Lunch October 20, 2012 at The Bonavista Social Club, Upper Amherst Cove, Newfoundland.

The day was beautiful and I didn’t want to stay in the studio and work all afternoon so I decided to drive to Upper Amherst Cove and have lunch at The Bonavista Social Club. It is a restaurant with a wood fired oven, imported from France, that was started this May (2012) by Katie Paterson a young trained chef who was born and raised in Upper Amherst Cove in Newfoundland. I took the two Cd set ‘The Ultimate Soul Collection’ and cruised with the windows opened and the music playing looking at the gorgeous landscape with its hundred lakes and forests along the route and also kept an eye open for moose who might wander onto the road. There are seven hundred moose-auto collisions in Newfoundland each year and they can be fatal. The drive takes about half an hour, about as long as it takes me to walk to Patachou from Highbourne Road. There was only one other couple at the restaurant when I arrived and they were sitting inside. I was torn between sitting out or in thinking it might be cold outside but decided to try it anyway. It was about 2:30 by then and the sun was already low and directly on the terrace and I was able to find a place to sit and bathe in the sun’s warmth. It was October 20 on the Bonavista Peninsula, four hundred and fifty miles out in the North Atlantic, and the sun was bouncing off the water and the sea was surging and the sound of waves hitting the rocks was audible and there was an eagle flying around and at one point during the meal I noticed a group of dolphins blowing and moving in the middle of the bay. I always have pizza at BSC and it was the pizza I was thinking about when driving to the restaurant but when I got there and read the menu I saw Katie was offering a pappardelle with a moose ragout. It was a dish I couldn’t resist and so ordered that and a pizza to go there-by taking care of dinner as well. At the BSC there is always a daily salad and today it had roasted beets and crumpled feta and mixed greens all from the garden. The gardens around the property are extensive and Katie’s family grows everything from garlic to asparagus. It was delicious and where I was sitting and being the only one in a place that is usually so crowded made it taste even better. I drank water and just relaxed in a way I hadn’t been able to since I got back to Newfoundland on September 27^th after spending a few weeks roaming the corridors of various hospitals in Toronto following the progress of my father who had taken a turn for the worse.  With lunch the breadbasket today had an onion focaccia. Katie is an outstanding baker and in the morning before the restaurant opens a variety of breads - baguettes, multi-grain, sourdough, focaccia, and bagels – are baked in the wood oven. When the pasta came it was a thing of beauty. I am partial to pappardelle and this dish with it carrots, mushrooms, and fresh parmesan accompanying what could best be described as pieces of pulled moose did not disappoint. Katie makes her own pappardelle with eggs from their chickens, flour and olive oil. This was the best dish I had eaten in a restaurant in Newfoundland since June and it may have been one of the best pastas I have ever eaten and the eating experience was enhanced by the warmth of the sun, the clarity of the sky, the expanse of the sea and the sight of the water splashing up between the rocks further along the coast. Goats were grazing as well in a pasture overlooking the sea. A meal like this, perfect in every way, is always a surprise. A meal like this cannot be planned and one cannot even have an expectation of enjoying a meal so intensely and especially in the middle of an autumn afternoon in rural Newfoundland. After a coffee when I paid the bill I thanked Katie for the experience. Earlier we had talked about how she could develop a reputation amongst people who love to eat by serving dishes like this moose ragout and other things that are all locally sourced. She had fish cakes on the menu as well today and we talked about crab and lobster and scallops and squid and of course cod. She now has a license to serve game and will have grouse and rabbit on the menu. How locally sourced was the moose. Well it turns out her brother, Denzel, shot it a couple of days ago and she prepared the ragout for him. Sitting there was like being on the Skerwink trail in the morning an experience I didn’t want to end but there were some chores to do and I had to make sure I got to a grocery store before they all closed. Most are on winter hours now and not opened on Sunday.