An exclusive look at David McMillan and Derek Dammann's upcoming West Island restaurant Grille-Nature

There's a particular kind of promise you make when you're young and hungry and working the breakfast shift at Le Caveau, cooking for politicians and power brokers at 6:45 a.m. David McMillan made his to the West Island neighbours back home: someday, he'd open a place for them. Not the Toronto expense-account crowd or the food tourists, but for them.

Nearly two decades later, McMillan is making good on that promise by teaming up with longtime friend and fellow chef Derek Dammann to open Grille-Nature, a new restaurant set to debut next fall in the West Island. For both chefs, it’s as much a homecoming as it is a decisive break from the fine dining culture that made them famous.

“After decades cooking fancy, Derek and David are coming home,” the restaurant wrote on Instagram. “We are opening a restaurant built around the family farm table, serving only the hits that leaves people feeling full and happy.”

“Feed everyone. All budgets. True hospitality,” texts McMillan in the post.

Opening in November 2025 at the Marché de l’Ouest in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Grille-Nature will take over the former Jukebox Burgers space. The project reunites McMillan, who left the Joe Beef group in 2021, with Dammann, who closed his Plateau restaurant Maison Publique in 2023.

Both chefs describe the venture as an "end-of-career promise" focused on accessibility and community service rather than fine dining prestige. It’s a philosophy that reflects their shared journey away from an industry that nearly broke them both.

"I want to prove that this kind of restaurant can exist," McMillan said in a follow-up interview with The Main. "I want to prove that we can feed everyone in the room at different prices."

Less fine dining, more family dining

The concept for Grille-Nature explicitly rejects many hallmarks of the establishments that built both chefs' reputations. The space will feature no art, no booths, no banquettes in lieu of a simple open room with four-top tables designed for communal dining and family comfort.

Dammann stresses the importance of making children feel welcome, describing his frustration with restaurants where kids feel scrutinized. "I want the kids to feel like they're adults at the table too," he told The Main in a separate interview.

The restaurant will offer what McMillan describes as "market-driven classics" with continuous service from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. While specific menu details are still being finalized, the concept centres on providing options across multiple price points, from affordable comfort food to higher-end offerings under one roof.

The name, Grille-Nature, is a bit of a bilingual pun, but it reflects their approach to cooking as well. The concept will emphasize grilled items, rotisserie cooking, and seasonal ingredients with a kitchen fully equipped with charcoal grills, rotisserie equipment, and other tools designed for the straightforward cooking style they envision.

"We're just basically going to grill everything that lives in nature," McMillan said.

Dammann, currently serving as culinary director at Île de France in Le 9e downtown, describes the approach as "playing the hits"—focusing on food people want to eat rather than chef-driven innovation—as well as a return to old-school hospitality that has been largely forgotten in the modern restaurant industry.

"I can see us recognizing a regular, brushing snow off their car and starting it up for them," Dammann says, describing the kind of personal care he wants to restore. "Those sorts of things are long and forgotten."

The approach extends to empowering front-of-house staff to make decisions and truly care for guests, rather than following rigid service protocols. Dammann says he can see himself as "a restaurant owner that comes over and makes jokes at the table and slaps the back of your chair and makes you try some cheese."

"I really want boomers on a fixed income to be able to afford to come and eat here," McMillan added, hinting at the need for having as many cheaper options like soup and bar steaks sitting on the same menu as there are premium ones for diners seeking out those experiences.

Back to roots

For McMillan, the West Island location fulfills a decades-old commitment to his home community. The former Joe Beef co-owner grew up in the West Island and worked his first restaurant job at Le Pêché Mignon in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue before his career led him to Europe and eventually downtown Montreal.

"I'd always said to my family, to my neighbours, and to my friends that I would open something in the West Island, and that my last restaurant would be there," he said.

The geographic shift also reflects practical considerations learned from years of downtown restaurant operations. The West Island location offers abundant parking, proximity to major food suppliers near the airport, and significantly lower rent than downtown spaces—factors that align with the restaurant's accessibility mission.

"I hate that I just don't want to go downtown anymore. I never want to have to look for parking. I'm at that age. I have kids." McMillan said.

Parallel departures to the same crossroads

Both chefs' decisions to step away from successful restaurants followed remarkably similar trajectories of pandemic-era burnout and family prioritization: McMillan departed from Joe Beef, and Dammann chose to close Maison Publique, both decisions reflecting parallel concerns about work-life balance and mental health. 

"I love this craft, my colleagues and every beautiful person that has walked through these doors. But I love my family, health and wellbeing more," he wrote when announcing the closure.

The timing of their exits—both chefs stepping away within two years of each other as they approached 50—speaks to broader industry pressures that intensified during and after the pandemic.

Since leaving restaurants, both chefs have pursued agricultural projects that will directly feed into Grille-Nature. McMillan operates the Hayfield Farm and vineyard in St-Armand, while Dammann recently moved to his own farm in Oka, Saintweed Acres, where he's focusing on self-sustainability as he raises chickens and Kune Kune pigs alongside  keeping bees for honey.

"I wanted to try to be as self-sustainable as possible," Dammann explained. "I'm kind of fascinated by pigs, so I have some now. They're like therapy for me."

The restaurant will serve as a showcase for their agricultural work, with plans to supply produce, eggs, and other farm products directly to the kitchen. For McMillan, the restaurant also provides a practical space to place his focus come winter.

"There's six months where I'm at the farm and there's six months where I do nothing," McMillan said of his seasonal schedule. The restaurant fills that gap while allowing him to maintain his agricultural focus during growing season.

Structures and lessons

The partnership includes Marc Émond and Mark Dronowski, the former owners of Jukebox Burgers who operated the DDO location for nearly 15 years. McMillan previously worked with Émond at the since-closed Rosalie restaurant downtown.

For Dammann, the collaborative structure represents a deliberate departure from the isolation he experienced running Maison Publique solo: "I had nobody at Maison Publique for 11 years. I was doing (it all). Anytime there was an issue, it fell on me," he said. "It's reassuring that people have roles and they're active about it."

Both chefs acknowledge their approach may not align with industry expectations, but emphasize the project's accessibility over critical acclaim.

"It's sincerely and truly intended as community service," said McMillan.

Both emphasized that this venture represents a different kind of return to restaurant ownership, but on their terms—one informed by hard-won lessons about sustainability and priorities after stepping away from the industry's pressures in recent years. It will be the first new restaurant project for McMillan since leaving Joe Beef, and Dammann's first ownership role since closing Maison Publique.

As two of Montreal's most recognizable chefs, their collaboration suggests a model for how veteran chefs might re-engage with an industry known for burning out its practitioners—with explicit boundaries, shared responsibilities, and a mission that extends beyond personal ambition to genuine community service.