A Vegetable with a Difficult Personality
The soul of this Vancouver restaurant is captured in its name. Nero Tondo takes its identity from the Spanish black radish, a vegetable known for its coarse black skin and intensely fiery initial taste. It's not an ingredient that finds its way onto many menus.
"It's a vegetable with a difficult personality, but it is a vegetable and that's what our cooking revolves around and what we're all about," explains Devon Latté, who owns and runs the kitchen with Lucas Johnston. The chefs see this challenging radish as a symbol of their philosophy, embracing even the most difficult ingredients for their essential vegetal qualities.
"It needs some love," Latté admits. Their approach often involves marinating, roasting, and searing it at high temperatures to unlock its potential.
Hyper-Local, Super Seasonal Philosophy
While this vegetable love is central, it doesn't exclude animal protein. The menu prominently features excellent seafood, but the core principle remains a commitment to ingredients that are super seasonal and always changing. The chefs draw inspiration from their travels, with a particular lean towards French, Japanese and Italian cuisines.
This seasonality is paired with an extreme locavore ethos. The team at Nero Tondo dedicates significant effort to avoiding imports and sourcing locally, even for ingredients typically brought from afar. Instead of imported soy sauce, they make their own. For citrus, they turn to Jane Squier on Salt Spring Island, who grows dozens of citrus varieties in a greenhouse heated by compost.
"It's a tropical paradise out there," Latté says of Squier's operation, which produces makrut lime, Buddha's hand, finger limes, calamansi, sudachi, and even avocados.
From Acorn to Michelin Recognition
The partnership between Latté and Johnston began when they worked together at Acorn, another Michelin-recommended vegetarian restaurant. They launched Nero Tondo to extend their hyper-local approach to include the bar and wine program. Their dedication was quickly recognized, as they nabbed a Michelin recommendation in their first year of operation.
"With local ingredients, the quality can't be matched," Latté states. "We know the soil where our produce comes from, the waters where the fish are from, the fishers we buy from."
Johnston adds, "It definitely feels good connecting with our purveyors and to know who's coming through the door every day. The farmers markets are social hours for Devon and I."
This connection extends to the dining experience itself. The staff, led by general manager and sommelier Meghan McDowell Johnston (Lucas's partner), greets guests with genuine enthusiasm, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere in the restaurant located at 1879 Powell St., Vancouver. Nero Tondo serves dinner from Tuesday to Saturday.
