See You Soon is Toronto's hottest new hospitality team

Christine Peddie

Carbelle Djossa

4 months ago

The chefs from See You Soon just want you to relax. They’d like nothing more than to see you enjoying your surroundings, glass raised, laughing with friends over meticulously nuanced bites of food. Founded by friends Keith Siu, Kevin Le and Michael Ovejas, See You Soon isn’t the city’s newest buzzworthy restaurant. Instead, it’s a tight-knit hospitality company you might find catering a private event, slinging snacks at a wine tasting, hosting a multi-course dinner party or impressing palates in far-off cities with the team’s combined culinary chops.

Based on their knowledge of hospitality, their wealth of ideas and their talent, you’d think that Siu, Le and Ovejas were veterans of the restaurant industry. Between them, they’ve travelled far and wide, have worked at some of the city’s — and the world’s — top restaurants and have an extensive awareness of techniques, trends, and which spots, here and abroad, are doing remarkable things. Still, barely pushing 30, it’s not their years in the kitchen but the quality of their time there, plus their passion for food, that’s brought them to where they are today.

"Early in my career,” says Siu, “I jumped around to different places to learn. I started at Peter Pan Bistro, then spent time at Backhouse, in Niagara.” Siu was then hired at Buca, where he and Michael Ovejas first met, before moving to Oakville’s Hexagon.

In 2018, Siu began working at newly opened (now Michelin-starred) Frilu, alongside Kevin Le. “We had similar interests, similar goals, and basically the same personality,” laughs Siu. A shared fascination with fermentation, appreciation for Japanese and Scandinavian cuisines, and, undoubtedly, love of eating, cemented their friendship. Inspired to learn more, Siu and Le each embarked on international stages, to Chile’s Boragó, and Denmark’s Noma, respectively. Drawn by the restaurants’ unrivalled styles, distinctive cuisines, and accolades (both spots rank on the list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants), the two young chefs honed skills and made connections that they’d later tote back home.

Heads overflowing with inspiration and ideas, memories and plans, the young chefs returned to a new reality. Yet, despite its negative effects on the industry as a whole, the global pandemic also opened surprising new doors. “Once covid happened,” says Siu, “I connected with Braden [Chong] through Instagram. We started doing Sunny’s Chinese together.” Siu then brought Ovejas on board to help with what morphed into one of the pandemic’s most impressive local success stories. “The third and fourth time we released Sunny’s,” says Siu, “it sold out in 7 seconds.” With its menu of regional Chinese dishes, the exclusivity of each drop and the bragging rights conferred once the goods had been secured, Sunny’s was exactly the type of excitement pandemic-weary, house-bound urbanites craved. The success of Sunny's led to its permanent home in Kensington Market, opened 10 months after its sister spot, MIMI Chinese, first greeted guests on Davenport Road.

While Siu and Ovejas were busy working with the Sunny’s and MIMI Chinese crews, Kevin Le secured a spot at Gem, in New York City. Before long, he moved on to Henry’s, on Queen West. “With Henry’s, they gave me full control,” explains Le. “I was really able to express myself and do what I wanted to do."

All the while, the idea for a new partnership was taking shape. “Sometime last year, we were chatting about doing a pop-up,” says Siu. “It kept getting pushed back and kept growing into what we’re doing now.” Last October, the friends hosted their first Friends & Family event as the newly minted See You Soon. At its core, the company’s ethos couldn’t be simpler. See You Soon is, “an expression of farewell, with the intention of meeting once again. A concept focused on bringing both familiar and new faces together through the shared experience of food.” Despite working with some of the city’s buzziest culinary teams, the three chefs wanted more freedom to put their innumerable ideas onto plates, and into the world.

“Our style would be Scandinavian at the base but incorporating our cultures, and experiences eating and cooking around the world,” says Le. Modern and playful, with elements that hint at several cuisines (Siu is Chinese, Le is Vietnamese, and Ovejas is Filipino), See You Soon's menus are refreshingly hard to define. Unlike some chefs who cook according to rigid traditions and norms, the See You Soon team creates in a way that’s unfettered and free. They’ll serve fried rutabaga with yeast mayo and nettle powder or top fermented black apple with apricot kernel and lemon verbena sorbet and call it dessert. Seasonal ingredients abut those that have been preserved, allowing for more interest during months of less prolific growth. Despite the foams, the fermentation, the foraged tableware, and the clear evidence of Michelin-quality training, through it all, there’s a youthful sense of joy. “We just want people to have fun,” says Ovejas. “It’s chill, but still really thoughtful, high-quality food.”

“We want people who come to not stress,” explains Siu. “Some stuffy dinners can be very stressful. We want to break that barrier. … We want our guests to come and have a nice time. That’s our goal. Keep people very relaxed and chill and we get to have fun with all of our food.” With interests that go beyond food, to fashion, décor, music, wine, and more, the team also has fun with the spaces they invade. "We add fabrics from Japan. A lot of knickknacks to make the atmosphere a little more playful.” That vintage Mickey Mouse and diminutive Michelin Man you see sitting on the windowsill? They’re simply part of See You Soon’s supporting cast. "Even though we’re chefs we’re not blind to the more important part of dining which is the experience overall," explains Siu.

Though the team has certain hallmarks, "the overall style depends on the event,” according to Siu. “We want to change and conform and fit into spaces, and collaborate with people.” A recent pop-up at 915 Dupont included a dish dubbed Duck & Coffee — a subtle homage to the coffee shop aspect of the locale's identity. “When you come to one of our events, you see that we’re changing the entire space to fit the theme,” says Le. “We’re curating the music, all the drinks and cocktails, as well.” Though a more robust cocktail program is in the works, the team currently partners with Don’t Worry Wines for its events. “Natural wines go hand-in-hand with our type of cuisine, the fermentation," enthuses Le. "It’s been a dream to work with them."

Having left their jobs to focus on See You Soon full time, the trio has grand plans for the company. “We want to use See You Soon as a platform to express more things,” says Siu. “Now is the time that we’ll be the most inspired. We’ll be travelling and cooking with friends. We get to have more time to research things, more time to see more of what’s going on and get more inspiration,” he adds. Beyond travel (the chefs will be in Vancouver and France later this summer, with trips to China and Mexico also on the horizon), the team plans to host more pop-ups and private dining events here at home. With a penchant for design, Ovejas also wants to create more merchandise for the team. Created with The Wandering Wit, and with inspired details — including a removable towel strap, a magnet on the tweezer pocket to hold them in place, and a neck-saving, cross-back strap — the team’s custom aprons could surely be a success if made available to the public. “See You Soon is an outlet for other interests that we’ve never had time to do,” says Siu. “Working full time, you don’t get a chance to explore your hobbies. We’ve been lucky to be around friends who are creative and we want to be able to work with them making art, making aprons, making clothing, making media."

Though See You Soon doesn't run a brick-and-mortar eatery just yet who’s to say where you might spy the team’s cheeky, star-shaped logo in the future. A café? A wine bar? A multi-media brand? Helmed by a driven and talented crew, there’s no telling what See You Soon could become. “We want to treat the pop-up/private dining segment of See You Soon as a way to build our community and figure out how abstract our long term goals can be,” explains Siu. Be a part of each new event, family-style dinner and intimate soirée, and, one day, you’ll be able to say you knew the team when it all began.