Prince Edward County recommendations [General]

2018 Jul 20
Anyone have any eating recommendations to share for Picton and surroundings?

2018 Jul 20
I'm keen on any answers too, as we'll be in Picton the first half of next week! So far, this is the upper part of my list:

* Drake Devonshire Inn (Wellington): going for our 20th anniversary dinner on Sunday!
* Enid Grace Cafe (Wellington): looks like they have exceptional brunch and baked goods.
* Agrarian Market (Picton): takeout bread + charcuterie stuff.

Other promising candidates:

* County Canteen (Picton): pub style, local beers, tacos, etc.
* Perfect Lil Bakeshop (Picton): cute roadside baked goods shack.
* North Docks (Wellington): brand new resto by Paul Dubeau, the chef that helped the Clocktower succeed.

There are quite a few other pretty promising looking places and of course the old standbys like Blumen Garden Bistro. I reeeally wanted to try the incredible looking pizzas from Norman Hardie Winery but can't bring myself to go there after he was accused of so much by so many.

This is a family trip so wineries aren't a huge priority but if I squeeze one in I think it'll be Sandbanks, mostly because I like their wines and appreciate that they are in the affordable range.

The forecast has quite a bit of rain so it may turn out that all we can do is eat! :P

2018 Jul 20
I was at Hardie last week and I can confirm the pizza is up there with some of the best I've ever had. Of all the wineries we visited, Hardie also had by a far far margin the best wines. They also have one of the only offerings of an all PEC wine, which is worth the $.

Slickers in Bloomfield had some really good ice cream.
Barley Days was good for beer. The food truck in front of it does BBQ and had an amazing brisket sandwich.
Kinsip distillery is really worth visiting, very family friendly as it's a farm with lots of outdoor games and heritage chickens running around. Great vodka as well!
Enid Grace Cafe in Wellington had good coffee. I didn't eat there but the food I saw looked good. There's a drive in movie theater just outside Bloomfield if you're looking for something perfectly fine to do in the evening.

I would not recommend huff wineries unless you are traveling with a bachelorette party or 555 brewing for pizza. The beer was good, but pizza no good.

2018 Jul 20
Seedlings in Bloomfield is new this year and looks nice. Haven’t heard much about it but the two of the three chefs are from Ottawa and have worked at good places before.

Not sure why anyone would give Hardie the time of day let alone $40 for a bottle or whatever he’s charging for a pizza. Ugh.

2018 Jul 21
Saylor house cafe is good. It's in Boomfield. I second Slicker's for ice cream.

2018 Jul 22
I don't know about the Agrarian Market, but the Agrarian Bistro is always excellent.

agrarianpec.ca/menu/

2018 Jul 24
Thanks all. Got to drive by a bunch of these spots but plans sadly didn't allow for visits to most (but can plan better for the next time with this thread!). Hardie was, ironically, probably the only place I'd have made it to if it hadn't been struck from our list based on the recent accusations of sexual misconduct (www.theglobeandmail.com)

Did make it to Slicker's on the main strip in Picton for ice cream, and it lived up to the hype. I had a rhubarb ginger that was really flavourful and balanced at the same time, which I think is pretty hard to do. Also impressed by the apple pie ice cream.

If you want a standard take-out pizza pie, Prince Edward Pizza gets the job done.

Got to try out a few breweries-- as was mentioned above, you shouldn't plan to go to any of them for the food. Midtown in Wellington only had two of their own brews on tap, which were both good. They did have about 6-7 more draught options from area breweries, and so the novelty is still there in terms of stuff you can't get in Ottawa. Lake on the Mountain Brewery is in a straight up gorgeous setting.. they have a 'beer garden' that's more like a beer forest with picnic tables on a pond where you can definitely catch frogs. Really liked their beers, too.. 'Sundowner' was great. Was our favourite brewery, but allow that we may have been swayed by the setting. In any case, I appreciate that they weren't just your typical 'industrial chic brewery' setup like so many others. 555 Brewing also had good brews.

Outside of breweries, Kinsip Distillery and Fifth Town Cheese were two standout stops. Kinsip sells this delicious whiskey-barrel-aged maple syrup that they swear has no whiskey in it despite my senses screaming otherwise. They also sell what look like some good tacos on-site. Fifth Town is way out but worth the trip.. LEED certified building and super green setup, so many great local goat/sheep/buffalo cheeses and products (and some imported from Italy), and also buffalo milk gelato (though we'd already hit our ice cream quota for the day).

2018 Jul 24
If you go to Prince Edward Pizza you must get the panzerotti.

2018 Jul 25
We're back from our little trip to PEC and it was fun even though the weather prevented us from getting any real beach time.

We had a lovely lakeside patio dinner at The Drake Devonshire. The food was generally very good. High points were the "County Vegetables" ($10) pictured here—just amazing! The sourdough bread with butter ($4) and my wife's (bay) scallops & grits ($24) were fantastic too. Downsides were my relatively boring north-African style pickerel ($32) and all the cocktails.

We expected excellent cocktails here based on reputation and price but found them waay too sweet. My wife started with a white sangria that tasted sugary like pop. I tried it too and agreed that this shouldn't be intentional. We mentioned the situation to our server and she suggested trying something else in its place. The "East India Trading Co." ($15) with gin, grapefruit, and allspice "dram" was more palatable although still with more sweetness than we would expect from a high end bar.

I had the "rust & bone" ($16) with cedar-infused bourbon, Bénédictine, and amaro. The cedar flavour came through and was really nice but given the other ingredients I expected more herbal bitterness and less sweetness. I would make this with a little less Bénédictine. For my second drink I gave up on the cocktail list and enjoyed a frosty glass of local Riesling.

Our Monday night dinner at The County Canteen was really solid pub fare. There was a wait for a table and I can see why. The "Asian Glazed Ribs" ($16.50) were sticky with sweet soy sauce and absolutely delightful. My wife and I shared these along with the "Crispy Fish Tacos" ($15.50) and a cone of very good fries with aïoli ($7.50). We started with a large "Greens & Goddess Salad" ($11) that was disappointingly bland. I also had a flight of five county beers, which were mostly unsurprisingly too bitter or sour for my taste. The Prince Eddy's Brewing Company Cream Ale was my favourite by a long shot!

One pretty big disappointment worth mentioning was the Agrarian Market. Based on the descriptions, we expected this to be a full bakery. However, they bake frozen Ace products just the way Loblaws does and they resell premium products from places like Seed To Sausage. We picked up a couple pretzels and a cinnamon roll, none of which were memorable. My daughter tried the cinnamon roll and said, "It's just bread and I can hardly taste cinnamon!" So we changed our plans to get lunch ingredients there and decided to look elsewhere.

Elsewhere was the "Saylor House Cafe" in Bloomfield that turned out to be a pleasant homey place where we were able to sit with our little doggo on the patio and enjoy a light lunch. I had the "B.A.T." ($12)—a sandwich of bacon, avocado, tomato, and lettuce on multigrain. Also, they had good butter tarts available near the cash. ;-)

The Enid Grace Cafe has top-notch products. However, they inexplicably make a tiny number of pastries each day and sell out early so we didn't get to try those. I had a wonderful slice of carrot cake for brunch there on Monday and I can vouch for their cookies and lemon squares too.

For coffee, the Bean Counter was pretty pricey and just okay. Miss Lily's had better coffee, although it looks like properly microfoamed milk is not something one can find in The County.

We picked up a couple California Rolls from Charm Sushi ($6 each) for our daughter and they were pretty good!

2018 Jul 26
I should also mention the two wineries we visited!

Rosehall Run ($5 for 3 tastings) was a small and friendly place. I didn't love the wines I tasted there but they've won awards for their Pinot Noir and they have a very popular rosé so you might get better mileage than I did. One strange thing was that they only had a handful of their wines available for tasting. I was more interested in the others...

Sandbanks ($5 for 5 tastings) is a large and professional operation. They have several tasting stations with a printed menu of choices. The staff are super friendly and make useful recommendations. Although the printed menu is a subset of what's available for sale they have open bottles of everything and you can ask to taste whatever you see. If you buy two bottles, the tasting fee is waived.

I've always been a fan of Sandbanks wines... they seem to stray from the traditional notes of whatever wines they produce, but it works for me. We left with four bottles!

2018 Jul 26
my wife and I started going to the county about six years ago at New Year's. The first year we went was the last xmas/new years for the Devonshire Inn before the Drake bought it, so it was just before it really started gentrifying. In fact, we were the only people there. The owner was sick at the time and just gave us the keys to the place and we locked up at night when we went to bed. We stayed up with our friends and drank in the living room. It was so awesome.

The County was quiet at New Years and I think it can still be, which is really cool. We rolled into Rosehall Run and at that time, it was just a shed with a small tasting bar. Dan Sullivan was working and technically not even open. He poured us wines for hours and chatted with us, we bought a case and he threw in a tonne of bottles.

We also stumbled on Carlo Estates when they were first getting going.... renovating the bar and barely even had a tasting room. YOu had to use the bathroom in Richard Carlo's trailer that he lived in... he was such an awesome guy. It's so sad that he's gone as he was such a huge force in that place.

The county has changed a lot since we started going but we still love it. But here's a little gem:

A good friend of mine who's become a winemaker over the last 20 years was working on the county at one point and he turned me onto Barnyard Wine Co. They don't even have a webpage and they fly totally under the radar but the wines are fantastic. When we went you were basically tasting the wines on the guy's porch but here's an article form 2010 about them.

www.theglobeandmail.com

2018 Jul 28
Just back from PEC today. We've been regular County visitors since 2004 and while it's changed alot over the years (and some fantastic restaurants have closed), there is still enough country charm that we keep going back albeit during the week when it is less crowded.

My shortlist of recommended wineries includes Closson Chase, Long Dog, By Chadsey's Cairns, Stanners, Hubb Creek and Karlo Estates - I'm far from a wine connoisseur but over the years I've found these to be the best and most consistent wineries, serious and passionate about their craft and not just newcomers looking to cash in on the County gold rush. Added bonus: Closson Chase has converted one of their cellars to the Swinery, a casual café with outdoor seating that serves locally pastured, grass fed pulled pork and brisket on brioche buns, and - get this - lobster rolls on weekends. (So good I split a second with my husband today, washed down with 2016 South Clos Chardonnay.)

As far as other eating options go, we always enjoy East + Main and head there over the Drake (your mileage may vary, and brunch on the terrace can be nice but yeah, the $15 cocktails are an easy pass.) Sadly, the owners of East + Main have sold their sister restaurant Pomodoro which is a shame as we always enjoyed their pasta and fritto misto. The new chef who has taken over is really good but the service is downright appalling to the point that we no longer take a chance as we've no idea if they'll remember to give the kitchen our order :)

Seconding how great it is to visit Fifth Town for their wide selection of cheese and other food items. While out that way very much recommend the County Cider Co. for the incredible views on a beautiful sunny day. It's been awhile since we enjoyed lunch there but I remember a good lamb burger being served. Another picturesque lunch location in that end is the Waupoos winery - the wines are fairly bland and inoffensive in my books but the gazebo is a very pleasant location for lunch or dinner, and the menu is good.

Enid Grace: so mouthwateringly good that my BIL insisted we go there for breakfast everyday - and I wasn't going to argue. It's popular - and deservedly so - which requires patience but it's worth the wait. (A special shoutout to their butter tarts and matcha latte.)

We used to really enjoy The Hubb at Angeline's in Bloomfield but the husband and wife team of Laura and Elliott have closed shop and are in the process of renovating a building of their own also in Bloomfield, so we hope to eat there on our next visit. In The Hubb's place is a new spot called Seedlings which we did not try but they seemed busy.

Our highlight of this past trip is a new gem called Sand and Pearl Oyster Bar just 10 mins from Bloomfield on the way to Sandbanks. What a find! Double burger with pork belly and butter poached lobster, socca rolled into a crepe and stuffed with ricotta and lobster, dirty crab risotto to die for, paella on Mondays, fantastic selection of oysters, crab legs, incredible salt and pepper shrimp... Loved the roadhouse vibe and warm, welcoming service, kid friendly with amazing music and a great drink list to boot! LOVED this place and would have returned a second time if we'd stayed longer.

Last but not least Schroeder's deserves a mention: it's a strictly locals place on hwy 62 that specialises in gluten free baking - I've never tried it but I can vouch for their regular baking as they do fantastic soup and sandwich combos which are very reasonably priced, and sometimes they have their smoker out and have BBQ ribs on the menu - yum (again, locally pastured pork)! We also love the donuts, and they have a wide selection of organic foods. Well worth a stop but not a part of the 'scene' that has developed in the County so your mileage may vary, depending on what you're looking for...