The Urban Parisian: An iconic Norfolk café

The staff at The Urban Parisian, including cook Natolie Macdonald, is the heart of the Port Dover business.

Leah Bauer

Advocate Contributor

Nestled in behind Lakewood Elementary School, or what some may remember as the old Port Dover High School, lies Urban Parisian.

A local hotspot for delicious coffee, baked goods, and a rotating menu offering many amazing soups, paninis, and salads, a trip to Port Dover is never complete without a stop at the Urban Parisian.

As one can likely guess from the name of the cafe, the Urban Parisian is inspired by French cuisine and pastries. The owners definitely have two things in common, their love for each other, and their love of great food. 

Brad and Mel are both local to the area - Mel grew up in Port Ryerse, and Brad grew up in Haldimand County. The pair have always shared a passion for food and wine, which is what brought them together. Their relationship began while working as line cooks in one of Port Dover’s other iconic restaurants, The Beach House. 

Brad trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa where he attained his Diplôme de Pâtisserie and later his Boulangerie certificate. Mel holds her Wine Certificate of Ontario and is a talented sommelier. While the pair is capable and talented enough to be employed anywhere, they decided on the town where they first met to establish their business.  The cafe’s location in Norfolk County gives it the privilege of being surrounded by amazing local produce, a privilege that Brad and Mel do not take for granted. Brad said they try to get a lot of the ingredients from local vendors.

“We try to get a lot of our produce from Matz Fruit Barn, since we're really good friends with Jessica. We also get strawberries from Judd's in Simcoe.”

However, their love and use of local produce is not exclusive to Judd’s or Matz.

“Sometimes, if we are out for a drive we'll just pull over like, ‘Oh, peaches are ready,’ so I'll throw peaches in the muffins,” said Brad. “Really, in whatever we want to do. We will put local produce in everything, not just the pastries. We have put berries in our salads, and incorporated local flavours in our paninis.” 

The Urban Parisian has a rotating menu, meaning that every day you can go into the restaurant and try something new. A few favourites remain in constant rotation.

“We do the spring roll salad every other week now, because people want it so much.”

Another favourite, according to Brad, is the butter chicken.

“That was a funny one because we made it one day when we were craving it. And our customers were like ‘Oh, you got to make that again.’ So we were doing that every third Thursday.”

At a time when The Urban Parisian was still an idea, one of the main goals was to bring something new to Norfolk. The pair wanted to use their talents, training, and local ingredients to introduce different flavours and concepts to the community that people might not have tried otherwise. 

It is safe to say that they have achieved that goal many times over in the last 15 years. Brad recalled when they opened in 2011, a local woman entered the building “...when she was just going for a walk, she came into The Urban Parisian and she was so happy. She was like ‘I can’t believe that this is here, in my town.’” 

Local flavours and urban inspirations have kept Brad, Mel, and their staff busy and entertained since they opened at 120 Greenock Street West. It is safe to say that The Urban Parisian has solidified its place as a staple of Norfolk County.

As the duo and their well-loved staff head into another busy summer season they are looking forward to serving up some well-loved favourites, and trying out some new recipes.