Wow, where have the days gone?!? The couple of weeks since we arrived home from Halifax have just been nuts! Trying to regain some sanity by reliving our days in Halifax ...
We returned to Halifax on a Sunday, we spent the day fairly quietly as we were feeling tired (mid-holiday slump, I guess). We lunched at The Split Crow, local brews once again accompanying our meal. Garrison Raspberry and Pumphouse IPA with, what was supposed to be, a Bacon & Burn burger; while I'm not too keen on banana peppers (the burn, presumably) the green pepper aioli was the major draw for ordering this, plus their burgers are on sourdough buns. Unfortunately, we got the wrong burger. I noticed when I opened it up to give Mark my peppers that there was no bacon on it; we'd wound up with the Crow burger, their standard burger. Although the food mix-up itself wasn't the reason, this was one of our more disappointing meals of the trip; nice atmosphere, but the food was just so-so. A regular burger, standard fries, gravy not worth mentioning ... can't win 'em all right?
Now for the major item on our Halifax list, Alexander Keith's Brewery tour! Not at all what we expected, it's a full time-period character tour, complete with singing. It's a really fun way to pass-on the history of the brewery and why it's the success it is. We were able to try a sample as part of the tour and both opted for the Galaxy hop ale, a newer brew in Keith's hops series, a very smooth ale with well-balanced hop flavours, I even enjoyed it! We also discovered that Keith's makes a cider so we stopped in at the Red Stag Tavern next door for a snack and a bevy. Keith's cider is really tasty, nice apple flavours with the major one being Granny Smith, so it's not too sweet. Make sure you order the coconut shrimp to go with your Keith's brew, you won't regret it ... unless you have fish allergies, then you'll regret it ...
Supper that evening was at The Arms, which is the restaurant in the Lord Nelson (yep, we're back here, with good reason, it's amazing.) Mark had the seafood chowder: salmon, haddock, scallops, and shrimp. Nice, creamy chowder but the haddock was slightly fishy-tasting. I tried something that's been on my food bucket list for some time, Cornish Game hen. De-boned and folded in half, the bird was sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes accompanied by perfectly grilled carrots and Brussels sprouts with lemon jus poured over it all. It was so tender and juicy I was in a happy food haze for the rest of the evening! The lemon jus added just the right burst of flavour to both the hen and the potatoes. Spoilers: this dish was also delicious cold, as a late night snack.
The next morning, Monday, we headed out at a fairly reasonable hour in search of coffee. At the recommendation of the doorman at the Lord Nelson (yep, they have doormen, good ones) we went to Pavia. There are two locations for Pavia, their main location is quite a ways from where we were staying, but their satellite location is in the new Halifax public library. It turns out to be the architectural wonder we'd been admiring since our first day here!
We returned to Halifax on a Sunday, we spent the day fairly quietly as we were feeling tired (mid-holiday slump, I guess). We lunched at The Split Crow, local brews once again accompanying our meal. Garrison Raspberry and Pumphouse IPA with, what was supposed to be, a Bacon & Burn burger; while I'm not too keen on banana peppers (the burn, presumably) the green pepper aioli was the major draw for ordering this, plus their burgers are on sourdough buns. Unfortunately, we got the wrong burger. I noticed when I opened it up to give Mark my peppers that there was no bacon on it; we'd wound up with the Crow burger, their standard burger. Although the food mix-up itself wasn't the reason, this was one of our more disappointing meals of the trip; nice atmosphere, but the food was just so-so. A regular burger, standard fries, gravy not worth mentioning ... can't win 'em all right?
Now for the major item on our Halifax list, Alexander Keith's Brewery tour! Not at all what we expected, it's a full time-period character tour, complete with singing. It's a really fun way to pass-on the history of the brewery and why it's the success it is. We were able to try a sample as part of the tour and both opted for the Galaxy hop ale, a newer brew in Keith's hops series, a very smooth ale with well-balanced hop flavours, I even enjoyed it! We also discovered that Keith's makes a cider so we stopped in at the Red Stag Tavern next door for a snack and a bevy. Keith's cider is really tasty, nice apple flavours with the major one being Granny Smith, so it's not too sweet. Make sure you order the coconut shrimp to go with your Keith's brew, you won't regret it ... unless you have fish allergies, then you'll regret it ...
Supper that evening was at The Arms, which is the restaurant in the Lord Nelson (yep, we're back here, with good reason, it's amazing.) Mark had the seafood chowder: salmon, haddock, scallops, and shrimp. Nice, creamy chowder but the haddock was slightly fishy-tasting. I tried something that's been on my food bucket list for some time, Cornish Game hen. De-boned and folded in half, the bird was sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes accompanied by perfectly grilled carrots and Brussels sprouts with lemon jus poured over it all. It was so tender and juicy I was in a happy food haze for the rest of the evening! The lemon jus added just the right burst of flavour to both the hen and the potatoes. Spoilers: this dish was also delicious cold, as a late night snack.
The next morning, Monday, we headed out at a fairly reasonable hour in search of coffee. At the recommendation of the doorman at the Lord Nelson (yep, they have doormen, good ones) we went to Pavia. There are two locations for Pavia, their main location is quite a ways from where we were staying, but their satellite location is in the new Halifax public library. It turns out to be the architectural wonder we'd been admiring since our first day here!
Fantastic coffee in a gorgeous library, how can this day get any better? I'll tell you how, lunch at Henry House! We'd driven past this cute, stone building while returning our rental car the previous day and it immediately caught my eye. We walked through some beautiful neighbourhoods admiring the houses, both their design and their colours, on our way to this quaint little restaurant. With a classy, sun-filled room on the main floor and a broody, dark-wood pub in the basement Henry House is exactly the type of place we look for on holidays. We both had beer from the local Granite Brewery which, our server informed us, was once located in this very building! We tried several of Granite's offerings and really enjoyed them all, from the Best Bitter to the Ringwood Pale Ale. They do layered/mixed brews too, the Lunatic Stout, Peculiar Ale mixed with the Keefe's Stout, was very tasty, indeed. After our delicious meal of a tender roast beef sandwich with caramelized onions and provolone on sourdough, and perfect hand-cut fries we finally figured out why we liked this place so much. It has a fantastic Jeeves & Wooster vibe: music, decor, everything just screams the kind of place Wooster would have frequented.
Our afternoon meanderings took us up to the Citadel, which is open in the loosest sense of the word. You can wander around and look at the buildings, but that's it. Don't bother going in the winter, we need to come back in the summer, apparently (a hardship, I know.) We found the Propeller Brewing Co., but there are no tours, just a storefront; you can do tastings but you have to book ahead. Found the Lower Deck Pub, recommended by a cousin of Mark's, and decided to get in out of the rain ... yep, rain, in January, in Halifax, blech ...
Wanting something to warm us up we ordered their lobster, tomato, and cheese dip with a selection of toast points; they will substitute tortilla chips for those who are GF, they did half-and-half for us, very accommodating. I would love to figure out the recipe for this dip, it was incredible! It would be awesome for celebrating Keith's birthday ... okay, friends, we need to start having a Keith's birthday party.
For supper we actually hit a place that was on the "researching Halifax" list, the much lauded Your Father's Moustache. We should have taken our inability to get in earlier in the trip as a sign, we ordered a bottle of wine, Katnook Founder's Block Cabernet Sauvignon (if you're interested), then perused the menu and immediately realized we should have gone elsewhere. The food offerings were no more interesting then you can find at any pub, any where. The only thing slightly out-of-the-ordinary for us, as Albertans, is the lobster roll; but you can find that at practically any pub or restaurant in Nova Scotia. We decided to give it a try, with the tomato gumbo on the side. The sandwich was just okay, really no better than Subway's seafood sub; although Subway has better bread. The tomato gumbo was pretty tasty, but we suspect that the great reviews for this place are because of the neat name and it's trendy look. We brought the remaining half of our wine back to our hotel room and had cold, leftover game hen; sadly, it was better than our supper. As per my spoiler, not knocking the cold hen, it was really good.
Next post: our last day :'(
Wanting something to warm us up we ordered their lobster, tomato, and cheese dip with a selection of toast points; they will substitute tortilla chips for those who are GF, they did half-and-half for us, very accommodating. I would love to figure out the recipe for this dip, it was incredible! It would be awesome for celebrating Keith's birthday ... okay, friends, we need to start having a Keith's birthday party.
For supper we actually hit a place that was on the "researching Halifax" list, the much lauded Your Father's Moustache. We should have taken our inability to get in earlier in the trip as a sign, we ordered a bottle of wine, Katnook Founder's Block Cabernet Sauvignon (if you're interested), then perused the menu and immediately realized we should have gone elsewhere. The food offerings were no more interesting then you can find at any pub, any where. The only thing slightly out-of-the-ordinary for us, as Albertans, is the lobster roll; but you can find that at practically any pub or restaurant in Nova Scotia. We decided to give it a try, with the tomato gumbo on the side. The sandwich was just okay, really no better than Subway's seafood sub; although Subway has better bread. The tomato gumbo was pretty tasty, but we suspect that the great reviews for this place are because of the neat name and it's trendy look. We brought the remaining half of our wine back to our hotel room and had cold, leftover game hen; sadly, it was better than our supper. As per my spoiler, not knocking the cold hen, it was really good.
Next post: our last day :'(