Darlings in Prince Edward County takes the number ten spot on the Top 10 list of Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2023.
10
Darlings
Bloomfield, ON
Gold Sponsor
They’re playing the soundtrack of my life – Carole King, Laura Branigan, Elvis Costello, the Stones. I order a Spicy Paloma with one hell of a personality. I want everything on the menu: chopped green salad hit with dill, walnuts and Reggiano; housemade rigatoni with creamy vodka sauce; a plate of Cressy House Farms turnips, including the turnip leaves and juicy stems (more juicy stems please!) with a nutty salsa macha hit with chili de arbol and sesame seeds.
Wood–charred tomato pizza; co–owners Jesse Fader and Duncan MacNeill
From my barstool perch, I can see the oven’s embers glowing for wood–charred pizzas made with “stretched daily” mozzarella. You cannot convince me this restaurnt wasn’t created just for me. (And I suppose for you, too.)
Jesse Fader, a former co–owner of Superpoint, Favorites and Paris Paris, left Toronto for a more chill life with his family in Prince Edward County. Now he’s happily peeling pizzas alongside co–owner Duncan MacNeill in this ranchhouse red sauce joint, where the fresh–made stracciatella is suggested as a dipper, and slices of sugar pie are served in a syrupy pool of last year’s crimson County cherries. I polish off the evening with a dram of Amaro Nonino. Get your own damn restaurant: Darlings is mine.
The big cheese: Co–owner Jesse Fader stretches mozzarella