support local farmers and purveyors, a healthy food truck trade, a variety of culi- nary events, farmers markets, and in the surprising trend of beer and winemaking.
Along with the long-running Alexander Keith’s Brewery, today, Halifax boasts top- notch craft beers including Propeller, Garrison, Granite and North Brewing Company - well regarded quaffs you’re likely to find here on the East Coast. Too, nearby AnnapolisValley,with its misty, sun dappled micro-climate, is becoming a mecca for wineries - a grape, apple and blueberry-laden oasis for fermentation and bottling.
Dinner my first night is at a subterranean find called The Cellar Wine Bar - one of those blink-and-miss-it spots I’m always trying to locate in most every city I ever visit - and here it is. Manager Peter Hiscott urgesme to try the artichoke and spinach
terrine encrusted with a rich blanket of parmesan. My first lunch is at a wildly enjoyable gastropub on Grafton Street, comically called The Stubborn Goat.
My bartender, Nile, steers me toward that potato-y bulwark of French-Canadian cookery, poutine. The Goat’s excellent version is laced with slivers of pancetta amid satisfying cheese curds in rich gravy.
My next lunch is at the Grill at Cut. This is the softer bistro residing below Cut, the city’s top steakhouse, which is a more masculine version of its more casual and feminized sister restaurant. It is here where I indulge in pan seared Dighby scallops (Hey, when in Rome…) in a coconut rum curry sauce - yum!
Yet another lunch is thoroughly enjoyed at the open and airy Harbourstone Sea Grill and Pour House. Its octo-syllabic
name may be a bit lengthy, but the menu full of Scotian specialties is quite superb. My yummy lobster roll is one of the best I’ve ever tasted.
Me being me, I cruise from restaurant to bar to restaurant throughout my sojourn, asking managers if I may take mini-tours of such notable places like Murphy’s – a vast 350-seat restaurant (with a 200 person patio) along the wharf; Durty Nelly’s (wheremy bartender, “Rummy,”shakesmy hand and greets me with a hearty “Welcome Home!”); and, The Bicycle Thief, a tres-chic waterfront boite that is, I’m told by several individuals along the way, the best kitchen in the city.
Though the harbor walk area is all grown up since that one and only visit I took long ago, it retains a wharf-y look and shanty feel - a perfect place to stroll, grab a drink, listen to one of the spontaneous-
My Ultimate Halifax Homecoming
When I first visited the city in August of 1986, I was just out of college and working as a bellman at a major suburban hotel. While staying at the
Halifax Sheraton (now the Marriott Harbourfront) I spent long moments watching the young concierge there, Glenn, as he expertly provided information and directions to his guests. Polite, professional, and well-
tailored, the young man had completely impressed me. “That is what I want to do!” I said to my girlfriend (now my wife), Dana, while pointing at Glenn. “I want to be a concierge.”
Soon after, I pitched my GM about giving me a concierge position… Fast forward to Halifax in July of 2014 –
While telling this same story to the sales director of the Westin Nova
Scotian, Glenn Bowie’s face broke into a broad smile. “Ken,” he said. “I was the concierge at the Sheraton back in 1986. That was me.”
Tears almost came to my eyes. “I’ve always wanted to do this to the young man who inspired me so much, He – meaning you – changed my life.”
And with that I shook Glenn Bowie’s hand. 76 September October 2014
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