International Centre builds Craft Works

By Leslie Wu

MISSISSAUGA—The International Centre’s getting crafty with its food and beverage options.

With a shoestring budget of $30,000, a team did a three-week, Restaurant Makeover-style renovation of the Market Café, turning it into a new concept, Craft Eatery.  

Executive chef Joe Levesque avoids charbroiling burgers.

“We wanted to change the feel and concept for our 400 permanent tenants,” said Trevor Lui, director of operations and sustainability of the International Centre to Restaurant News. Existing cabinetry was repurposed, and the rarely-used coffee kiosk turned into housing for the cooking line. Tables and chairs were refinished to create distinct sections, including a new soft-seating area.

Following in the sustainable footprint of food courts like the newly-opened eatery in the Eaton Centre, Craft uses real cutlery and china. “It’s hard to display good food

The International Centre's director of operations and sustainability, Trevor Lui, in the new incarnation of Market Café.

on plastic china and cutlery,” said executive chef Joe Levesque.

The prepared-to-order, hand-crafted food on the menu, says Levesque, grew out of his love for the burger restaurants that are popping up throughout the province. Levesque sears his burgers (“with charbroil, you taste the charbroil, not the beef,” he says) and tops them with roasted garlic aioli and house made beefeater onion rings. Other menu items include hot press sandwiches, fresh smoothies, and

Hand crafted food.

rotating items such as a Friday fish fry (using Mill St. Tankhouse ale), butter chicken or mushroom tortellini.  

The eatery is part of the International Centre’s move towards branding its foodservice options. It recently launched mobile sub-brands that can retail on the show floor, including Smokey Joe’s Carvery & Smokehouse, Emperor Asian Noodle Bar, Urban Fries & Poutinerie, Amore Pasta Express, Brooklyn Panini and Nathan’s Famous Coney Island Frankfurters. Each of the roughly 12x12-foot mobile units (size depends on each show’s configuration) is individually named, but branded with a “concept brought to you by the International Centre” tagline, providing a united feel for each of the options, said Lui.