Nouveau Ontario at The Restaurant at Stratford’s The Bruce Hotel
Nouveau Ontario at The Restaurant at Stratford’s The Bruce Hotel
After a delicious lunch at Mercer Hall we made a
mid-afternoon reservation for dinner at The Restaurant at The Bruce Hotel.
Owner Jennifer Birmingham handles the reservation personally which allows us the
opportunity to inquire about the chandeliers in the dining room which I have
been thinking about since my last visit. They dramatically recall Finnish
designer Tapio Wirkkala’s art glass crystal sculptures which are reminiscent of
melting ice. Birmingham tells me they were purchased at auction from the Four
Season’s Hotel in Toronto. She offers that each glass panel, of which there are
many, weigh 1 ½ pounds. In fact, she acquired numerous decorative objects and
furnishings from the Four Seasons specifically for The Bruce.
The newly built and handsomely appointed 25-room
Bruce Hotel, set on six and a half acres of property and a short walk from the
Festival Theatre, is the third hospitality undertaking for Birmingham. The
restaurant and the hotel are named after her father, Bruce, a former president
of the Bank of Nova Scotia who passed away in 2010.
The hotel is directed by General Manager Paul
Gregory. During his tenure with The Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, it became the
first hotel in Canada to win both Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star and AAA Five
Diamond rating.
Word has it that Birmingham wooed Stratford
culinary luminaries and owners of Bijou, Aaron and Bronwyn Linley, to join her
at The Bruce. Aaron is the Executive Chef and Bronwyn is
Food and Beverage Manager.
Aaron’s resume comprises sous chef positions at
Rundles in Stratford, Scaramouche in Toronto, Maple Bistro in Halifax with chef
Michael Smith, and chef at Le Nouveau Parigo in Toronto. Bronwyn’s pastry chef
and sommelier experience includes Stratford’s Pazzo and Down the Street, Pan
Chancho bakery in Kingston and pastry chef at Maple Bistro and Biff’s in
Toronto.
Returning to Stratford in 2001, the Linley’s opened
Bijou. What has made Chef Linley’s cooking unforgettable is the brilliance of
his regionally-sourced ingredients paired with multi-cultural elements. For
many years his culinary opus at Bijou was the standard for inspired, locally-procured
food in Stratford. The Restaurant at The Bruce is positioned to be a
contender in the uppermost tier of Stratford fine dining: the venerable Neil
Baxter at Rundles and the enigmatic Bryan Steele at The Prune, (which, sadly, is
closed for lunch this season), both have restaurant pedigrees that run deeper
than Linley’s. The culinary benchmark continues to be raised and another
popular Stratford stalwart, Mercer Hall, has just taken its place on a list of
the top 50 restaurants in Canada.
There are two rooms that comprise The Restaurant
and entry is through the clubby lounge. The dining rooms are white linen, chic
and understated with square-backed upholstered chairs and settees. This is
contemporary elegance and indeed Linley’s menus are loaded with ingredients
that term evokes. Chef has dispensed with the main-course concept and offers a
small-plates menu at dinner. Lunch is à la carte. There is an expectation of a
particular level of care in a restaurant befitting a well-run luxury hotel. Among
the hotel’s amenities are a gym and an indoor pool. (Rooms are $500.00 and “petit”
suites are $650.00 per night and include a sumptuous prix fixe breakfast. Some have
private courtyards.)
Chef Linley describes his cuisine as “nouveau
Ontario,” using French technique and ethnic influences “applied to the good
things of this province.” The menu is prix fixe, offering two Beginnings and
Dessert for $58.00, one Beginning and Middle for $58.00, or a Beginning,
Middle and Dessert for $68.00. This arrangement is meant to expedite the
challenges of pre-theatre dining where theatre-goers arrive and depart simultaneously
and later, there is a respite. There is also a 5 course tasting menu available
after 7:30 pm for $80.00 per person, and only available to an entire table. The
Lounge offers a separate menu.
On my first visit, the restaurant was full and the
service under the direction of the consummate professional Dorey Jackson was
nothing short of impeccable. This despite the fact that it was our server
Dallas’s first night on the floor (weeks later we were fortunate to have her
serve us again at lunch). The busboy was well-versed on the menu and attentive,
adding to the professionalism and pleasantness of the experience.
On that visit an amuse that began the prix fixe
menu one night was a miniature bahn mi (Vietnamese sub) with duck
prosciutto, pickled jicama, jalapeno and carrot, cilantro and ancho-chili
aioli. On another occasion the amuse was two thin slices of duck prosciutto
with tart local feta, slivers of criss-crossed asparagus and dots of kaffir and
Szechuan-peppercorn oils.
The menu starts with Hot and Cold Beginnings and
Fish and Shellfish. On two occasions we ordered the chestnut velouté and made
do with the most delicious velvety garlic velouté imaginable, garnished with
scooped apple balls that looked like parisienne potatoes and a
mini bouquet of straw mushrooms. Another time, Tariditos of rainbow trout, the
Peruvian cousin of seviche, were a mosaic of flattened, thinly- sliced strips
of orange-red flesh with a whisper of yuzu (Japanese citrus), Szechuan
peppercorn oil and garnished with crispy rice puffs. Perfectly cooked,
deep-flavoured rutabaga ravioli with piping hot mushroom-scented turkey broth
consommé may seem unseasonable in May, but was a big hit with my dining
companions.
On another evening, my nephew raved about the
potato trifecta: potato, potato, potato. The delicious confit of duck-fat
roasted fingerling potatoes with bonito flakes he anointed the star of the trio.
Vegan-friendly dishes such as “On the Streets of Jerusalem” are a trio of
deep-fried balls of seasoned chick peas, smoky eggplant purée and with splashes
of harrisa aioli, and a dab of hummus hidden under long thin slices of folded
slightly-pickled cucumber with pomegranate seeds and sumac. Originally, listed
under the Lacto-Ovo-Vego section of the former dinner menu, it remains in the
Hot and Cold Beginnings section of the menu, and also debuts on the lunch menu.
A composed salad of lightly cooked asparagus “Caesar” style with crispy-sweet,
fatty guanicale, savoury crostini and shaved Toscano is a sure-fire hit of
creamy garlic goodness at lunch.
For carnivores, the menu offers a Birds and Beasts
selection with a variety of fish, poultry and game options. A pan-fried wild
salmon is supremely satisfying when Chef combines it with a saffron pistou
broth. Skate is cooked deftly. Another evening’s standouts included skirt steak
with cubes of potato millefeuille and rich Perth County pork cheeks braised to perfection
with strips of crispy melt-in-your-mouth polenta and braised fennel.
Try the Canadian shellfish: freshly shucked oysters,
mussels, escabeche and wild side-striped shrimp with classic condiments are top
notch, or the selection of oysters on the half shell, seviche and cold poached
shrimp are offered on the more casual menu in The Lounge.
Warm and caramelized chévre cheesecake tart with
blood orange sorbet is pleasing as are warm, sugary apple fritters with Moss
berry jam and ginger ice cream. Birmingham’s sense of whimsy is evidenced in
the dining room when a superior selection of artisanal cheese and
accompaniments are wheeled out on a cart designed as an Acme-style mousetrap.
The
Restaurant at The Bruce
89 Parkview Dr., Stratford,
855 708-7100
LUNCH TUESDAY – SATURDAY: 11:30 AM – 1:30
PM–CLOSE
(Lunch is served Sunday and Monday in The Lounge)
DINNER TUESDAY – SATURDAY: 5:00 PM–CLOSE
The Lounge is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner
as well as late night.
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