We spent last weekend in Kingston, building a trip around a visit to a friend’s art exhibition…which was closed, unexpectedly for the day. And the gallery wasn’t open the next two days. So we missed the main reason for being there…but the food, to our great surprise, made up for it.
First, we stayed at the Frontenac Club, a new conversion of an old building, and our room was lovely: exposed brick, big windows, stained glass, huge bathroom, etc.
Next up was to get some warm coffee on a cold day, so we walked down the street to SENS cafe for some capps, which we took with us down to the waterfront to enjoy the view and the sunshine. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at Bobbi Pecorino’s to rescue something from their bottle shop.
We had dinner booked that night at The Everly, which started a little funny but ended up very solid indeed:
- Cocktails
- Appetizers
- East Coast Oysters w/ fresh horseradish & lemon
- Kale Salad (Salt of the Earth Farms kale, cashew ‘cheese’, breadcrumbs, roasted cashews, lemon & olive oil dressing, Parmesan)
- We wanted the salt cod fritters but they were out. The kitchen staff felt bad so as a consolation they brought us a 1/4 order of the polenta fries (Crispy polenta, pomodoro, basil, garlic, Parmesan) and an order of the roast pumpkin (Salt of the Earth Farm roast pumpkin, butter fried sage, lemon & parsley sauce, pumpkin seeds)
- Glasses of Soave (Tessari Grisela DOC Classico, IT, ’22) and Chenin Blanc (Pearce Predhomme Stellenbosch Old Vine, SA, ’22)
- Mains
- Lindsay had the Butternut Squash Agnolotti (ricotta & squash stuffed pasta, brown butter, Ontario hazelnuts, sage, Parmesan)
- I wanted the braised pork belly but they were out, so I ended up getting the Pork Sausage pasta (rigatoni, fennel and chili pork sausage, garlic, broccolini, fried breadcrumbs, Pecorino)
- Bottle of Cabernet Franc (Stanners Vineyard, PEC, ’21)
The next morning we slept in and missed the hotel’s breakfast. Instead we walked slowly over to Kingston institution Chez Piggy for some comfort brunch: Chilaquiles con Carne (tortilla chips, salsa verde, black bean, bell pepper, avocado, grilled steak, sunny eggs, feta, jalapeño, coriander, scallion) for me, and Çilbir (garlic yogurt, poached eggs chili, garlic butter, mint, dill, cilantro, parsley, pan chancho za’atar pita) for Lindsay. Both were extremely delicious. The place looks like it hasn’t changed inside in fifty years, but who cares?
Back in the room we relaxed. Lindsay boiled herself in the tub while I finished the book I was reading (But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman) and then we want back out for dinner. We picked Wooden Heads because we felt like a chill pizza experience, but it ended up being extremely good as well, splitting an excellent pizza and Sicilia pizza. My glass of Tempranillo was good; Lindsay’s Sangiovese was not. But we muddled through.
We woke up early Monday as it was a work day for us both. After eating a very nice breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant The Bank Gastropub, Lindsay walked to a medical archive for some research while I posted up in the restaurant (they were empty but for us) and got a ton of work done. Once we wrapped up we grabbed a late lunch — fish and chips, both — at Dianne’s and bolted for home before the Toronto traffic got too bad. We had a pretty seamless drive, frankly, and were grateful to be home.
So yeah, after the bitter disappointment immediately after arriving, Kingston redeemed itself on the strength of its food.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 