WORK 337 James Street North

I was due to meet up with my friend Seema of This Must Be The Place for another day of exploration. We decided on lunch at WORK and a perusal of the shop Newold’s (read that post here!).

WORK has been open since January, and I’ve been hearing rumblings about it from fellow This Ain’t Hollywood frequenters (the restaurant is conveniently right next door to the venue) and online. The space was formerly a Portuguese club; it’s a cozy little spot.

apr19-13-1

I also enjoy the ambiguity of the restaurant’s name – it’s a versatile word, and pretty snappy! I keep thinking in my head, “I want to go back to work soon,” and on what other occasion would I say that? When I tweeted that it was my first time there, someone thought I worked there. See, the possibilities are endless.

WORK’s menu is all over the place – but in the best way. It’s amazing. From fried chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, poutine, smoked soup… we had quite the time deciding. It was a lot of back and forth and exclamations of, “But.. ooh, that sounds good, too!” Being intrigued by the idea of Avocado Fries, we had to start by sharing those. They are a stroke of genius and got a ton of feedback right away when we both posted photos on Twitter and Instagram.

Avocado Fries
Avocado Fries
Grilled Eggplant and Broccoli
Grilled Eggplant and Broccoli

For our main meals, we wanted to mix things up. I tried the Grilled Eggplant and Broccoli Chow Mein with Ginger Soy Sauce. Seema went with the Braised Beef Sandwich with Horseradish. But it was not an easy decision!

Seema and I were pretty full, but we had to go for dessert. I saw a photo on Facebook of a delectable dish they called “The Broken Heart” that looked insane. There were a couple to choose from on this day, and we chose to split the Kookoo Cake. It had alternate layers of strawberry and cappuccino gelato, with graham crust. Our server told us that the gelato is all homemade by a man who began as a regular customer of WORK who mentioned that he makes gelato. Soon enough, they were serving it there. We thought that was a neat tidbit.

Kookoo Cake
Kookoo Cake

I’ll need to hit up WORK a bunch more times to really get a handle of the menu. We didn’t even get to the drinks – I spotted on their Facebook page that they made a cake milk, and then made a White Russian with it. Unreal! They are always adding to the menu and keeping customers updated on the page – be sure to check it out.

Read Seema’s post about our lunch at WORK on This Must Be The Place.

– Kristin

Work Restaurant on Urbanspoon

kristin
ihearthamiltontour@gmail.com
Kristin Archer is the creator of I Heart Hamilton (www.ihearthamilton.ca), where she has blogged about experiences around her hometown since 2011, growing a social media presence along the way. Encouraging locals to “be a tourist in your own city,” she promotes arts and culture across her various social media platforms, blog, and weekly radio show on 93.3 CFMU.

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