“Heated Rivalry Saved My Restaurant”
Shane and Rose in a pivotal Heated Rivalry scene filmed at Le Tambour restaurant in Hamilton, Ont. Photo by Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max.
Teo Paul may not be a household name among Canadian celebrity chefs. He doesn’t do a lot of press interviews and he doesn't have a huge social media presence. But his popular restaurants—from downtown Toronto’s Union and Côte de Boeuf to Heart’s Tavern in Ontario’s Grey County—often do the speaking for him, with rustic and locally focussed dishes earning repeat-visit status. (Ed note: Union's sticky ginger cake is one of my favourite Toronto desserts.)
So when the French-trained chef opened Le Tambour in 2023, his first restaurant in Hamilton, Ont., he had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to do. “I wanted this restaurant to be a place of the world. Hamilton’s got its own airport; you can fly to Denmark from here,” he says. “It’s a town that could be recognized globally.” Taking over a former music venue, Paul renovated the space to feature an open-fire kitchen and named it after one of the most memorable bistros from his time training in Paris. “Back then, it was open all night: old French guys serving you steak frites and lamb shanks in the middle of the night,” he says. “The whole magic of Paris just kind of struck me there.” He went all-in on replicating that magic in Hamilton, putting some of Union and Côte’s all-time favourite dishes on the menu—a greens-and-rösti salad, elk sliders, steak tartare—and moving into the apartment just above the restaurant to run dinner service there a couple of times a week.
What followed was a tough couple of years. It took a while for the local neighbourhood to embrace the French bistro that had taken over a beloved neighbourhood rock venue; it’s also been a difficult time for restaurants in general. “Two years just bleeding cash,” says Paul, who initially didn’t think much of it when a production company approached him to film some scenes for a small-budget Canadian TV show called Heated Rivalry at Le Tambour in the summer of 2025. The space had been used as a filming location before, and almost all of the scenes for this particular booking would be wrapped within a day. “I was literally praying just to get some eyes on this place.” The team rolled in, filmed their scenes, and left.
Paul didn’t think of it again until a few months later, while working out at his local gym. A woman on a treadmill nearby was chatting up the show—and its rapidly growing fandom. “She was like, ‘Oh, the show is the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. It’s got the perfect amount of trashiness, perfect amount of [everything].’ I’m like, ‘What the hell is she talking about?’” Shortly after, the reservation calls came rolling in: from Los Angeles, Chicago, Shanghai, even Australia. To say Paul’s prayers were answered is perhaps an understatement. “And the best part is this place is actually really good, so they come back.”
To celebrate, they’ve since launched a series of Heated Rivalry-themed cocktails that speak to the spicy hockey romance.
As for Heated Rivalry’s second season: will more dining scenes be filmed at Le Tambour?
“No comment,” says Paul, with a wry chuckle.
Want to make Le Tambour's Heated Rivalry cocktails at home? Get the recipes
Tall, Dark and Hollander
Ginger ale fan Shane Hollander would love this spicy tall version of a dark and stormy. Get the recipe.
“Russians Don't Blush!”
This fan favourite quote of Ilya Rozanov's becomes a tart, lightly spiced sipper. Get the recipe.
Meet Me At The Cottage
This earthy riff on the espresso martini guarantees Ilya and Hollander will be well-caffeinated at the cottage together. Get the recipe.
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Chantal Braganza is a writer and editor living in Toronto. She is deputy editor, food at Chatelaine, a cookbook nerd, lover of vintage dish ware, and currently training for yoga teacher certification. Her first book, Story of Your Mother, is out with Strange Light Press.
