Changes are coming at The Dive Gastro Pub.
The restaurant and tavern located at 648 Queen St. E. will begin offering an expanded dinner menu beginning Friday, Jan. 10.
“We want to have more than bar food. For Fridays and Saturdays we’re going to have more of a sit down dinner environment,” said Dive owner/operator Blake Richards in an interview with SooToday.
Though the old menu - including nachos, noodle dishes, tacos, sliders, fries, poutine, fish and chips, and macaroni and cheese will remain - the Dive will start serving a wider variety of dishes for dinner.
“We’re going to make small pizzas with our own sauce. We’re going to call them flavour frisbees. We’ll have a brisket sandwich and a pulled pork sandwich,” Richards said.
He is especially enthusiastic about the addition of birria - a spicy meat stew - to the Dive dinner menu.
“I think we’re the only ones in town who do birria. It’s amazing with the beef and the juice. Everybody who tries it gets addicted to it. We’ve heard of people buying it, then buying a second order to take home. We’re excited about that.”
Richards said he anticipated having the new dinner menu printed for customers by Friday.
“We’re going to have steak and baked potato and we’ve brought back jambalaya (meat and vegetables mixed with rice and spices) from Low & Slow because people love that. We’ll have burritos.”
Low & Slow was Richards’ first restaurant, established on Gore Street in February 2014.
He also owned Cocina Del Diablo on Wellington Street West and Pho-King Awesome Soup and Sandwiches. Pho-King was first located on Gore Street before it was based at the Marconi.
Richards moved Low & Slow from Gore Street to 648 Queen St. E. in 2020.
He then decided it was time for a change, closing Low & Slow and reopening the Queen Street East space as The Dive Gastro Pub in May 2024.
Richards said he used the term ‘dive’ as an attention grabber.
“I was looking for a quirky name for the restaurant. It sounds like a dive bar when you hear the name but when you come in you have a clean place, nice menu, a nice bar with a good selection of drinks. You come in pleasantly surprised.”
Getting involved in the restaurant industry was a career change for Richards, a Sault College electrical engineering program graduate.
“I like to cook. A friend of mine and I started Low & Slow. We always talked about the food industry and we decided to do it. We knew how to cook and we just hit the ground running.”
He said the switch to owning and operating restaurants was a new and exciting adventure for him as he transitioned from his tech industry training.
“We had a chef come in and show us how to set up a kitchen and prep stuff. What I like about the food industry is the learning, the change. I do like this business. You have to love this business. It’s something you have to love and I see myself doing this for quite a bit longer.”
The Dive Gastro Pub’s usual hours of operation for alcoholic beverages and bar food are 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday with dinner from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
The big change is the Dive's diversified dinner menu.
“We’re going to do that and see how it goes. There’s definitely a buzz,” Richards said.
He said he wants the Dive to be a place where everyone feels welcome.
“For drinks, for example, you can get a cheaper beer or a Guinness. I want this place to be comfortable. You can come in with a business suit or your work clothes on. Everyone’s welcome to hang out and relax.”
