400 Brant Street: a new look for a familiar downtown address

A fresh new start is what the owners of 400 Brant Kitchen and Bar are excited to offer Burlington residents.

That includes a new name for the renovated site, formerly the Queen’s Head Pub. As well, there are many new features local diners can look forward to.

Work has been ongoing since the Queen's Head’s abrupt closure last September, said Tarah Solomon, who handles marketing for 400 Brant Kitchen and Bar.

New owner Sarah Millar and her husband Marcus prefer to stay behind the scenes, Solomon said. “They’re humble people born and raised in Burlington, who love the city and supporting the community and can't wait to be a part of the downtown Burlington food scene,” she added.

Solomon said this is the first restaurant the couple has owned, but it’s always been their dream.

They have hired Burlington resident Stewart Schmidt as their executive chef; he brings more than 30 years of experience to the new venture.

An exciting component of the new restaurant is 400 Brant Made-to-Go, with its own entrance at the corner of Brant and Elgin streets. Taking high-quality ingredients and perfected for takeout, these menu items will be accessible for anyone on the go.

“We are very excited for what this will bring to the downtown community," Solomon said.

Locally owned and operated, the new restaurant opening at 400 Brant Street will take on the name of its location to help preserve the history of the building. It will be a casual upscale dining environment.

Along with the renovated dining room and bar, there are also event rooms to host private and corporate events.

The Made-to-Go menu will have 13 lunch items such as clubs, wraps, salads and soups. The dinner menu features sharables and appetizers, calamari, charcuterie, salads and soups, along with items from burgers to salmon, as well as fish, steak and short ribs.

“I can’t wait for people to see what it looks like inside; it’s stunning,” Solomon added.

All the familiar woodwork is still in place, but there are updates to the flooring, the bar and bar countertops, and the seating is new.

There are also plans for the popular outdoor patio that fans of the former Queen’s Head enjoyed.

There are limited details available about the circumstances that led to the Queen’s Head’s closure.

“For 19-plus years we had a good relationship with the (building) landlord,” Ed Catley, the person behind the Queen’s Head Pub on Brant Street told BurlingtonToday last year. “At least I thought we did. I didn’t see any reason to believe I was not going to be offered a new lease.”

After an initial discussion about figures last fall, Catley waited for the paperwork but it never came. As the lease deadline approached, Catley prompted the owner, and was told that someone else had walked in with an offer that was “really hard to refuse.”

According to the Ontario Business Registry, the property at 400 Brant Street is owned by Sherwood Holdings Inc. of Oakville. Dun & Bradstreet lists the key principal as Derek Concannon.

The structure was built in 1860 by The Zimmerman family and known originally as the Zimmerman House, "a first class resting place  for the weary traveller." By the late 1800s it was known as the Queen’s Hotel and in the mid-1900s it was known as the Sherwood, later becoming the Queen’s Head Pub.