Just as the winner of MasterChef Canada was announced last night (June 1), a previous local winner of the TV cooking competition is gearing up for some new entries into the Lower Mainland culinary market.

The third S+L Kitchen and Bar will open its doors at 16051 24 Avenue in Surrey on Monday (June 5).

The 6,000-square-foot space seats 217 people plus a patio that seats 64 people.

MasterChef Canada winner David Jorge and Top Chef Canada winner Matthew Stowe, who are both from Surrey, designed the menu. It'll offer the same items as the two other locations of S+L Kitchen and Bar in Abbotsford and Langley, includes appetizers, specialty oyster creations, salads, burgers, and entrées.

Selections include lamb popsicles, crispy sushi rice with albacore tuna, Fraser Valley roasted beet salad with Okanagan pears and baby kale, a lobster and prawn burger with bacon, and crispy fried chicken with bacon, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes, just to name a few.

S+L Kitchen and Bar is run by Surrey-based Joseph Richards Group, which is also reinvigorating one of its businesses over in White Rock.

JRG is relaunching the Hemingway Waterfront Public House (named after author Ernest Hemingway) as the renovated Oceanside Yacht Club and Public House (14995 Marine Drive, White Rock).

The menu has been fine-tuned by chef Stowe, which runs the gamut from salads, omelettes, and appetizers to burgers and entrées. There's everything from a tequila lime chicken salad, crispy buttermilk fried chicken sandwich, or a breakfast southwest skillet to Baja fish tacos, pierogis, or a Szechuan chicken rice bowl.  

Literally sweetening the pot, they're also launching a pop-up ice-cream shop called Sweet Republic inside the Oceanside, only available for a limited time.

Sweet Republic's menu, designed by Jorge and Stowe, presents soft-serve ice-cream selections with ingredients as varied as key lime curd, cotton candy, toasted marshmallows, and everyone's favourite: bacon.

To add to the festivities on opening day on Sunday (June 4), Jorge and Stowe will be giving out free ice cream from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

JRG runs 19 restaurants, public houses, and liquor retail outlets in B.C. and Alberta.