Growth comes in many different respects at popular restaurant.

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Craig Pinhey

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The Saint John Ale House has a lot going on these days.

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Staff of the SJAH, now known as ‘Stashtenders,’ are growing Movember mustaches. The above is a ‘before’ shot.

They've undergone a rebranding of sorts, with a new logo sporting SJAH as the point of focus. Co-owner Pete Stoddart and the management team have been gradually shifting the restaurant, becoming a destination with increasingly interesting food and beverage choices, meanwhile employing the latest and greatest "toys" in terms of technology for the hospitality industry.

Executive Chef Jesse Vergen has plenty of fans in the local foodie scene due to his keen use of local products, including from his own farm, bold special features on the Ale House menu, and as a key participant on the New Brunswick culinary team. Meanwhile, restaurant manager and beverage enthusiast Shawn Horgan has worked to upgrade the wine list and create an impressive, evolving cocktail menu. He has also initiated a Movember charity promotion. But more on that later.

It is possible to write three separate, but in the interest of space, this is effectively "A study on the Saint John Ale House in three parts." That sounds like an essay or a thesis, but it really isn't. It's just an in-depth look at three key people at a pioneering Uptown business.

Pete Stoddart, who grew up in Fundy Heights on the west side, has been a fixture in the Saint John hospitality scene since before he was of legal drinking age.

"I poured my first draft beer at Legends Bar and Grill," remembers Stoddart, "I was actually too young at the time, but was pretty excited and soon got what I think was the last ever issued bartender's license issued by the Province, when I turned 19."

Legends, on Prince William, was owned and operated by two of his university friends, one of who, Trevor Pierce, is the co-owner of SJAH. Stoddart got his Bachelor of Business Admin at UNBSJ, managing Colonel Tucker's Pub his last two years, then did his time in various establishments out west, including Dawson City, Yukon and Calgary, before heading back to Saint John and joining the Grannan Group of Restaurants.

"I obviously had lots to learn at that point, and they had pretty high standards there, but Mr. Grannan certainly took the time to teach," says Stoddart.

He worked up to a management position at Steamers Lobster Co., which he says was "Probably the most interesting, challenging and educating single experience in my life...to date anyways."

After a stint on the Voyageur of the Seas cruise ship and a Red Lobster position in Toronto, he moved back to Saint John for good, landing at Grannan's, where he learned "everything from making a Caesar Salad from scratch or lighting up a Banana's Foster."

It was working there that he noticed the space next door that in 2002 became Cougars Lounge, co-owned by Stoddart and Pierce. The Saint John Ale House was next. "After Don Cherry's closed the following summer, we put into motion the wheels that had been started long ago with my passion for the food service industry and food as a whole and began working on The Saint John Ale House," explains Stoddart.

They opened in May 2004, and the rest is history.

"That year we won The Emerging Enterprise Silver award from The Board of Trade ... since then we have morphed into what we have today. A great restaurant with awesome food and excellent service."

Stoddart is also into the latest tools and toys available to modern restaurants, such as portable wireless credit/debit machines.

"In March we added a online reservation system called Open Table," adds Stoddart, "It is a huge win. People can make reservations now on their home computer, hand held PDA, laptop or by the good old standby: calling. We are the only place in New Brunswick to have the system. It has made us more efficient as far as timing tables and organizing parties as well as tracking guest information. Even more recently we have added a new music system. It has the ability to switch genres with times of day or days of the week."

Part of the success of the SJAH rests on the shoulders of Chef Vergen, who Stoddart met when Vergen was a freelance gastronomy artist in Halifax.

Vergen is originally from the area, and, though very young when Stoddart met him, he already had extensive restaurant experience. He seemed to share Stoddart's vision for a pub that serves great food.

"My interest in food started years ago when my parents raised me in a log cabin on an organic farm," says Vergen, "my earliest memories are of fresh vegetables, chickens running free and the art studio of our closest neighbour, Peter Powning."

With the recent "Gastropub" craze going on in England and North America, one wonders where the SJAH fits in. Stoddart is definitely not keen on the terms Gastropub or fine dining; he just wants good pub food. Vergen agrees.

"I see us as doing progressive pub food," answers Vergen, "trying to focus on local and seasonal ingredients."

Vergen is definitely making a name for himself. He was the Manager of Team NB, a group of some of New Bruinswick's best chefs, that won the 2009 ACE (Atlantic Culinary Exhibition) competition, with golds in several categories and the trophy for best team over all.

"This was the first time in 23 years for NB!" he claims, proudly. He was recently nominated to be the chef representing NB at the 2010 Canadian Chef Congress in BC.

Vergen's interest in food and art led him to the Dubrulle French Culinary School in Vancouver, interestingly enough as a classmate of cookbook author Laura Calder, from French Food At Home on The Food Network.

"We were both shocked," remembers Vergen, "we were from the same small town."

He worked in Montreal at various restaurants, the most important to him being Globe, where he worked for Chef David McMillan, now at Joe Beef. After that, a wine bar in Paris, then back to NB to work at the Fairmont Algonquin, then the Windjammer in Moncton under Stefan Mueller, then, after getting his Red Seal papers, the consulting gig in Halifax, where he met Stoddart.

First, he did some consulting for the Alehouse menu. "After that," Vergen explains, "an accident in my family led me to meeting my wife and rebuilding the old farm in Gondola Point known as Farmers Hill."

Vergen is a key supporter of the local and organic movements, and he sources some of his ingredients from his own farm, including fresh pork. He was the first Chef at Thandi, eventually moving over to the Ale House as Executive Chef.

The final piece of the puzzle is restaurant manager Shawn Horgan, who has extensive wine and beverage experience from his various travels, including wine cellar consulting and premium cocktail bartending in Australia. Horgan manages their wine list, practices "molecular mixology," and is the creator of the Ale House signature cocktails, such as the Dartsicle, which is an Ale House Original featuring Blue Curacao, Raspberry Sourpuss, Melon Liqueur, Triple Sec, Peach Schnapps, Cranberry and Lime Juice.

Horgan stays on top of things in the cocktail world. This year he has entered into the Bols Around The World (http://www.bolsaroundtheworld.com) competition, an annual event, with a "Shaking Twenties" theme this year on Prohibition era cocktails, which happens to be one of Horgan's recent obsessions.

He calls his entry the Copa-Sol, and it contains fresh egg white as a key ingredient, which was common back in the day. It also incorporates Aged Cuban rum and Bols Apricot Brandy, pineapple syrup, nutmeg and orange for garnish. He also loves making a Blue Blazer, a flaming cocktail shown on this issue's cover.

Horgan is also the orchestrator of the current Movember promotion at the SJAH. This annual fundraiser for Prostrate Cancer awareness requires participants to start a fresh moustache on Nov. 1 and get sponsors or donate money to the charity. There is a contest for best 'stash. For details go to www.movember.com/ca. His team is the Stashtenders, and they are keen.

With young progressive staff like Vergen and Horgan and the rest of the team, the SJAH is a cutting edge pub that can produce food quality as good or better than many more expensive restaurants. Although they don't like the term, they are as much a gastropub as any other in Atlantic Canada. Their new logo, with the meat cleaver and SJAH branding, certainly paints that picture.

People have been talking about a potential new SJAH in the Kennebecasis Valley, but Stoddart is non-committal.

"Our vision is to expand markets," says Stoddart. "We have been looking into other locations, but as of right now, we haven't signed any leases, so we have nothing in stone. I believe The Valley would be a great spot for another store and we have had lots of positive feedback on the research we have done."

But his current focus is definitely on the Uptown spot.

"Our current location will always be the flagship and with the support of Saint John we hope to bring lots of great things to people in the future."

Growth. It comes in variety and quality of menu items, the largest beer selection in the province, increasing wine selection, original cocktails, covers and sales, and, for November anyway, facial hair.

Learn more at www.saintjohnalehouse.com