Is this new restaurant Niagara’s hottest reservation?

The Niagara region is hot, hot, hot. Jordan Station’s two-Michelin-starred Pearl Morissette is consistently ranked as one of the country’s top restaurants. Fat Rabbit, chef Zach Smith’s nose-to-tail kitchen, hopped onto St. Catharines’s scene in 2024 to much acclaim. Now, a new Niagara-on-the-Lake kitchen is attracting attention from both local and visiting foodies.

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Tucked away in a strip mall—between a Subway and an RBC—is Revé, an 11-table “fire-to-table” experience that opened last September. It’s the first restaurant for Adriano Cappuzzello, who has previously worked in the kitchens of Langdon Hall and England’s Fat Duck.

Whether through his introductory four-course, signature 10-course or à la carte menu, diners get a glimpse of Cappuzzello’s Italian upbringing as well as his impressions of his new home.

His dishes are as likely to be inspired by the landscape as they are by his family, a childhood memory or seasonal produce. Take, for example, a tight coil of spaghetti, made to resemble a golden bale of hay positioned in the fields of Ragusa, where Cappuzzello was born and raised. “Our menu is mostly regional. It’s a terroir menu, and we use everything that we can,” he says. “Of course, I’m Sicilian, so there’s going to be Sicilian influence on the dishes and in the preparation.”

And since this is wine country, of course there’s some local stuff on the list. But, in keeping with the theme, there’s also a lot from small Sicilian vineyards. “Some are not even on the map,” says Cappuzzello.

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As for the open fire in the (also open) kitchen, “It brings memories from when I was a kid,” says Cappuzzello. “All you do on a Sunday is have a barbecue. And in Sicily, there isn’t really bad weather, so you can even barbecue all winter. It adds an extra layer of flavour to everything.”

With its abundance of farms and wineries, Niagara has more in common with Sicily than one would think. “Niagara feels like home for me,” says Cappuzzello. “I moved here four years ago. I never thought that I would open a restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but now I’m in love.”