Loka Snacks crowdfunding for permanent restaurant

Dave Mottershall, the mastermind behind rotating pop-up Loka Snacks, is looking to take his bar snack business to the next level by opening a permanent brick-and-mortar restaurant. 

The award-winning chef is counting on Kickstarter to raise the $25,000 needed to fund a permanent location for his small-dish food concept. The plan is to open a 25- to 30-seat restaurant as an open and modern diner in which the cooking will happen in front of guests behind a bar. 

"You can ask questions, or just sit back and relax," Mottershall says on his Kickstarter page. "We want people to feel the connection to everything we serve, the farmers, producers and amazing artisans in Canada. It’s important for us to know where our food is coming from and we want our diners to feel the same when they come in and eat."

Eastsiders will know Loka Snacks through its select appearances operating within one of the neighbourhood's most popular bars, Hi-Lo. Over the past year, Mottershall, who also goes by Chef Rouge, is the one man show in the kitchen while his girlfriend serves out his plates of bar food including pig head croquette, pickled whitefish, smoked tomato and salted chocolate fudge. 

The all-or-nothing crowdfunding plan is to keep the formula more or less the same by offering small sharing plates made with Canadian-driven ingredients.

"Our focus will always be on supporting local producers and sharing what we believe is Canadian food," Mottershall says. "We’ll continue to use secondary cuts and feature plated in-house cured charcuterie. We're not strictly 100 km so don't shoot us for using olive oil."

While there's no word on a specific location for Loka, the snack bar will continue its menu four nights a week out of Hi-Lo Bar until late October when it plans to open its new home. 

Pledges of $30 will get you a limited-edition 'Crazy About Local' T-shirt while $100 will buy a five-course tasting menu before the restaurant opens. Send goodwill of $1,000 and you'll be enrolled in the ultimate charcuterie class for four, plus a bunch of other rewards.

To support Loka's restaurant goal, head over to the Kickstarter page. For more info on Loka Snacks, check out its Facebook page or pop into Hi-Lo Bar at 753 Queen St. E.