Rob Roche is on the search to make the perfect poutine.
Roche, owner of Relish Big Tasty Burgers in downtown Gainesville, plans to bring the Canadian speciality snack to the city. Relish expects to be the first to bring the dish to Gainesville, but shipping issues have kept Relish from serving it.
Poutine, a dish of fries drenched in cheese curds and thick beef stock gravy, is common in Canada and in the American North, but it’s a rarity in Florida.
Aubrey Helm, a 23-year-old server at the downtown Relish, said customers have been eager to try their poutine.
“I’ve had a couple people come back and ask, ‘Do you have it yet? Do you have it?’” she said.
Ryan Edgar, 29-year-old manager of Relish downtown, said he’s never seen the snack served in a restaurant in the state.
“The only time I’ve ever had it was when my buddy made it for Canada Day,” he said.
Roche, who plans to charge $4 per plate of poutine, has the right fries for the dish and is on the search for the perfect curds. He said he flew to Canada to find the right ones.
Roche knows what it looks like, tastes like and even what it sounds like when his teeth squeak against it. The wrong curds will ruin a dish.
“Rob and Edgar are severely Canadian, so they’re on the search for the perfect cheese,” Helm said. ‘They don’t want to expose Gainesville to an imperfect poutine.”
Roche hasn’t been able to find a cost-effective company that can ship the curds in time to maintain the freshness necessary to make the perfect poutine.
Curd samples will be shipped to the store Thursday from the Roth Käse plant in southern Wisconsin, Rob’s third attempt at finding the right curds.
Kraig Depue, Roche’s food supplier and a marketing associate for Sysco Foods, said cheese curds are a difficult item to get to Florida.
“We’re trying to get him the right formula, but it’s a very perishable product,” he said. “Nobody makes it down here. It’s just not a Southern thing.”
Lauren Litchet, an 18-year-old physiology and kinesiology freshman, said she had never heard of poutine until she visited Canada.
“It was all over the place,” she said. “It was advertised on every menu. It was at vendors on the street corners, fast food places and in little diners, especially burger-esque places and bars.”
Edgar said the perfect poutine will be worth the wait.
“Eventually, we’re going to have it, and it’s going to be delicious,” he said. “You just have to try it.”
Contact Alex Catalano at acatalano@alligator.org.
Accounting junior Sam Coccia, 20, dumps bacon bits on an order of loaded french fries Friday afternoon at the Midtown location of Relish. Loaded fries are the closest meal to poutine, which is not yet available.
