No.7

Ship to Shore

MALPEQUE BAY

1 Fresh local oysters with cocktail sauce and white wine and apple vinegar at Ship to Shore. 2 Ship to Shore’s Buffalo mussels, served with a side of blue-cheese sauce.

“How do you like them clams?” It’s the chef, Carl Ruiz, talking, a goateed, grinning Brooklynite kitchen ninja (his resumé shows a turn at NYC’s Le Bernardin) who appears to prefer hanging out at the oyster bar instead of the stove. “Amazing,” I say. And they are. They’re soft-shelled steamers: voluptuous insides, cookout-at-the-seashore taste. “Well, I didn’t make them,” Chef growls. “God made them. I just put them in the pot.”

Which aptly describes nearly everything they do at this salty lounge up on P.E.I.’s oyster-jammed Malpeque Bay. Ship to Shore, a 1970s roadhouse, was rescued from oblivion last spring and refurbished by a shellfish fisherman, Stephen Stewart, and a champion oyster shucker, John Bil. They do seafood the way it was before long-haul refrigeration and Mrs. Dash got in the way. The vibe, with retro beer ads on the wall and a company van with a giant metal lobster on its roof, is relaxed. But Ship to Shore dishes some of the freshest local shellfish (the mussel salad is incredible) that most of us will ever eat. Sit up at the bar if you’re smart, and save the question of whether God is to thank for another day.

2684 Rte. 20, Darnley, PEI, 902-836-5475, shiptoshorelounge.com (Open May to mid-October)
 

No.8

Pizzeria Libretto

TORONTO

1 The crispy buttermilk calamari with romesco sauce at Pizzeria Libretto. 2 Enjoying Pizzeria Libretto’s Pingue prosciutto and arugula pizza.

The guys who run this tiny, cheap and perpetually jam-packed place are pizza hardcases. The wood oven was built by a third-generation oven maker in Naples. It fires at about 900°F. The tomatoes in the sauce were grown at the foot of Mount Vesuvius and the pizzas are a little chewy and slightly blistered, which is how the Neapolitans – and more specifically, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana – insist that real pizza must be. (This is the only place in Canada to bear the pizza police’s stamp of approval.) The pies are exceptional: The Margherita, with fior di latte mozzarella and a kiss of wood smoke, is a model of delicious restraint; antipasti – grilled sardines, fennel salad, buttermilk calamari – are every bit as good. The antipasti aren’t certified exceptional, though. The Associazione hasn’t yet branched out from pies.

221 Ossington Ave., Toronto, 416-532-8000, pizzerialibretto.com

Check out the Food & Drink section of our Toronto city guide for more restaurant picks.

No.9

Culina Highlands

EDMONTON

1 The kids share a bowl of Culina Highlands’ berry cobbler with Bourbon-vanilla ice cream. 2 Lyndon’s Borscht, served with sour cream and fresh dill at Culina Highlands.

Modern Ukrainian? This deeply charming Edmonton room (picture grandma’s farmhouse kitchen, but lit with Nelson bubble lamps), does it with a silky reduction of beet juice and local honey, which is drizzled over whipped goat cheese and poppyseed custard and crispy bread. Cindy Lazarenko, the young, self-taught chef, puts horseradish in her salad dressing and serves cabbage rolls “lazy,” which is to say that they’re not rolled so much as open-faced. The roasted local pork tenderloin is served with nachynka – cornmeal stuffing – and a healthy lashing of pan jus; dessert is apricot and walnut varenyky topped with vanilla ice cream. Ukrainian fare may have fuelled the settling of the Prairies, but it was ripe for such an inspired makeover. All but the Ukrainian vodka, of course, which is served straight-up with a slice of cucumber on the rim.

6509 112th Ave. N.W., Edmonton, 780-477-2422, culinafamily.ca

Check out the Food & Drink section of our Edmonton city guide for more restaurant picks.
 

No.10

La Salle à manger

MONTREAL

1 La Salle à manger chef Samuel Pinard. 2 The young duck for two, farro risotto with mimolette cheese and halibut ceviche at La Salle à manger.

Can a bistro be a bistro and still feel exciting? At Montreal’s La Salle à manger, the answer is an emphatic yes. The maître d’ wears a beard and trucker hat, the floor is hexagonal tile and the wall behind the bar is pressed tin. The feel is young and fresh and casual without being pretentiously so; how totally Montreal. The star is chef Samuel Pinard’s superb market-driven cooking: expertly seasoned duck tartare or gorgeous seared gnocchi with pickled Jerusalem artichokes, tart green apple, whipped potatoes and heady Comté cheese. A buttery, nutty, crunchy and addictive farotto is served in a thick broth made with mimolette cheese and salty-crunchy sea asparagus – try finding that at your usual resto. They’ll also happily roast a suckling pig for 12 if the need arises. Whereupon they will parade it, Lord of the Flies-style, around the room.

1302, av. du Mont-Royal E., Montréal, 514-522-0777, lasalleamanger.ca

Check out the Food & Drink section of our Montreal city guide for more restaurant picks.
 

 

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