Ottawa has no shortage of restaurant lifers, the cooks, servers, and dishwashers who know exactly what it feels like to survive a brutal summer shift in a cramped kitchen. That's exactly why a new film making the festival and arthouse rounds deserves a spot on the city's watch list: 'Tony,' a coming-of-age drama about a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain's first taste of the restaurant industry.
What the film is about
Directed by Matt Johnson and starring Dominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, and Emilia Jones, 'Tony' follows a teenage Bourdain as he travels to Provincetown, Massachusetts and stumbles into the chaotic, high-pressure world of a restaurant kitchen. It's the summer that, according to the synopsis, ends up shaping the rest of his life, long before he became the globe-trotting chef and storyteller millions knew from Kitchen Confidential and his television work.
Why it matters here
Bourdain never ran a kitchen in Ottawa, but his influence runs deep through the city's food scene anyway. Local chefs and line cooks have cited his brutally honest writing about kitchen culture for years, and Ottawa's own restaurant workers will likely recognize plenty in 'Tony': the screaming pass, the burns, the exhaustion, and the strange loyalty that keeps people coming back to the line night after night. For Ottawa's growing community of independent restaurants, from the ByWard Market to Wellington West, Bourdain's origin story is basically an industry text.
Ottawa also has a solid track record of embracing films like this one. Local independent cinemas and film series in the city regularly program coming-of-age dramas and food-adjacent stories that don't always get wide releases at the big multiplexes, so keep an eye on listings at Ottawa's independent screens if 'Tony' doesn't land in the major chains right away.
Who should see it
If you've ever worked a line in Ottawa, or just love a good behind-the-scenes food story, 'Tony' looks like required viewing. It sits alongside other kitchen-culture favourites for anyone who has spent a summer sweating through a service in one of the city's restaurants, bars, or cafés.
Keep an eye on Ottawa listings for the film's release date, and expect it to spark plenty of conversation among the city's restaurant crowd once it lands.
Source: Ottawa Life Magazine
