New owners of the Highview Restaurant, downtown Southampton, Eugene and Noelle Barone.

Hub Staff

The excitement level is high inside the Highview Restaurant, downtown Southampton. The restaurant, which will keep its name, is currently undergoing renovations in preparation for a late June opening.

Owners, Eugene and Noelle Barone, who live in Southampton, took over the location, the former Esquire Theatre, on March 1 and are no strangers to Saugeen Shores. The Barones are the previous owners of Ristorante Rosina in Port Elgin.

Eugene & Noelle Barone, new owners of the Highview Restaurant in Southampton, formerly the Esquire Theatre; took a break from renovations to chat with The Hub about their plans for the space. 

“This is a new concept for Southampton," said Noelle Barone. “We've been really inspired by a lot of these two-in-one places, almost like that Spanish style where you can come in and get all this food that's all ready but you can also go to the bar in the back and have a drink and small menu.” Noelle added that the food will be centered around what's in season and “whatever we feel like making.”

“This is just a casual, grab a quick lunch, take it out if you want to... definitely a wine bar more than anything else.” Barone added, “I can't stress enough that it's not fine dining.”

The front will be open concept with deli fridges, prepared food and take-home meals; and cafe-style seating with a small retail space selling sauces, olives and dried pasta; as well as an estate olive oil from Greece and the Barones' very own locally-grown fruit and vegetables. They will also have a catering menu and Barone said that eventually she would like to offer her own dressings, dips and sauces in the retail space.

The back of the restaurant will be more for evenings with table, booth and banquet style seating, a bar and a spot for a band or a DJ. “We've got space for people to dance if they want to. We just want it to be versatile and fun,” she said.

Barone's training is in French and Italian cuisine but she said that she loves to experiment with Asian and Moroccan food. “It will be definitely a kind of market type of menu... rooted in Mediterranean but not specifically Italian, it's Mediterranean inspired.”

The food served will follow the seasons with specific focus on Ontario as well as Saugeen Shores area products. So in addition to “Ontario meats, wines, produce,” Barone said, “Eugene and I are going to be out there with our hands in the soil, growing stuff to sell to our community.”

“So maybe [one] day I go down to Alverstoke Farm in Paisley and buy some pig and then I go over to Hi-Berry Farm and get some nice stuff there and maybe I'll go to my own farm and get some stuff out of my own garden.” Barone added that because her ingredients will center around what's in season, “you will not find asparagus in December in the restaurant.”

To start, Highview will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with eventual extended weekend hours. For now work continues inside the restaurant and as the town's former theatre, some of the previously covered architecture and theatre items will be restored and brought to the fore.

Fresh fruit and vegetables from the Barones' own garden will be used in the kitchen and sold at Highview.

The Barones' garden in Southampton, where they will be growing fresh local produce to be served.

Pictured here in 1944, the former Esquire Theatre closed its doors in 1974. Now the Highview Restaurant, the basement is still home to the tiered cement floor that used to house theatre seating. And the wooden bar which held the old movie screen is being restored to be used as part of the upstairs decor.