Page 64 - S Fall 2024

And like both Gallz Provisions and Spice Girl Chai, the idea for the elusive Toronto supper club Jeudr3di was close to home for its co-founder Alexandra Francis. On a video call with her co-founder Brutalé, she recounts how one of her fondest childhood memories was a monthly dinner party hosted by her Lebanese grandmother. “We would celebrate everybody’s birthdays. It would just be a time for us all to come together,” she shares. Seated
at a long dinner table, Francis and her extended family shared delicacies such as cabbage
rolls, spinach pies, and kafta.
Years later, when Francis moved back to Toronto after living abroad, she hosted
a dinner party in hopes of making new friends. “It was that summer after COVID when things were open but not really open,” she remembers. “We had a potluck dinner in an abandoned warehouse. We just threw everything over the
66 fence— that would have been our very first dinner. Then we thought we were definitely on to something.” Today, she curates the dinners with Brutalé, a former fashion designer. Each event explores a new theme with a different featured chef. The location is often kept secret until the day of the event.
The duo curate each experience while keeping connection top of mind. “For myself, there’s a lot of purpose in bringing people together,” Francis shares. “Especially in a day and age where everything is done through a screen, and you have 90 minutes at the dinner table when you go to
a restaurant. Our dinners
are like, six hours long.”
While Brutalé, who is admittedly the more shy of the duo, manages the back of house for each event, Francis sits at the table and hosts.
They credit their male-female dynamic for allowing them to navigate the food landscape
in a unique way. “From the female perspective, in a lot of
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Photo courtesy of Gallz Provisions.