Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - Season’s Eatings: Comings and Goings Edition

Season’s Eatings: Comings and Goings Edition 

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I enjoyed 24 hours of food and drink unlike anything we’ve experienced in recent memory. Several of the experiences were private at the homes of friends, but there are two publicly-accessible highlights I particularly want to share.

Get yourselves down to Bolete in St Catharine’s. You’ll be glad you did, and glad you were still able to easily book a table and experience a creative menu that changes every week. The opening of this stunning new restaurant, helmed by Chef Andrew Macleod, has been one of the most anticipated in the region in years.

Readers will perhaps remember Macleod from past columns where I wrote about his talents as the chef at Spencer’s on the Waterfront, or perhaps winner of the Chef Street Fight at Centro Market a couple of years ago. Macleod won this year’s prestigious Garland Canada International Chef Challenge in PEI, and has been working hard to get Bolete open. His passion for great food and plating were in full evidence when we popped down for lunch.

Chef served a dish I had never experienced before, Ancient Grains and Inari was a clever play on a Japanese dish melded with a hint of Niagara flavour. Albacore tuna on warm quinoa was everything it could be, while Salt and Pepper Humbolt squid were reminiscent of what he used to do at Spencer’s. It was a simple dish, accompanied by ginger mayo, chili and cilantro, with a muslin-wrapped lemon, but just way nicer than I recall. All the food was reasonably priced, the atmosphere pleasant and the furnishings refined and beautiful. Above all it was wonderful to see Macleod back where he belongs and happy in his own space. This restaurant is destined for greatness.

Also in the category of extra-ordinary was a thirteen-course dinner organized by Chef Tobias Pohl-Weary (Full disclosure: my wife and I were invited to attend as guests of the chef). Pohl-Weary is someone I wrote about previously when he operated Red Canoe. At the time I described him as having “built a reputation as a master of innovative and modern Canadian cuisine based on a stellar culinary pedigree and thoughtful commitment to Ontario-grown food and wine.”

Pohl-Weary now runs Topowe Events a high-end catering company. In turn Topowe organized a seven-pop-up series called the Blue Dinghy Kitchen Series. It was more than just a dinner. It was part of an evolutionary series of multi-sensory events that have seen Pohl-Weary, return to doing what he truly loves. I sat down with Chef after the event and hope to share some of his thinking in a future column.

For now let me just say that I think there are very few chefs I know who would have attempted the menu he did, let alone (mostly) pulled it off in challenging circumstances. It included Sturgeon Marrow, Distilled Water Soup, Whelks with hay, and my, and Chef’s, favourite plate, smoked duck pastrami with stewed fruits nestled in a bed of grape leaves and live coals (really!). Each dish was accompanied by some rare liquid gems, some rescued from Red Canoe’s renowned cellar by Pohl’s partner and mixologist/sommelier Eamonn Kelly.

There is still an opportunity to participate in one of the event series: the final pop-up is December 3rd and there is also an after party that you can attend even if you don’t partake in the dinner. The dinner will see concepts from prior events in the series re-surface, and will be a collaboration with chefs from Born and Raised Restaurant in Hamilton.

Finally, two other items of note.

There’s a notable changing of the guard ongoing. Chef Stephanie Brewster has left the RBG’s kitchens, and will be following her dream of opening a new tapas bar, Fuego, on Lakeshore in Oakville. I’ve also heard one of Waterloo’s top culinary talents is heading to a gig in Hamilton. I’m not sure yet exactly where he’s landing (the RBG perhaps?), but anything involving Chef Mark Andrew Brown, the award-winning, young Executive Chef at the venerable Charcoal group in KW, will be worthy of note. He recently spent a one month stage with the 3 Michelin Star, Le Bernardin in New York, and it is a mark of Hamilton’s culinary ascendancy that he is headed to the Hammer.

Second, I’ve been advised Taste of Burlington is evolving based on 8 years of success. The promotion – involving over 30 restaurants - will focus on a winter program running Monday February 20 - Sunday March 12, 2017. The popular launch party is set for Tuesday, January 24th, 2017. Tickets are available via their website and tend to go fast. It is nice to see a Burlington craft brewery tied to the event: Nickelbrook replaces long-time sponsor Cameron’s who were “making some changes with respect to their involvement in events” according to ToB’s Linda Cvetanovic.

If I don’t write again before the holidays I wish Season’s Eatings to all and to all a good time!

To see all past columns please see (and “like”) the Food for Thought Archives
Alex (Alex can be reached on twitter @AlexBielak)

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak -Treading the True Brew Path

Treading the True Brew Path

Craft Beer is exploding in Ontario. New breweries are bubbling up all over. Brew pubs and taverns are thriving, and beer festivals abound. Yes the Craft Beer industry is going gangbusters: according to the factsheet available on the Ontario Craft Brewers website the industry is growing market share and generating so many jobs that it has an annual economic impact of at least $600 million in our province.

In an interview I conducted for Grand Magazine earlier this year with Minto Schneider, the CEO of the Waterloo Region Tourism Marketing Corporation, I asked her how she'd capitalize on the explosion of craft brewing in an area almost defined by its Octoberfest, the largest Bavarian festival in North America.

She indicated “Craft brewing is a tough one. I was at a presentation to an American tour operator: most of the regions of the province were represented and everyone talked about craft beer. So we have to talk about it not as a destination, but as a part of destination.”

Adrienne Carter, Cultural & Partnership Manager, for the Hamilton, Halton, Brant Regional Tourism Association (aka the “Heart of Ontario”) is doing just that with a new promotion called the True Brew Path. (Full disclosure, Carter is my sister-in-law and I wrote previously about her in a piece related to the War e 1812 and a dinner she helped put together with General Isaac Brock.)

Carter says she’s implementing the brainchild of her Executive Director, Maria Fortunato, who saw craft breweries were a growing trend and wanted to offer something in the region on that theme. Carter worked to find “market ready” breweries, those open to the public for sales, with regular hours, tastings and tours, to include in the “Path”.


The six featured breweries are Cameron’s Brewing of Oakville (a long-time partner in the Taste of Burlington), Milton’s Orange Snail Brewers, Collective Arts Brewing in Hamilton, Nickel Brook Brewing Company in Burlington, the Bell City Brewing Company in Brantford and a new entry on the scene, the Shawn and Ed Brewing Company headquartered in the old curling and skating rink building in Dundas. (For a quick overview of all six breweries click here.)

Visit all of them, getting the back of your True Brew guidebook stamped, and you’ll receive the handsome limited edition glass featured in the cover photo of this column as a souvenir. Judging by reaction on social media the promotion is already a hit, with one dedicated enthusiast, @DrunkPolkaroo completing his mission just days after its launch.

Better yet, aficionados over 19 years of age can enter an online contest to win a $1,650 chauffeured tour for four to three of the breweries as well as accommodation and meals. But get your entries in by October 31st when the contest closes.

The True Brew booklet contains information on area restaurants, hiking, shopping, live music and other attractions. In tourism jargon the True Brew promotion is a trip motivator, designed to get people to come to the region, one whose growing culinary scene is attracting national attention, including from outgoing Globe and Mail restaurant critic Chris Nuttall Smith. Smith wrote in his final column “I’d wager that the restaurant scenes in more affordable places such as Burlington and Hamilton, Dundas, Vaughan, Ajax and Pickering will grow and improve in coming years, largely at Toronto’s expense.”

“We’re really trying to build a brand and a destination. The breweries are the catalyst for the trip” said Carter. Acknowledging that there is no particular differentiation from breweries in other areas she says the difference in what Heart of Ontario is doing is “putting them together in an easy consumable way for people to go and see the breweries in this area.”

Great as this promotion is, there seems to be some disconnect among the various institutional players involved. For instance, NOSH, Hamilton’s Culinary Week, beginning on the 17th of October does not even mention the True Brew Path. That disconnect is a legacy of the somewhat laissez-faire way the Province let the Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs) develop their mandates when they were created in 2009.

During the interview mentioned at the outset of this piece, Minto Schneider – who heads a Destination Marketing Organization - told me “The Province gave very little direction as far as their responsibilities and objectives were (and) each RTO went their own way and created their own by-laws, brand and objectives. That was a challenging time for a lot of DMOs like us in the (Waterloo) Region that were working under the RTOs. The Province essentially brought the RTOs in so that they could gather the DMOs within regions under the RTO and have a better communication from the provincial marketing organisation through the RTOs to the DMOs.”

That’s clearly still a work in progress, one that needs close collaboration if all in the Region – however it is defined - want to tread the same path and truly capitalize on the burgeoning foodie scene. 

To see all past columns please see (and “like”) the Food for Thought Archives
Alex (Alex can be reached on twitter @AlexBielak)

A special shout out to Alex, congratulating him on this, his 100th Food for Thought article! We are very fortunate to have such a talented writer and expert chef and"foodie". 

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - Sips and Bites

Sips and Bites: A is for ANNA, B is for BIG HEAD, BLACKTREE & BUNDT, and C is for CHILIFEST 

Here is an exciting grab bag of upcoming and recent events for readers.

A is for ANNA: The wonderful Anna Olson (lately of all those Home Hardware ads on TV and print, and truly an extremely talented chef and baker) will be at Springridge Farm, near Milton, Saturday, September 24 at 2pm. She’s releasing her new book, Bake with Anna Olson, and to participate in a meet and greet with her sign up on the website. While there you can also check out the October 1st event with perennial visitor, and tallest chef in Canada, Michael Smith. A prodigious author, with a great

From the Lens of Ron Ogulin

Click on pic to enlargen

Ron Ogulin is a talented local photographer, who specilaizes in shooting by Hamilton shorelines.  Enjoy this shot by Ron. 

If you are a photographer who would like to submit a picture for consideration, please send to admin@thehamiltonian.info

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - The Top Ten New Restaurants in Canada?

The Top Ten New Restaurants in Canada?

Sadly the top ten new restaurants in Canada, as defined by EnRoute Magazine, won’t include any from the swath of the Golden Horseshoe, from Mississauga through Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton to St Catharines. The last time a “local” restaurant cracked that list was in 2010 when Quatrefoil in Dundas was deemed worthy. (I’ll suggest some possible reasons for why that might be in a moment.)

The good news is two excellent restaurants, Backhouse in Niagara on the Lake, and The Berlin, in Kitchener, both within relatively easy reach of Hamilton, stand a very good chance of making the list. Your online vote for them, or 34 other candidates for the top 10, might also be rewarded with a trip for two to a nominated restaurant of your choice, plus some spending money.

Interestingly both spots have something in common apart from great chefs and a focus on local, seasonal food: It’s a whomping great adjustable woodfire grill on which many of their dishes are cooked. I’ve eaten several times at both spots and they’re worth the detour, and worthy of your vote. In fact I reviewed The Berlin for the Waterloo Region Record and it attained the highest fork rating I’ve awarded to date.

En Route’s annual list is hotly awaited by foodies across Canada: always a pleasure to read, it is not

Food for Thought with Alex Bielak -Taste Burlington, Nosh Hamilton

Taste Burlington, Nosh Hamilton (FFT-097)

This column features a long-standing event in Burlington and an important new initiative, championed by Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla, in Hamilton.

For the first time in several years I missed the summer launch event for the Taste of Burlington. The popular promotion – prix fix meals at some of Burlington’s best restaurants – runs July 17-31, 2016. I’m told about 350 attendees enjoyed some great food and drink.

Earlier this year I wrote predicting success for the Holiday Inn’s Alloro. They placed second then in the People’s Choice award at the Winter launch, and this summer upped their game to win in that category, and also the “Best Taste” with what sounds like a great dish: jalapeno infused bacon wrapped scallop served over coconut rice with a lemon aioli and mango/grilled pineapple chutney.

Taste Co-ordinator Linda Cvetanovic wrote “In the “Best Taste” category only a half point separated the top 3 with Chef Stephanie Brewster [about who I wrote effusively at the end of April] from the Greenhouse Café at the Royal Botanical Gardens securing the runner up spot (and 3rd place in for People’s Choice) with her goat cheese pannacotta with hibiscus gelee, passion fruit and pomegranate. Just a quarter of a point away was third place winner Chef Doran Abra of Water St. Cooker with a smoked trout crostini with radish-cucumber salad and Old Bay aioli.

Chef Mitchell Lamb of Stonehouse – surely one of the most consistent and innovative chefs in the region - repeated his third place finish in winter with a smoked paprika marinated tiger shrimp, jalepeno and cheese curd sausage, curried mango chutney and chimichurri.

In Hamilton, the remarkable upswing in the culinary scene over the past five or so years has led to the development of NOSH, a week-long celebration, formally supported by Council, that will take place during National Small Business Week (October 17-23, 2016).

Merulla, who is the NOSH Honourary Chair, said in a press release “Hamilton's emergence on a national scale is in part attributable to the rising food scene we have in the city – and it’s time to show that off.”

Despite an acronym that only a committee could have created (“NOSH stands for North Hamilton - including lower city, Outlying communities - former municipal entities, South Hamilton - including Binbrook, Glanbrook, and Mount Hope”) the intention is wonderful. It’ll be a showcase of Hamilton's culinary scene from Winona to Waterdown and is anticipated to have a selection of paid and free events for the community and visitors in which to participate.

I look forward to sharing more with readers as information becomes available.

To see all past columns please see (and “like”) the Food for Thought Archives
Alex (Alex can be reached on twitter @AlexBielak)
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