Chef Danny Smiles Talks Canadian Cuisine & Building Community at Le Violon
Nestled on Montreal’s Rue Marquette, Le Violon greets its guests with an inviting warmth as soon as they step inside. It’s a soft sort of sophistication: tables are circular or square, some donning a fresh white tablecloth while others show a light hardwood surface. Baskets of fresh bread are stacked in the centre of each, accompanied by vivid leafy greens peeking out of chic salad bowls and plenty of crisp wine glasses, polished to sparkling. You’ll find chef Danny Smiles in the kitchen, whipping up a gourmet plate with an ever-changing array of seasonal ingredients: cheddar custard on stout bread, vibrant blends of charred vegetables.
“You can’t do anything on your own. If you think you’re going to be able to do it on your own, that’s the hard part.”
Danny Smiles
On the menu, these premium ingredients colour every plate: flavours steep, sizzle, and simmer in tandem, revealing complementary tastes and contrasting textures. Finished meals are an ensemble — the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, this maxim describes the many hands of Le Violon, too: a collaborative effort between Danny Smiles, Mitch Laughren, Dan Climan, and Andrew Park, the restaurant blends and balances each talent in equal measure. One year later, the recipe is still a resounding success.
“There’s such a beautiful community. I think that’s the whole point of it,” Smiles says. As he talks about the restaurant, the chef lives up to his surname; he’s beaming from ear to ear. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Smiles has little advice for his younger self. Instead, there’s only gratitude. “I would go back and say that you did a fucking good job, having partners that you trust and that you love. I think that having those people by my side is super, super important. Those three partners — Mitch, Dan, and Andrew — just proved that you can’t do anything on your own,” says the chef. “If you think you’re going to be able to do it on your own, that’s the hard part.”
The road to Le Violon had its fair share of twists and turns, however. Before Smiles became the celebrated cuisinier seen on Top Chef Canada, he played a different, decidedly less romantic role: the dishwasher.
To be clear, Smiles didn’t mind being the unsung hero of the restaurant. “Dishwashing is so awesome. It’s such a cool job — we wouldn’t even be able to serve food if we didn’t have a dishwasher. Everybody’s in a panic mode when the dishwasher doesn’t show up,” he laughs. “But I did that as a job, and when you start doing that as a job, I don’t think that you start doing that because you love it.”
Though it was more of a stepping stone than a passion project, dishwashing was nonetheless crucial to Smiles’s career: he credits the job for introducing him to the culinary world. “When I started 25 years ago, I don’t think there were a lot of people [saying], ‘Oh, I’m going to cook,’” explains the chef. “It’s not like now, where there’s so much media around it.”
In lieu of an industry idol (this was a couple decades before The Bear), Smiles found inspiration in the workplace. “Working in restaurants very young, I was like, ‘One day, I really want to open up a restaurant,’” he remembers. “Then, you just clearly understand — you’re like, ‘Oh, well, I don’t have what it takes yet.’”
As Smiles soon found out, all it takes is determination: the chef-to-be pursued education in all forms. “Those are the steps you need to take: let’s go stage [intern], let’s go work, let’s go travel. Let’s become a chef de cuisine under another chef, let’s learn from the people that are better than us, let’s learn from the people that are more successful than us.”
“New Canadian cuisine is really showcasing ingredients that are in our backyard and just putting them on our menu — that’s what’s defining Canadian cuisine.”
Danny Smiles
This path led Smiles to the tree-covered town of Hudson, Quebec, where he served as the executive chef for the Willow Inn — a countryside treasure with two centuries of history — from 2021 to 2023. While the tail end of the pandemic brought challenges, Smiles looks back on the gig with fondness. “It was really nice to be out in the country and to really cook,” he says. “But, there was something missing for me — I needed to come back to the city.”
Though Smiles left Hudson for good in December 2023, it wasn’t his first return to Montreal. Earlier that year, he’d opened Double’s, a bustling dive bar in the Mile End. “Double’s was just a bunch of friends that [were] like, ‘I wish this place existed!’ We just all came together,” he recalls with a laugh. With classic smash burgers and eclectic playlists, the chic hangout draws bar-hoppers in droves.
Le Violon served its first diners the following year. The jump was scary, Smiles admits, but his past experience — from dishwashing to Double’s — left him well prepared. “After many years of working under a lot of people, and alongside a lot of people, I was like, ‘You know what? I think I’m ready for it,’ ” says the chef.
With Le Violon, Smiles aims to showcase the best of Québécois cuisine: “I want to be hiring, you know, the cream of the crop of cooks — people that want to do this for a living,” he says. “We’re growing beautiful food, and we have a very diverse country. New Canadian cuisine is really showcasing ingredients that are in our backyard and just putting them on our menu — that’s what’s defining Canadian cuisine.”
Expertise extends beyond the kitchen, too. The eatery is a five-sense affair, accounting for atmosphere in every sense of the word: “The smell of the restaurant, the music that you’re playing, the lighting, those are all extremely important. We’re lucky that Dan Climan, our partner, co-designed the space,” adds Smiles.
Others would be content to coast on Le Violon’s success, but not Smiles. Before we sign off, he tells me about yet another project: “I’m opening up an ice cream shop,” Smiles says. When we spoke, the chef was in the midst of renovations and menu preparation; the gelato bar, Dalmata Gelateria, opened its doors on July 6th.
“It’s like a continuation of Le Violon, it’s the same partners,” Smiles explains. In fact, Le Violon made the new spot possible: the building’s owners were regulars at the restaurant. “They’d eat the ice cream and they were like, ‘This is the best ice cream we’ve ever had!’ ” Smiles recalls. Soon after, the owners showed Smiles’ team a new space — a petite, 300-square-foot spot — and the ice cream shop was born. Dalmata Gelateria hit the Mile End with a refreshing, retro-inspired splash, complete with a striped awning, branded ice cream cups, and a charming stone exterior; it’s sure to become a summertime staple.
Beyond sweet treats, however, Dalmata offers a shared experience for locals and tourists alike — community sprouts in kitchens and flowers over shared cuisine. This is the fruit of Smiles’ people-focused philosophy: breaking bread, building community.
Photography by Jeremy Dionn.
