|
Puddicombe House Restaurant, Spa and B&B
145 Peel Street, New Hamburg
519-662-2111
www.puddicombehouse.com
Open Tuesday-Saturday
Lunch for two: $50
Amuse bouche: Venerable New Hamburg home from the 1800s has been re-worked in its kitchen capacity to serve inventive dishes that ring true in their simplicity, attention to detail, and local ingredients. The building’s architecture is great, but the food could easily be its foundation.
I think the mark of a good chef is one who takes classic preparations and, rather than waste time bending over backwards to pay homage to them, wrings the most out of them creatively to proffer up something even slightly new. I don’t believe we should cast off classic, traditional dishes; we should acknowledge them and without being a slave to them give them an imaginative twist.
Mark Brown, Chef de Cuisine at Puddicombe House Restaurant, is doing just that. I love what he does with local ingredients and it seems to have imbued the venerable establishment with a renewed food energy. Comments regarding the venue’s bed and breakfast and spa I will leave to those more knowledgeable in the hedonistic and sybaritic pleasures.
Around Brown is a growing wine list (right now, about half the bottles are Ontario wines), and exuberant, friendly front-of-house staff who are working toward really connecting with diners in a casual yet informed way. There are a few minor slips service-wise here and there but nothing important was missed.
Nothing at all was missed in the food, on this visit. A graduate of the Stratford Chefs School in the last year or two, Brown is a youngin’ of whom I hope to see more in terms of his culinary performance in years ahead. I like the simplicity that characterizes his dishes, and yet they aren’t simple; I like the control he shows over his ingredients, and yet they aren’t whipped into submission.
The menu is tight and representative, and includes a calamari, a bruschetta, a bass, and a lamb chop. But peer beneath, and you’ll find togarashi seven-ingredient chili, saba (fruity seasoning made from grape must) and basil compote, a chorizo relish, and black walnut, respectively, in those dishes.
Dungeness crab and whitefish fritter is mounted on melon balls with watercress, and a cantaloupe-hazelnut emulsion. It all contributes to a permeating crab flavour that is spiced up by the cress. Maybe it shouldn’t work, but it does.
P.E.I. mussels are bathed in Riesling, and smokey bacon with fennel and shallot and the mysterious salty succulent sea beans showing off their grassy asparagus flavour. The sea beans work simply and well with briny mussels in a broth not overwhelmed with ingredients.
Charcuterie we enjoyed as an inter-course: three thin-sliced meats, three Canadian cheeses (including a Welsh-inspired St Marys, Ontario, Caerphilly), some terrific pickled beets doing tangy duty alongside house-made cornichons, and a couple of mustards including a coarse “violet” rendition with grape juice (but why don’t they serve a few slices of bread, I wonder?).
Eight or so mains include a pasta, a couple of fish dishes, crepes, pork, and beef. Chicken supreme has subcutaneous herbs, fingerling and purple spuds with a bit of snap and an absolute stellar mushroom “gravy” that had a soup-like brilliance surpassed only by its fresh peas. That and a chunk of bread is all I need for a meal.
Mill Street beer (they’re doing amazing stuff at the Toronto distillery district brewery) is used to batter Lake Huron pickerel: it crisply hugs moist, tender, and piping hot fish and comes with good fries, dill tartar sauce, and a unique grating of celeriac (celery root). A delicious mix.
I hope to return to Puddicombe to try bucatini with lamb ragout and harissa chili—that sounds like something Mario Batali would make.
Two desserts sampled qualify nicely for lightish summer fare but ones packed with flavour: a panna cotta (“cooked cream”) with berries, nuts, and champagne ice is refreshing. Poppyseed ice cream is an accompaniment but it overshadows a frozen and bruleed meringue with lemon and graham cracker “dust,” berries, and shortbread. That makes it some kind of deconstructed parfait, and an excellent one at that.
The venerable building that houses the modern Puddicombe House has a long history in the area (built by senator Samuel Merner) going back to the mid 1800s. It has those great old-building bones. The structure was bought by Robert Puddicombe in 1888 and has saw a recent re-orientation as a restaurant in 2006. That and the food are solid reasons to venture into New Hamburg to give the place a try.
Been there? Try these …
The 41
41 King Street E, Kitchener
519-745-8939
www.thefortyone.com
A downtown K-Town anchor that brings together small plates, wonderful breads, house-made desserts, pints of organic beer, charcuterie, late-night snacks, relaxed and casual service, and “41 reasons” why the new The 41 is indeed a “good food revival.”
Artisanale Café and Bistro
37 Quebec Street, Guelph
519-821-3359
artisanale.ca
Fresh cooking; local ingredients. I love that Artisanale doesn’t foist upon you $7 bottles of Pellegrino: instead, it’s wine bottles with tap water. Perfect for sampling the flavours, textures, and seasons of Yasser Qahawish’s French-inspired cooking. Lots of French wines, too, with nods to Ontario, Italy, and Spain. Seasonal ingredients and regular prix fixe journeys to the regions of France.
Manhattans Music Club & Pizza Bistro
951 Gordon Street, Guelph
519-767-2440
www.manhattans.ca
Pizza. Jazz. Bistro. Club. Manhattans plays the pizza oven well and tinkles the ivories admirably. They’ve been around for a while now and have stayed true to their food and music ideals—nice. Sandwiches, panini, wraps, burgers, soup, and melts too. Decent wine list.
500 Word Lunch reviews are based on anonymous, unannounced visits to the establishments. Restaurants do not pay for any portion of the reviewer’s meal. Listen to “The Food Show” Sundays at noon on 570 All News Radio.
Andrew Coppolino can be reached at
andrew@andrewcoppolino.com.
|
