William & Water
Chef Will Thornton’s menus combine the best of local and global
When Will Thornton opened William & Water in St. Andrews in 2023, he brought a casual, contemporary restaurant that blended global influence and local ingredients to the seaside town’s booming dining scene.
“If we’re making kimchi, we’re using Canadian cabbage,” Will says during a midday chat at the bar while staff arrive to prep for that evening’s service. “We do a cabbage salad loosely based on Thai green papaya salad. It’s the same flavour profile, but we’re using a totally different vegetable that grows here.”
The menu reflects Will’s passion for local, honed over the past 10 years since he enrolled in culinary school at the New Brunswick Community College in St. Andrew’s. It combines seamlessly with a worldly palate, which he develops, in part, through travel. He’s recently brought inspiration back home, across the Atlantic, from a trip to France and Spain, including a stay in San Sebastián, the famed culinary destination.
“The pintxo culture really caught my eye,” Will says, explaining that the word means “spike” in Basque, for the toothpicks that hold together many of these small bites of local fare, which tend to be more elaborate than tapas. “You could go and get one or two pintxos, have a drink, move on to the next spot, do the exact same thing, and make a night of it.”
He could see this casual, social way of gathering around the table as a perfect pairing with warm Maritime hospitality and the best of our local food and drink.
It’s a new riff on the globally-inspired tapas he’s been creating for years, including at the Chandler Room before opening William & Water.
This summer, he’s introduced that Spanish style to St. Andrews with an afternoon pintxos menu featuring sips and small snacks blending the best of local and global.
Will’s menus, which change often, follow the seasons, from greens and radishes in the spring to summer’s bumper crop and the push to preserve in the fall.
“We do a ton of pickling,” he says.
William & Water’s roasted salmon dish, for instance, has pickled turnips from Bantry Bay, an organic farm in nearby Bayside that keeps them in fresh produce for some five months of the year.
“It’s fun for us to see what they grow,” he says. “Last year, we got a specific variety of Lebanese cucumbers from them, which are slightly smaller.”
Bantry Bay also grows habaneros and other peppers, along with a wide range of herbs he uses to infuse his dishes with heat and flavour.
One day last summer, when Will called the farm to order tomatoes, the owners told him they were out of town but invited him to pick whatever he needed from their fields.
“It’s a really great relationship,” he says.
He’s always on the lookout for interesting local products and new producers. He’s recently begun sourcing fresh local greens and herbs from Village Indoor Farm, a year-round hydroponic operation in Blacks Harbour run by the non-profit Eastern Charlotte Waterways.
“I try to work with smaller suppliers as much as possible,” Will says. His meat comes from local butchers carrying New Brunswick or Atlantic products. His seafood is almost exclusively from the Bay of Fundy, including lobster from Back Bay. And then there are those unpredictable offers of incredible local fare that turn up.
“I could have someone call me and say, ‘I caught a 40-pound halibut. Do you want it?’ As long as they’re like a licensed fisher, we’ll buy it.”
William & Water’s bar menu also leans local, including two taps for Saint Andrews Brewing Company products. In December, Will collaborated with the local brewery on a Feast of the Seven Fishes tasting menu, pairing craft beers with each course. Even the dessert kept to the theme: salted vanilla ice cream with local caviar and potato chips.
“We love simple things,” he says. “But it’s also fun to have a challenging ingredient. Our job is to highlight them. Whatever you can do to make them shine is a win.”
In his decade in St. Andrews, Will has seen the town’s reputation as a New Brunswick culinary destination expand. It has a growing slate of excellent eateries, from fine to casual dining. Meanwhile, the palates of locals and tourists alike have grown more savvy.
“Instead of coming in for chowder, now you get more people looking for creative things,” he says. “I don’t have to convince them, as I may have 10 years ago, to eat raw scallops in a ceviche.”
William & Water is happy to oblige diners’ appetites for adventure with fun cocktails, a decidedly unstuffy atmosphere, and small plates designed for sharing.
“We’re trying to be creative with what we’re serving,” Will says. “We’re still the new wild child.”
