make our numbers different from a restaurant's. First, scale: a restaurant amortizes its kitchen across hundreds of covers a week; we run a handful of evenings a month, so each seat genuinely carries more of the real cost. Second, wine: we buy at LCBO retail like you would, and pour it generously — the pairings are a third of what you're paying for and we don't thin them.

Membership is the other half of the answer. A founding membership at $95 a year, locked for life, is priced to keep the table open to the people who believe in it — and the dinner prices are set to sustain the table, not to squeeze it. Nobody's getting rich here; every ticket goes back into better ingredients, better wine, and better evenings. That's the whole business model, and I'm comfortable defending it to anyone who asks.

Membership

Founding memberships remain open. $95 a year, locked for life, with member pricing on every dinner and first claim on seats before they open to the public. Email me directly at robgby@gmail.com and I'll set you up personally.

Your Part in the Story

I'd love to hear what you enjoyed, what stayed with you, and what we could do better. Honest reviews and your photographs from our evenings help tell the story far better than I can on my own.

Please send along any photos you're happy to share, and tell us whether we may repost them — check with anyone recognisable in them first. Recommendations are welcome too: dishes you'd like to see, producers we should know, or friends you'd enjoy bringing to the table. And if you bring a friend who books their own seat, your referral credit is 15% off your next dinner.

Two Asks

1. Book your seat. Email robgby@gmail.com and your seat is held — first come, first served, and the Holiday Reserve has only eight chairs.
2. Follow and share. Find The Private Table on Instagram and Facebook, like our posts, and pass along the one that made you hungry. It genuinely helps new people find us — and I'd rather be cooking than asking, so this is the once-a-season version of the ask.

Thank you for helping us build this. I'm looking forward to the next evening together.

Rob The Private Table Starboard & Stem Inc. o/a The Private Table