“You have an *outside*?”

Patio summer, travel edition

Most people don’t really get our restaurant thing. They enjoy eating, but to actually see dinner at a restaurant as an experience in itself (not just as a good place to meet friends), or as something you might build a vacation around (versus something you might have to do while on vacation)… It’s not that common.

And I get it. I don’t think most people are weird because they wouldn’t rather spend time and money on that than other experiences. Clearly Jean and I are the weird ones. (On a lower budget scale, we are the type of people satirized in the movie The Menu.)

But I just don’t love restaurants enough to throw all caution to the wind and risk crowded indoor meals night after night. This has made travel planning stressful, because on the other hand, I also don’t think I’d be very happy with my trip if it mainly consisted of street hot dogs and takeout meals eaten in my hotel room.

So for Fall vacation this year, I pushed for September instead of October, with the thought that maybe the patios will still be open.

This is how it went.

Prince Edward County

My advance research had revealed that enough wineries there had patios (often covered) and served food that we weren’t apt to starve while aiming for outdoor dining. We might get a bit sick of wood-oven pizza, we might have to do most of our eating before 5 pm… But we wouldn’t starve.

In the end, though, we didn’t have to rely on (just) that.

Dilemma-free Sunday

The Sunday weather forecast was pretty good. And the night before, I had finally noticed that one well-reviewed Italian restaurant in Picton not only had a patio, but they let you reserve seating on it (with warning that they could not be held accountable if the weather turned and there was no room left inside, which is fair enough).

On the problems and perils of patio research

A lot of restaurant websites suck in general at providing key information, and whether or not the place has any outdoor seating is among the data often omitted. I learned to peruse the restaurants’ Instagram accounts (since patios make for nice pictures) and seek out blogs lists of “Great restaurant with patios” for particular destinations. But even once you’ve confirmed that a patio exists at a place, there’s often no knowing how late in the season it stays open (August for sure; late September 🤷‍♀️). And being able to reserve seating on them is pretty rare.

So we did that, and our first dinner of the trip was at Onesta.

Information availability: Pretty good. Though it required some digging, the website did say they had a patio and they let you reserve on it.

Food quality and service: Excellent! The pictured gnocchi was one of the best items of the trip. My duck meatball pasta was also very good. And the lattes were some of the best we’ve ever had anywhere! Service was quite professional.

Patio ambiance: Just so-so, as it was a patio on the sidewalk. At least it was on a quiet side street.

Monday’s dilemma: Weather

Rain was predicted for much of peak dinner time, from 4 to 7 or so.

We therefore decided to have a wood-fired pizza lunch at a covered patio at the very charming Harwood Estates Vineyards.

Information availability: Very good. Website was quite clear that they had a covered patio that you could book. I called to do so just before driving over.

Food quality and service: Very friendly and attentive people. Menu nothing overly creative, but well-prepared food.

Patio ambiance: The back patio was prettier, but in case of rain, we picked the front covered one.

Post-wineries, later in the afternoon, we stopped back at our hotel. And then proceeded to do more napping than intended. We awoke after 7 to now clear skies, slightly rumbly tummies, and no dinner plans.

I phoned another Picton restaurant called Bocado to ask if they were serving on their patio this evening. They confirmed that they were and said they’d save us a seat. Which they did, even though we gave them neither name nor phone number.

Information availability: Not great. Had to email to find out how late in the season their patio was open, but they did respond promptly with a suggestion to call on the day.

Food quality and service: It was a Spanish tapas place, so we had a number of little plates. Some items were really great, others just good. The service was excellent. It was really busy, but they were up to it.

Patio ambiance: Quite nice for an on-street patio. And they had heaters, which was pleasant for this later meal under darkening skies.

Tuesday’s dilemma: Is it worth the drive to Kingston?

Well ahead of time, I had booked a dinner this day at a Kingston restaurant that was well-reviewed and had a covered patio. But it was a nice day, so we did wonder if we should try somewhere else, such Gananoque favourite Riva, rather then drive to Kingston only to have dinner.

But we decided to stick with our reservation.

Which was just as well, because that very week Riva had switched to Fall hours, meaning they were closed on Tuesdays! We did want a bit of lunch, so we went to a little cafe we’d discovered called The Pistachio.

Information availability: Irrelevant, as we just came upon this place.

Food quality and service: Very friendly barista who was thrilled they were having such a busy Tuesday (normally their quietest day). We both had grilled cheese sandwich (real cheese and bread!), tomato soup (very tomato-ey, not too salty), and lattes (not Onesta but still good).

Patio ambiance: Kind of nice for an “alley way” patio, with flowers and whatnot.

Then late afternoon, we drove to Kingston and, after a walk, dined at the lovely River Mill Restaurant.

Information availability: Good! All I’d had to confirm by email was how late in the season the covered patio stayed open, which is to end of September.

Food quality and service: Quite good. We might have had minor notes, like that the duck confit didn’t really need the salt of smoked bacon or so much romaine—but it was really great duck confit. Server was attentive and informative.

Patio ambiance: A beautiful river front location. Someone passing by stopped over to comment that we were just the picture of idyllic dining up there. (And despite the lovely evening, we had the whole thing to ourselves!)

Almonte

Almonte is a charmer of a town and a real foodie destination.

Wednesday’s dilemma: Do I ditch the patio for the better food?

Despite its small size, as a foodie tourist destination, Almonte offered two good-sounding restaurants as dinner. One was an Italian place with a patio. The other was a “casual fine dining” place without.

While the Italian place sounded fine, there was no doubt that the “casual fine dining” place sounded better. So I thought, let’s chance it. It’s mid-week, we can go early, hopefully it won’t be too crowded.

So we arrived at The Sterling, and as she was grabbing the menus, the hostess asked if we’d like to sit indoors or out.

“You have an outside?” exclaimed I. They did—a completely hidden back patio. Which of course is where we dined. It was another lovely day.

Information availability: Terrible. No inkling anywhere about their patio.

Food quality and service: Amaze-balls! One of the best meals of the trip. Creative and excellent food all around. Good service.

Patio ambiance: Great—a really cool back patio, which we definitely didn’t have to ourselves (but never felt crowded).

Ottawa-Gatineau

At least we made it out of Ontario this time! (Thanks to Ottawa’s location on the Quebec border.)

Thursday’s dilemma: Where to eat?

Admittedly, this wasn’t a huge dilemma. Given that it was another nice day (the weather gods were truly kind to us this trip), and the Byward Market area seemed to have a ka-jillion patios still open.

We went with Sidedoor, a restaurant that we had been to before, but not in quite a few years, that is “inspired by the street food of Southeast Asia”.

Information availability: Pretty good, I think? I somehow knew ahead that they were one of the many Byward restaurants with a patio.

Food quality and service: Very good. Like, I ordered the soft-shell crab dish, thinking I was going to be disappointed—because soft-shell crab is usually disappointing—but I was not. It was so good. As you can see in the photo, though, the servings were quite a bit bigger than we were expecting (as it’s a small plates kind of restaurant), which is not really a criticism. It did mean we had no room for dessert.

Patio ambiance: Quite a pretty patio on a quiet (no cars) street in the market.

Friday’s dilemma: Do we take a chance on Arlo?

Arlo has made the list of the best restaurants in Canada, and per their website, they do have a patio. They are located down on Somerset, where we happened to be on Thursday. We stopped in that day to ask about a possible Friday dinner there and they said, despite the great weather forecast, that they couldn’t be sure if their patio would be open. That it had no heaters, so people didn’t like to be out there too late, and that it was sometimes hard to staff.

So though it sounded cool, that uncertainty, combined with it being a pretty long walk from our hotel, caused us to ditch the idea of eating there. Instead we went with the Byward market Courtyard Restaurant.

Information availability: Dunno; we were walk-ins.

Food quality and service: The food was quite good, but probably a bit premium priced due to the location. (Like, my tomato dish there was $18.) The waitress was very good, helpful with wine picks and such.

Patio ambiance: Fantastic. This courtyard (shared with a few other restaurants) is just a beautiful spot in the market to eat—which I’d never done before, oddly enough! (Jean had, once, for work.)

Dilemma-free Saturday

Well ahead, I had booked dinner at Fairouz, yet another Byward market restaurant with a patio, though this one was covered. Not that we needed it—indeed, it was another lovely day.

Information availability: Excellent, no calls or follow-ups needed.

Food quality and service: Really great, actually! It’s Middle Eastern food, very carefully prepared, tasty and a bit different. Also had an excellent orange wine (from Ontario) that matched really well. Various people attended to our table and were able to help us through the menu and wine choices.

Patio ambiance: Not quite as lovely as the other two market patios, but still a nice back patio on a quiet street, integrating trees. We were the first seated on the patio, but by the end, all tables were taken (it’s not crowded, though).