It’s been four years since our last visit to Prince Edward County. That time was in the summer, and the whole area was far more overrun with tourists. This time, later in the season — this was a birthday present for Lindsay, actually — we hoped it would be more chill.

First up: find a place to stay. To be honest, seeing pictures of Mirazule in a friend’s Instagram feed is what triggered the idea for this gift. It absolutely did not disappoint: architecturally stunning, filled with beautiful and personal art pieces, serenely overlooking South Bay, and home to two wonderful humans (Ian and Miguel) and an adorable dog. We absolutely loved our time there — drinks each evening, cozy hours reading by the fireplace, unbelievable breakfasts prepared by Miguel, superb sleep-ins, and on and on.

In fact, we only left for about 6 hours the whole weekend. Our first outing was dinner at Bocado, a new restaurant in Picton. It’s a Spanish place from some of the same folks behind Patria and Byblos, two of our favourites in Toronto. Even a few weeks out the only table we could get was at 9pm, so we snapped it up. I’m glad we did too — it was an excellent meal.

• cocktails
  • Bocado Martini: gin, Spanish dry vermouth, olive oil, citrus oils, sweet drop pepper, olive
  • Pineapple Tonic: pineapple, fever tree tonic, citus (I was driving)
• appetizers
  • Dates w/ Iberico pancetta, Lighthall manchego, guindilla peppers and honey gastrique
  • Croquette jamon w/ house pickle and aioli
  • Ontario lamb ribs w/ ajo verde, honey, and mint
• main
  • 16oz Enright ribeye w/ onion agrodolce and chimichurri
  • Patatas Bravas
  • bottle of Mencia

For our second excursion, on Saturday afternoon, we drove up to Wellington, had beers outdoor at Gillingham Brewing (and left with some of their ESB and Porter), and drove up to Domaine Darius (who happened to be releasing some wine that hasn’t been picked up through the year, so we really lucked out) before driving back South.

After an aborted attempt to visit Lighthall — which was just too packed — we drove down the road to Exultet. It’s been nine years since my last visit, and it’s only slightly less rustic. The prices are gold-plated, but good lord…the quality. We left with a lot. Next up was Long Dog, where we met the owners Victoria and James, tasted through their lineup, and just had a nice long chat.

After that it was back to Mirazule for some relaxing, some drinks, and an absolutely outstanding meal prepared by Miguel — quail & cheese croquette salad; roast pork loin, potatoes, clove & Armagnac ice cream, apple tart. It was all tremendous.

We drove back Sunday, wishing we’d had more time in the county, but grateful for the weekend we had.

We’ve just arrived home from ~48 hours in Niagara on the Lake. It was mostly for work, so we barely got to do anything else except…well, eat and drink. The only meal we’d booked in advance was Treadwell (our go to every time in NotL) for dinner Friday night; we liked it so much we managed to weasel our way into coming back for lunch the next day.

First, though, we had dinner Thursday night at Tiara, the restaurant in the Queen’s Landing hotel, where we were staying. Like every other restaurant in Ontario right now, they were short-staffed and had limited seating, but we got one of the last tables. Our servers were lovely, and we could more or less see the river from our table, which was nice.

We had glasses of Saintly rosé to start, then shared the roasted heritage beet salad w/ micro greens, smoked goats’ cheese & burnt honey dressing and the butter Fried Scallops w/ pork belly “Wellington”, forced rhubarb & celeriac remoulade, all of which we paired with an excellent DIM Riesling.

For our mains I had a grilled medallion and braised short rib of VG Farms Beef w/ parmesan whipped potato, mushrooms, beans & red wine hollandaise. Lindsay had the roasted Ontario lamb rack & saddle w/ rainbow carrots, lamb fat fondant potato & smoked garlic rosemary jus. We paired it all with a bottle of 2014 Chateau des Charmes Equleuus.

I spent most of the next day out doing work stuff while Lindsay chilled in the room (it was too hot to do much else), then I had a nap while she got ready for dinner at Treadwell. It is a go-to every time in NotL, and didn’t disappoint this go round. After a walk along the river we sat down, tucked in, ordered some 13th Street blanc de blancs to sip on while we strategized, and then got into our four courses:

First

• D: Monforte sheep’s milk fresco cheese, heirloom tomato & peach salad, sherry vinaigrette (Sixteen Mile rosé)
• L: Chilled peach gazpacho with Quiet Acres peaches and pickled chilies (Sixteen Mile rosé)

Second

• D: Pan seared east coast scallops, roasted corn, crisphy chicken skin (Arneis)
• L: Mussels a la Nage, white wine, fresh herbs, grilled bread (Five Rows Sauvignon Blanc)

Main

• D: Maple glazed Muscovy duck breast, Ohme Farms turnips, Ontario blueberry jus (Nebbiolo)
• L: Shallot crusted fillet of Ontario beef, Lyonnaise potato, summer mushrooms, shaved truffle, red wine jus (super tuscan)

Dessert

• D: Lemon & basil tart with honey and fennel pollen ice cream (Big Head botrytis-affected Chenin Blanc)
• L: Selection of cheeses (Big Head botrytis-affected Chenin Blanc)

Utterly delicious, top to bottom. I think Lindsay was a little jealous of my orders though. Also: since we were in Niagara I didn’t bother taking note of the non-Niagara wines!

Before we left, we asked if they had any space left the next day for lunch. We didn’t have time to do much before leaving the city except eat a good lunch, so rather than hunt for something else we just took a swing. And we connected! They had a table for us. We left, knowing we’d get an encore in ~14 hours. On our walk home we had to scurry away from a family of skunks (!) chowing down on Queen Street tourust leavings.

Unearthing ourselves from the hotel bed Saturday morning wasn’t easy, but we managed it. We arose, cleaned up, packed, checked out, and drove downtown. We found a parking space, helped an elderly gentleman pay for his parking with a QR code (we just paid for it, actually…it was easier than explaining it) before getting a coffee and wandering around a bit. When we arrived at 11:30 we were sat outside, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but ended up being torturously hot. Anyway, that’s hardly their fault.

Still a killer meal though: Lindsay had Chardonnay-steamed PEI mussels w/ fennel pollen cream & grilled bread (paired with a glass of 13th Street blanc de blancs) and a lobster club on duck fat fried sourdough, double-smoked bacon & whipped goat’s cheese w/ local salad greens & summer truffle (paired with a Pearl Morissette Chardonnay). I had roasted summer beets w/ whipped goat’s cheese, toasted hazelnuts & dill vinaigrette, and duck confit w/ summer succotash, frid egg & red wine jus (paired with a Fourth Wall Cabernet Franc).

This time I think Lindsay enjoyed her meal a little more than I did, but it was still a smashing idea to double up. We chatted about wine, and wineries, and winemaking with the staff, and they thanked us for coming back the very next night. I suppose that must be the best compliment for a restaurant.

Thus stuffed, we set out for home, stopping to pick up a wayward case of wine from The Farm, and arriving home to find our cute little bug, lightly traumatized from his first two days alone in the new house. As I write this, though, he’s purring and rubbing against my chair, so I think he’s forgiven us.

Work promises to summon me down to the peninsula more often. Frankly, I couldn’t be happier about that.

.:.