March 29, 2024

BY EMMIE SIROKY

You can have your cheese curds and eat them on campus too, thanks to Conestoga College’s new café addition, – Smoke’s Poutinerie.

“It’s a new concept, poutine is a huge trend right now,” said Jennifer Bruder, food service director.

“People are loving it all over the place. It’s something that is fun and funky, it’s also the brand itself that’s really upbeat.”

Smoke’s was founded in 2008 in Toronto. It was one of the first exclusive poutine-only restaurants. There are over 30 locations as well as food trucks that stop by places such as Conestoga College.

“It’s been popular. We did bring the food truck here a few times last year just to test it out and it was something that was well received,” said Bruder. “That was another reason why we decided to bring it to the campus. It’s a fresh cut fry which is totally different then a frozen fry which is what we had. People like the fact that it’s a fresh cut.”

Smoke’s Poutinerie has a mascot who has a personally all of his own.

“Smokes, the man, the myth, the legend. He is a bit of a recluse, stuck in the ’80s. He loves his ’80s Glam Rock, but he loves his poutine more,” said Brenda Kingsley, supervisor. “We, as his messengers, are here to spread his love of poutine.”

The new business has been going through a lot of poutine. Although they don’t make all the kinds of poutines that the other locations have they still have a lot of variety, including traditional veggie and bacon cheeseburger.

“We get 50-pound bags of fries. We probably go through 15 of those bags every day and probably four 10-pound bags of gravy,” said Kingsley. “It’s amazing and insane.”

The eatery is inside the café where the rest of the hot food is sold.

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