(Saint-Ambroise) As the holidays approach last year, the queue stretched for a long time in front of Baron BBQ, even before the opening. Nourished by word of mouth and extensive media coverage, the craze for tourtine was such that the owners of this young restaurant, located in a peaceful village in the Saguenay, had to barricade the windows of their establishment. A year later, demand is not weakening.
“I thought it was just going to make the world laugh a little and make people talk, but it became madness, remembers Julien Fortin, seated in the restaurant looking like a saloon where he is chef and co-owner. Line-ups to the other end of the village, at -40 ° C, three hours in advance, knocking in the windows. There are people coming in back at midnight at night. It was unbelievable. “
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
The tourtine is served with coleslaw and marinated local vegetables.
Do you think he’s exaggerating? We must hear this client interviewed by a journalist from Radio-Canada on December 20, 2020. “Yesterday, there were 170 of us.e and they blocked right in front of the rest of us, because they didn’t have any more. So, we came back early to have no one in front of us. “
This traffic is all the more surprising given that the restaurant is located on a busy road (the 172, which links the Saguenay to Lac-Saint-Jean), but in a small municipality, Saint-Ambroise, which has less than 4,000 inhabitants. Despite the crowds, still to this day, many Saguenéens and Jeannois could not taste the famous dish.
As its name suggests, tourtine results from the union between tourtière, such as one cooks in Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean, and poutine. The Baron BBQ tourtine differs from the one launched by the restaurant Au Pied de cochon several years ago. No fries here, but cubed (local) potatoes. Pulled Pork, brisket (brisket) of beef, cheddar grains and demi-glace sauce with foie gras complete this blend that Julien Fortin does not hesitate to call “gastrotrash”.
People ask me: “You really think we eat eight on this? [le seul format offert pour les Fêtes] ? »I guarantee it and you will have some left tomorrow!
Julien Fortin, chef and co-owner of Baron BBQ
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Julien Fortin, chef and owner of Baron BBQ, poses in front of one of the establishment’s two smoking rooms, which operate all year round.
The meats used in the tourtine stay in the imposing smokehouses, located outside the restaurant, for almost 16 hours. A smoking that gives the dish a very pleasant little Texan taste, Baron BBQ’s calling card. If some have cried sacrilege to see the traditional tourtière thus denatured, Julien Fortin is not overly worried.
It is precisely the desire to stand out that is at the origin of the tourtine. Their plan to open a restaurant having been shaken up by the pandemic, Jean-Sébastien Gauthier and Julien Fortin, who had returned to his native region to devote himself to this project, had to review their strategy.
1000 per week
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Baron BBQ displays its colors, along Route 172, in Saint-Ambroise.
“I didn’t want to be another person who just makes tourtière,” says Julien Fortin. We thought of tourtine. I made 30 of them, I sold them in five minutes. I did 400 the next week. And 1000 the next. Day and night, teams worked on the production of tourtines. Planned as a seasonal offer, the tourtine is now sold year round. Variations on the same theme, called the “sea-pout” and the “pourtiére” have even been created.
While restaurant owners are better prepared this time around, they admit they will still have a hard time meeting holiday demand. “We have a potential to manufacture between 800 and 1000 per week. It’s good, but not enough to meet demand. In order to distribute their product outside the region, the duo had done business with a subcontractor last year, but the product’s instability and the loss of its artisanal side did not appeal to them. To get it elsewhere in Quebec, it is now necessary to watch for arrivals on the Maturin online market. In the region, take-out frozen tourtines are offered at the Saint-Ambroise restaurant as well as at the Baron BBQ, located in downtown Chicoutimi.
Baron BBQ’s tourtine has been emulated elsewhere in the province, sometimes with the blessing of its creators … But beware of impostors!
There are a lot of people who have done it and I still encourage people to do it. We don’t provide anyway. But make your version. The possibilities are limitless.
Julien Fortin, chef and co-owner of Baron BBQ
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Julien Fortin takes a tourtine out of the oven. This is intended to serve eight people.
What he didn’t like was seeing others pretend to be them. ““ The real authentic Texan tourtine ”delivered behind the Couche-Tard, north of the lake, we saw that. This is where it becomes ambiguous, in the name and the display. Afterwards, I get complaints from people that it was not good. That was hard. ”
With the tourtine, the two entrepreneurs found a way to sustainably operate their restaurant year-round. In summer, they receive diners in the open air, sometimes as a dinner-show, in a large parking lot where plates of brisket Texan, ribs, pulled pork, homemade sausages and BBQ chicken are served. This winter, snowmobilers are expected; Baron BBQ having officially obtained the title of relay. “We want to become a destination”, summarizes Julien Fortin.