Salle Climatisée’s Dmetro Sinclair to take over as executive chef at Nora Gray

This month, Ryan Gray and Emma Cardarelli’s celebrated restaurant, Nora Gray, turns 13. Having originally opened as the city’s most exciting new Italian restaurant, it ushered in a new era of Italian cooking in Montreal — one driven by an obsession over ingredients, seasonality and regionality. Over the years, it evolved to become a perennial best restaurant and, despite ranking 56th in the 2024 edition of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants, has eventually settled as a respected, if somewhat forgotten, institution. For the entirety of the restaurant’s history, the front of house has been under the direction of Gray and the kitchen by Cardarelli. Wanting to breathe new life into what is arguably one of Montreal’s most beautiful and most esteemed restaurants, the owners have hired former Salle Climatisée chef Dmetro Sinclair to take over as executive chef.

From the beginning, Nora Gray has been a restaurant that celebrates the romance of dining out. For Gray, every night at Nora Gray should feel like going to an incredible dinner party. From professional yet approachable service to the thoughtful curation of lighting and music, Nora Gray is a place fixated on detail — a restaurant created by hospitality obsessives. Defined in large part by conviviality, abundance and generosity, dining out at Nora Gray means to indulge in the very best. That is to say, the best seasonal ingredients cooked exactly as they ought to be alongside the best wines sourced from the best producers in Europe and around the world.

Sinclair, to that end, is the perfect person to lead the next era of the Italian stalwart. Influenced by chefs and writers like Alice Waters and Rachel Roddy, his style of cooking is simple, sophisticated and confident. His vision for Nora Gray is influenced by restaurants like New York’s Via Carota and is rooted in the Italian sensibility of cooking with great care and manipulating ingredients as little as possible. Under Sinclair’s direction, diners can expect classic pastas executed faithfully and with precision, seasonal vegetables from the best farms in the region and quality meat and fish prepared thoughtfully. 

While Sinclair officially takes over as chef this month, his first menu as executive chef is set to launch in the first week of October. Fans of Salle Climatisée and the Willow Inn under Danny Smiles should look forward to a refined yet abundant meal and to the return of Montreal’s best Italian restaurant. ■

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For more on Nora Gray and to make a reservation, please visit their website.

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