Heni, a Little Burgundy restaurant focused on the SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) region of the world—a decolonial term for what’s commonly referred to as the Middle East—is a place of many new pathways for Montreal.

Its kitchen is producing new kinds of flavours that blend its regional focus with Quebecois ingredients—think marinated olives with sea buckthorn berry instead of orange zest, kibbeh can be made with PEI beef or duck hearts, fatteh and couscous with wild mushrooms, lobster tails spiced with ras-el-hanout on a bed of corn, ice cream sandwiches of sfouf and wild blueberries that are dipped in dark chocolate—as well as wines taken from its in-house wine importation agency Sienna which highlights new-generation winemakers from Lebanon.