Canadian Favorites; Kingston Edition

Since my second trip to Canada, I've started to collect a few favorite places to visit while in the country, keep reading to see my Ontario favorites!

Kingston Olive Oil Company

• On my last visit I was introduced to this awesome oil company in a pop-up shop near Fort Henry in Kingston. This year, my mom (who is equally smitten) and I made it a point to visit their full store in downtown Kingston on Brock street. 

Coffee & Company

• I popped into Coffee & Company for a quick "fancy" coffee beverage towards the end our trip (a week sans fancy beverages was almost too much). In addition to receiving a delicious "Milano" with latte art, I had a great 5 minute conversation with a few members of the staff and found myself wanting to sit down and grow some roots in the cute shop.

Cooke's Fine Foods

• Cooke's was recommended to us by one of our fishing guides as the place to pick up pepper jelly. Not a fan of peppers myself, I walked out with a pound of their locally roasted Chez Peggy II coffee beans for my husband and a cappuccino chocolate bar made by Galerie Au Chocolat for myself. Located on Brock St across from Kingston Olive Oil company, you could easily spend an hour in there browsing all the novelty foods available. 

City + Cargo

• Stumbling upon City + Cargo was such a happy accident. While waiting for my mom outside the Kingston Olive Oil Co (she got a bit carried away), I walked next door to City + Cargo after spotting GORGEOUS leather goods in the window. I didn't make a purchase that day, but I kept thinking about this classic tote bag and made a second trip to Kingston specifically for one of these totes to bring home. I love to support other small businesses and part of the fun of purchasing this bag was talking to the owner of the store who made my bag with his own hands. Hearing how passionate he was about his products was infectious and left a strong impression on me.

Bubba's Pizzeria

• While shopping for my beloved tote, the troops became restless. What I mean to say is that my younger siblings who have to eat approximately once per hour became quite hangry after realizing we drove 35 minutes for me to buy a purse. We wandered into Bubba's to appease them and wound up stumbling upon "The Best Poutine in Town". I have to say, I was thoroughly surprised, it was amazing. Having no other Poutine to compare against, I'd say Bubba's was definitely the best. What Bubba's lacks in decor, it makes up for in cheese curds. I'd happily stop back for lunch! PS the pictured size is listed as a "small", Canadians must have different sizing up there because I could only get through about 1/3 of it before one of the troops commandeered it. 

Back Forty West

A couple weeks ago, I had a random day off and met two of my favorite friends for dinner at Back Forty West. I'm not usually the type of person that emails her friends 3 different restaurant options, with quotes about the restaurant and estimates of how long it would take them to arrive from their offices. But for some reason I did that this time. I went in to my little experiment planning to convince them to eat with me at Jack's Wife Freda because I've been wanting to go so badly, based solely on blog posts I've read about the two owners. After further research, I found that they didn't have a ton of pescetarian options for your truly and instead I made a reservation at Back Forty West (though I still want to try Jack's).

I really lucked out, because Back Forty West was absolutely amazing. Housed in a brownstone on the corner of Prince St and Crosby, the restaurant boasts a delicious farm-to-table menu in addition to an inviting, homey atmosphere with a fireplace; which was EXACTLY what we needed on a frigid night in NYC. We were seated upstairs, which really felt like we were in the home of friends or family and we were very luckily placed right next to the fireplace, so it was all the cozier.

Each of us had an appetizer, entree, and we shared 2 desserts. I can tell you in complete honesty that everything that hit that rustic wooden table was delicious. We shared "fireplace creme brûlée" for dessert and we were not disappointed at all. If you're wondering like we were what exactly that entails, the answer is this; our waitress brought out an unfinished brûlée and instead of using a flame to caramelize the top of it, she took a branding iron that resembled a hockey puck directly from the fireplace and stamped the top of the brûlée to create a smoky/crunchy topping.

Keep in mind that what you see below may not be available when you visit as their menu changes frequently based on what is in season and available to them.

Rosemary and sea salt fries, beat and ricotta salad, and roasted brussels sprouts with bacon. 

Farrow risotto with butternut squash and mushrooms (Cremini, I believe).

This was without a doubt the best brûlée I've ever had. It was sweet and smoky at the same time, like a grown up version of s'mores. 

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