Les Brasseurs Du Temps

Ahh, the summer ... it goes by so fast!  Since I've had six weeks off this summer, I've had plenty of time for going out and trying some new places to eat.  But strangely I haven't had time to do any cooking at home and I'm seriously behind in my blogging.  Perhaps I have to get back to work so I have time to update my blog!
Early in July Caitlin and I got together for dinner on the patio at Les Brasseurs du Temps an upscale pub over on the Quebec side.  It was a gorgeous evening and we were sitting at a table overlooking the river.

BDT (as it's known) is located in a beautiful, historic building; both the indoor seating area and the patio seating are huge.  BDT is a brewery (translation:  brewers of the time) and they incorporate many of their brews into their food.  You can look down to see the beer vats; one of the the brewmasters might even be making some adjustments to the current brew down below the main restaurant.  The menu has several Quebecois specialities (bison tartare, smoked meat and poutine) but they also some upscale pub grub and sandwiches served on local bakery fresh bread.

We had excellent service with a very friendly and attentive waiter.  Caitlin chose the mussels.  Of course, mussels are not my thing, but you get to choose the broth/sauce and her selection of "A la Provencale" (tomatoes, capers, olives and fresh herbs) sounded, looked and smelled delicious.  You get a massive side of fries with the mussels. 

These fries alone are worth going to BDT for.  And of course, in true Quebec style, the fries are served with a side of mayo.  If you want ketchup you'll have to ask for it.

Enjoying that first hot french fry:

I chose the club sandwich which is made with grilled breast of chicken and crispy pancetta.  And of course it comes with those awesome hand-cut, crispy fries and a giant pickle on the side.  The sour dough bread is rye lightly toasted and there is a side of garlic aioli mayo, along with a side of mayo for my fries.

My sandwich was very good; the chicken was perfectly cooked and nice and juicy and the pancetta  was super crispy with a good smokey, salty favour.  And rather than lettuce, there was arugula which added a peppery, bitter flavour.  We enjoyed a couple of beers from their very substantive list of house brews.  We took lots of pictures and had lots of laughs.

But since Caitlin thought that my hair looked better than hers (it's only because the sun was shining right at our table and the grey was glowing!!) so she had to take her pony-tail out to make her hair more 'spunky'.  Just the way the guys at work like it!

We had such a great meal and a good time that I knew BDT would be a restaurant that I would be returning to ... which I did last night with my sister.

BDT Revisted

Again, it was a hot and sunny evening.  Being a Monday night I expected that it would not be too busy but being such a gorgeous night I figured there would likely be some patrons on the patio, which there were.  Not long after we arrived most of the tables in our area were completely filled up - several with large groups.

Unfortunately, last night's dinner was nothing compared with my prior experience.  The service started out decently, but by the end of our meal our server had all but disappeared.  I ordered the Simon Bolivar (i.e. chicken) nachos.  The nachos are only on the lunch menu but both nights when I was at BDT I saw other customers eating them - sure enough you can order them for dinner.  Within moments of us ordering, my nachos arrived.  As soon as they were set in front of me (not by our server - who immediately left our table), I was sure they were not mine.  First off, they arrived WAY too quickly after I ordered them and secondly because they did not appear to have any chicken on them.  I called our waiter over and, sure enough, they belonged to the table beside us.  No problem, these things happen.  Shortly after, my chicken nachos arrived along with Bonnie's caesar salad.  I also had the "Le bouillon de la chaudière!" beer, a pale wheat beer, which was excellent.

I was quite happy.  They looked quite good with lots of chopped green & red peppers, chipotle sour cream drizzle and a decent amount of chicken.  However, upon digging in I was very disappointed.  The nacho chips had come from two different packages as evidenced by their different colours - the top layer being paler yellow but whole chips ... totally covering darker yellow corn chips which were clearly the end of the bag - they were all small broken pieces and crumbs.  The top layer of chips were also stale and chewy.  The guacamole is processed and had no flavour.  The chipotle cream is nice though, and the chicken was chipotle rubbed which gave a nice spicey flavour but not enough to make the nachos good.  I would never order this again.  And for someone who loves nachos, this was very disappointing.

Bonnie ordered fish & chips for her main along with a half litre of red sangria.  She had asked me how the fries were (I couldn't show her the blog entry for BDT since I hadn't updated it yet, at least I had the photos on my phone so I could show her what they looked like!)  When her fish arrived I was shocked at how dark the batter was.  Now I assume that it was made with BDT's dark brewed beer but even considering that the batter looked very over-cooked to me.

Ultimately Bonnie said the fish was over-cooked and soggy; there was lots of batter with no fish inside.  She said the caesar salad was good and the fries were good and she liked the atmosphere of the restaurant but the fish and service were both very disappointing and her sangria was 'okay' (well, you are at a brewery ... I'm just sayin').

By this point, I was finished my nachos (as much as I was going to eat) and our waiter came by no less than three times while my dirty plate was sitting there (side plate and napkin on top - I don't think he could mistakenly have thought that I was still eating) and he did not remove it.  This is a definite pet-peeve of mine when I'm out for dinner.  When I'm finished my meal, I want my dirty plate cleared relatively promptly.

We were both finished; our plates were all cleared; our drinks were finished; we'd indicated that we did not want any dessert or coffee; there was nothing but our water glasses on our table but still the waiter did not bring the bill.  He even stood looking at our table but  apparently did not think that it would be appropriate to bring the bill.  Finally, after at least 10 minutes we finally had to ask for the bill.

This was a very disappointing experience at BDT.  I'm not going to give up on it yet because it's such a cool place - the atmosphere, the patio, the location, the beer - it's definitely worth giving it another try - especially when I've had one great experience and I know Caitlin has been there a few times and has enjoyed it.

The Wellington Diner

So the other weekend we decided to go out for breakfast.  I had two ideas - both in the Westboro area:  The Wellington Diner or Baker Street Cafe.  The Wellington Diner is my favourite breakfast place in the city and when I have guests in for the weekend it's almost always a for sure go-to.  However, I've heard such good things about Baker Street Cafe and I've been wanting to try it for months.  Problem is, I've heard there is always a line up and we were none to early getting organized to go.  It was past 10:30am on a Saturday morning and just driving by Baker Street there were about 6 people waiting in line outside the restaurant.  I'm not sure how big the place is, but if there were even a few people waiting inside we could have been waiting for awhile.  I was hungry then, dammit!  I didn't want to wait in a line up, especially when I knew just down the road was a BIG YUMMY breakfast waiting for us!  So, back to The Wellington Diner we went.

I got my usual ... the Traditional Breakfast with ham being my choice of the breakfast meats (mmmmm ham, my favourite of all the breakfast meats!  Oh except for back bacon ... mmmmmm back bacon.  But back bacon is not part of the standard Traditional Breakfast meat choices.)  I ordered by two eggs over-easy and egg-y bread for toast.

There is always fresh fruit on the side.  The eggs were cooked exactly perfectly and they are not greasy.  The home fries are piping hot and cooked perfectly; crispy on the outside.  You can also 'poutine up' your homefries by adding cheese curds and hollandaise sauce, but I didn't go for this undoubtedly yummy, but extra fat and calorie, add-on.  You get a decent amount of ham; its sliced thin but nicely grilled with a little crust on the edge and perfectly salty.

Oh, and they serve a variety of bread.  You can choose between white, brown, rye or egg bread.  As far as I'm concerned, offering this selection gives The Wellington Diner a leg up over most other diners for breakfast. I love challah (holla!).

Heinous crime:  theft of a piece of egg-y bread!

He had the Big-y Breakfast which includes THREE eggs, all THREE breakfast meats (you know how I feel about three meats -- you can never go wrong with three meats) and home fries.  You may not be able to tell, but the Big Breakfast is not served on a plate, it comes on a small platter to accommodate all that food.  Eggs were ordered over-hard and again they were cooked perfectly (although I don't really know if you can mess up over hard eggs??!?).

He also opted to double-up on sausage and skip the bacon.  Seriously, check out the pile of sausages that were served.  Also, notice the stolen egg bread ... you would think with three eggs and that pile up of sausages and ham you wouldn't need to steal someone's egg-y bread toast!

The coffee is passable - typical diner coffee, in my opinion, but we both had a couple of refills so it's clearly not too bad. The service is fast and friendly. Every time I have been to the Wellington Diner the staff have been pleasant and for as busy as the restaurant usually is for breakfast, the food is served very quickly and it's always hot.

The place is old-school typical diner, with big windows out front so it's nice and bright; checkerboard tiles on the floor and a cool 'loft' dining area upstairs looking down on the patrons below.  So far, I've not found a better diner breakfast in the city, and I've tried quite a few.  This is my favourite ... but seriously if you want to wait in line for your breaky, keep heading down the road to Baker Street Cafe ... and then I'll be able to get a table when I arrive at The Wellington Diner no matter what time I get there.

Pressed Cafe

About a year ago a new 'coffee' shop opened in my neighbourhood.  This is Pressed Cafe.

I was so excited to have a gourmet coffee and sandwich shop so close by my place.  And I was not the least bit disappointed the first time I went there, shortly after they opened.  The place is really cool inside with some re-purposed wood, a church pew, a HUGE barrel with a carved out butcher block as a garbage can, antique/eclectic lamps and chandeliers.  They have big windows looking out onto the street so you can watch what's going on, and this summer they added the petit patio out front and those steel fabricated mug sculptures, which conveniently serve as mini planters for their fresh herbs.

The number one thing about Pressed Cafe is the staff is excellent.  They are so friendly and helpful.  Every time I have been in there, the level of service is outstanding.  In fact, a few weeks ago I went in for a coffee and walked out with this free cupcake:  chocolate caramel.

These are Auntie Loo's cupcakes, another local to my neighbourhood bakery ... oh, and they are vegan.  The cupcake was awesome ... rich chocolate flavour, perfectly chocolate but not overly sweet icing and the pièce de résistance:  the smooth, buttery, creamy caramel on top.  Yum-A-Rama!!!!  Awesome and perfect with my coffee.  It was presented to me in this super cute little paper bag (loves it ... very good for the environment).

But I digress, back to the cafe.  They serve gourmet sandwiches with fresh local ingredients (hence the 'pressed' in Pressed Cafe ... from the grill press that they toast the sammies on).  They are house smoking meats, making homemade soups and beef brisket chili, lots of vegetarian options and fresh seasonal salads.  On weekends they feature a waffle brunch (which I have yet to try but since I love waffles, you can bet that one of these days I'll get there).

Pressed Cafe features local artwork on the walls, open mic nights on Sundays and other community events.  For you Hintonburg, Mechanicsville, Lebreton Flats (or anywhere nearby) residents it's important to support our local businesses and this is a place that is very worth supporting.  If you haven't been to Pressed Cafe yet, get there ... you won't be disappointed.



Hintonburg Public House

So far this summer I have already been lucky enough to see my dear friend Stephanie twice when she has been in Ottawa visiting from Dallas, TX.  A month ago we went to The Grand in the market for thin crust pizzas.  Then last week, I picked the Hintonburg Public House for dinner for the two of us.  As you know, this was one of the locations on our Hintonburg Foodies Walking Tour and I've been wanting to check it out since they opened so this was the perfect opportunity for Stephanie and I to spend some quality time together and eat some (hopefully) yummy food.

It was a Monday night so we didn't make reservations.  We arrived at about 6:30pm and frankly, it's a good time we got there when we did because within 30 minutes the place was packed and there was a short line up waiting for tables.

One of the selling features that the owner of the Hintonburg Public House mentioned is their selection of local, micro and craft beers.  I've been known to enjoy a beer or two in my time, so I chose a pint of the Kitchesipi Heller High Water.  Pretty tasty ... liked it.  I know, shocking, right?  Stephanie being more refined than I am, chose red wine.

The restaurant is very cool, eclectic decor ... mis-matched tables and chairs, dishes (some of which I'm sure are the same patterns that my grandma had, which we inherited to the cottage) and lots of recovered/salvaged wood.

I had checked the menu out on-line before we went out.  The menu is updated frequently so it is nice that it is available on-line to see what changes might have been made.  I was torn between two choices:  the beef burger or the schnitzel.  Once we arrived, Stephanie took some time to review the menu because there are lots of unique and different choices on both the bar snacks and appetizers menus.

Even though the schnitzel was one of my possible choices, it was missing from the menu when we got there.  I still had to make a decision between the beef burger (with homemade pickles, grilled onion, bacon and Russian dressing) served with fries or the fish & chips.  Lots of people around us were ordering the fish & chips and it looked and smelled de-lish!!! 

In the end I picked the burger.  I was also keen on, basically, every appetizer ... but I knew I was going to be stuffed with just my main.  And man, I'm not kidding ... I was stuffed!  Check this out:

Awe-some!!!  Notice on the top of the burger ... that is house pickled cauliflower -- delicious!!!  Who knew???  So yummy.  The burger was huge, it was moist and juicy.  They offer it cooked to your taste, suggesting medium but I asked for mine just slightly more than medium and it was perfect.  Its messy and drippy; if you want ketchup they house make that too.  The burger bun is soft and fits the huge patty perfectly.  The fries are hand cut and crispy.  Absolutely delicious.  I'm very glad I made this choice!

Stephanie decided on two small appetizers.  The marinated cheese curds (from the bar snacks menu) and the mushroom soup served with coddled egg and crouton.  I tried the cheese curds ... tasty.  Cheese curds are not really my thing; as Stephanie described them:  cheese curds with Italian dressing on them! 




The mushroom soup however, looked really good and Stephanie said it was very tasty.  It had a very rich dark colour, it smelled earthy and nutty and was thick and creamy.

For her main course, Stephanie chose the trout with chickpeas, caramelized onion, cherimoula and yogurt.  I don't even know what cherimoula is ... but it sounds cool ... cher-i-mou-la ... cher-i-mooouu--la ... cher-i-moooouu-laaaaa.  Sounds cool.  The trout dish was absolutely beautiful when it arrived.  The colours were spectacular.  Since fish is not my favourite thing, I didn't try it but Stephanie enjoyed it.  She said it was an excellent meal.

As I said, it was a busy night.  All the tables were full.  If I had one complaint about the Hintonburg Public House it was really really noisy in there.  Of course Stephanie and I had lots of catching up to do and we were non-stop chatting as usual when we get together, but there were moments when it was hard to hear one another over the noise in the restaurant. 

However, the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant definitely make up for that one minor complaint that we had and I would not hesitate to recommend the Hintonburg Public House and definitely will go there again.  I can even see just going and sitting at the bar for a cold beer and some bar snacks - that would be a totally fun weekend afternoon.

All talked out and totally satisfied: