Fireside Eatery at Hotel Mount Pearl

Fireside Eatery

7 Park Avenue

Ph. (709) 746-3832

Here’s something to think about. You’re in the West End of St. John’s or Mount Pearl and someone asks, “Where’s a good place to get something to eat around here?” Assuming “around here” means an eatery within a half-mile radius, I’d say you’d be struggling to come up with more than one name. The entire area is, not exactly a vast wasteland (apologies to Newton Minow) when it comes to restaurants, but close. And gourmet coffee? Forget it; although, at the risk of getting you overexcited, I did hear a rumour that Second Cup may be opening in the Pearl.

We of the west must therefore give thanks when something comes along offering anything, even a little different, from the regular diet of fast food restaurants. Fireside Eatery is such a place. It’s located in the Hotel Mount Pearl but is independently owned and operated. In fact our server, Andrea, told us she was one of the owners. I took it as a good sign that an owner was that involved with the business. Our Fireside Eatery service, by the way, was impeccable: friendly, helpful and efficient.

Fireside Eatery is a rectangular room at the back of the hotel. Windows with booths,

View of Waterford Valley from Fireside’s window

seating four to six people, overlook a valley of evergreen and deciduous trees. A deck detracts somewhat from the view but I tried not to notice. Tables with caramel coloured, padded banquette seating run along the wall opposite the windows. The restaurant is anchored by a dark wood floor, cream walls and ceiling. A fireplace can be seen at the end of the room, as well as a portion of wall in brick.

Hours

It’s important to note that Fireside Eatery is only open for breakfast and lunch. Go there after 2:30 p.m. and you’re out of luck. That probably accounts for the fact that they serve only two wines: Alma Mora Pinot Grigio and Las Moras Cabernet-Shiraz. Molson beer is available too. On the non-alcoholic side they serve a range of soft drinks, juices and strawberry-banana smoothies.

Fireside’s Wild Fire Wings

Chicken wing meat, along with drumsticks and thighs, is the tastiest part of a chicken. Wings, even when cooked by the plainest method, are addictive. Like potato chips, it’s hard to stop at one. Make them beautifully crispy and slightly spicy as they do at Fireside Eatery and you may not want to stop at all. The wings come either coated in BBQ sauce or with the sauce on the side. We had it on the side. It was a hot chilli sauce diluted with tomato, according to the level of heat preferred by the customer. We chose “mild” so our wing sauce had lots of tomato flavour.

Fireside’s signature soup

One of three soups offered at Fireside Eatery piqued my interest because it was listed as the restaurant’s signature soup. It had three robustly flavoured main ingredients: tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach. The bright red of tinned tomatoes and deep green of fresh spinach made it very attractive to the eye. Some aromatics enhanced the soup but the core flavours blended to make it deliciously earthy to the taste.

Fireside’s signature salad

Salad

Fireside Eatery also has a signature selection in its salad line-up. It’s a mixed greens, spinach, fruit and nut salad that can be served with or without grilled chicken. I had it sans chicken. It looked, even minus the chicken, very appetizing. A mixture of fresh light and dark greens was dotted with dried cranberries, pecans, mandarin orange sections and crumbled feta. A drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette gave the already bright flavours a further lift.

Pan fried cod at Fireside Eatery

They serve excellent pan-fried cod at Fireside Eatery. A large, tender, moist piece of golden brown fillet came smothered in crispy scrunchions. A small amount of tartar sauce was served on the side to accent the fish but I thought the cod tasted just fine on its own. Slightly firm broccoli and sliced carrot joined a generous helping of home style fries to provide more good eating.

Another substantial lunch item was an open-faced sandwich featuring a striploin

Striploin open faced sandwich at Fireside Eatery

steak on a toasted garlic bun. I ordered mine medium rare and that’s exactly how it was served. The steak was smothered in mushrooms, onion and melted cheese. The home cut sweet potato fries, which came with a dip consisting of mayo, chipotle and sour cream, were highly colourful and commendably crisp.

Fireside Eatery offer something else worthy of mention and that’s their quick lunch menu. For ten dollars you can have a lunch with your choice of five main items, such as one piece of fish or lasagne with garlic bread, as well as a choice of side: fries, soup or salad. The quick lunch is available Monday through Friday.

Rating:

***  

Price:

Lunch for two with wine and gratuity – $90.00 (approx.)

Sound level:

Moderate

* Fair  * * Good  * * * Excellent  * * * * Exceptional

(L-R) Jennifer Pardy, Cheryl Pardy

Oils, vinegars and the Pardy sisters

“Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.” The lyrics to the Irving Berlin song from the movie, White Christmas, came to mind when I sat down with Jennifer Pardy and her sister-in-law Cheryl Pardy, co-owners of O’Leva Oils and Vins Tasting Room, 390 Topsail Road (next to the Rogers store in the Shoppers Drug Mart strip mall). The upbeat song continues, “Two different faces, but in tight places we think and we act as one.” In telling me about their new business, selling premium olive oils and vinegars, the Pardys would enthusiastically finish each other’s sentences. It was as though they couldn’t get the information out fast enough. The song seemed apt.

Inside O’Leva Oils and Vins

O’Leva Oils and Vins is a bright, roomy store. Large windows at the front cast light on row upon row of island shelving. Each island has placed on it six fustis (canisters). Some fustis contain olive oil and some vinegar. The open shelves below are filled with empty, dark green bottles of various sizes to hold whatever amount of oil or vinegar you’d like to purchase. Olive oils and condimental (not vintage) balsamic vinegars cost the same. You can buy 60 mL for $6, 200 mL at $14, 375 mL at $22 or 750 mL for $32. Black truffle, cayenne and sesame oils are in a separate price range.

Apart from the oils and vinegars, O’Leva Oils and Vins also carry a range of pastas from Pasta Mama’s of Washington State, some of which are flavoured, and a range of

all natural, organic dips, sauces and rubs from Robert Rothschild Farm of Urbana, Ohio. These products, however, take a back seat to the oils and vinegars that dominate O’Leva Oils and Vins in their sparkling, stainless steel fustis. All oils and vinegars at O’Leva Oils and Vins are supplied exclusively by the California based Veronica Foods Company, importer of 100 million gallons of extra virgin olive oil yearly from both hemispheres.

Southern oils

Currently O’Leva Oils and Vins have a supply of flavoured and various extra virgin olive oils, mostly from the southern hemisphere. They have names like: Koroneiki, Coratina, FS17, Hojiblanca, Frantoio, Leccino, Upper Moutere. Some are mild with hints of mashed banana and grass while others range from peppery to take-your-breath-away hot.

Jennifer Pardy likens olive oil to wine in that individual taste determines what you buy. “It’s your choice as to whether you like deep, dark wine or say, a white wine. I think it’s the same for olive oils.”

Koroneiki poured straight from canister

Of course, only top quality olive oils would be paid such attention and co-owners, Jennifer and Cheryl Pardy, are confident that the olive oils they sell are worthy of consideration by discerning palates. Cheryl Pardy explained “quality” this way.

“The grocery store brands use a process that yields more juice, allowing them to sell olive oil for a cheaper price, which is not behind the philosophy of our products. We mull fresh olives that are picked at a specific time in their growth process and we grind them at a certain temperature, which yields less juice. All of our olive oils are then taken to a lab and processed to yield chemistry (nutritional properties). Most grocery store olive oils have had most of the chemistry burned off in the processing of the olive oil. That’s what differentiates us from most any other olive oil brands in the world.”

Smoking point

One tidbit of information I found most interesting was that O’Leva Oils and Vins claim that their olive oil has a higher smoking point than grocery store olive oils. Why? It’s because, according to Jennifer Pardy, “the healthy chemistry isn’t burnt off of it. Its tolerance to heat is higher because of the polyphenol levels, so it allows for a little more abuse on it than the grocery store kinds because it wasn’t heated up during the processing that yields the juice to make the olive oil.”

Bottles for filling with your favourite oil

If true, this means that I may now be able to use olive oil in frying, sautéing and baking without fear of it burning and making nasty stains on my pots and pans. One of the infused olive oils I tasted at O’Leva Oils and Vins called, Butter Olive Oil, would be a prime candidate for baking especially. It’s remarkable buttery aroma and taste was accomplished by taking a molecule from butter and creating a natural flavouring to add to the oil. O’Leva Oils and Vins provide a most helpful conversion chart that allows you to convert butter amounts to the equivalent Butter Olive Oil amounts when using recipes that call for butter.

Apart from everything else, we’ve known since the 1980’s – when the Mediterranean diet was all the rage – that olive oil is better for you than many other fats. Jennifer Pardy reminded me of just how healthful it is.

“Our olive oil,” she said, “decreases atherosclerosis, it decreases glucose levels in your arteries by the mono-unsaturated fats allowing the blood stream not to absorb as much fat. Basically you should consume olive oil because the health properties of olive oil have the antioxidants in them (inhibitors of oxidization which in all forms ages us). Vitamin E is a component in the polyphenols which is the antioxidant. The mono-unsaturated fats are the good, healthy fats that you want to consume to help with cholesterol levels, which in turn help with our disease.”

Plaque

“By lowering your cholesterol you’re lowering the amount of atherosclerotic plaque on your arteries. Olive oil is your best consumed fat and your best cooking option because it contains all of these health properties. Can you go to a grocery store and yield any chemistry (nutritional properties) from any olive oil off the shelf? No. None of it is labelled on it. Every one of our olive oils has its exact components labelled right on it.”

My conversation with the Pardy sisters-in-law ended on a sweet and delicious note. They served me a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with drizzles of their Blood Orange Extra Virgin Olive Oil and their All Natural Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar. It was a good illustration of how you need to leave conventional thinking about using olive oils and vinegars at the door when entering O’Leva Oils and Vins. It’s innovative and exciting territory in the field of natural, healthful culinary ingredients. I think curious cooks, foodies and the St. John’s culinary community may well embrace this new venture called, O’Leva Oils and Vins.

Vanilla ice cream drizzled with olive oil and vinegar

Get Stuffed

Get Stuffed

190 Duckworth Street

Ph. (709) 757-2480

People frequently ask me, “Where’s a good spot for brunch or lunch on Sunday in St. John’s?” There are about four places that I recommend. Now there’s one more. I had no idea Get Stuffed was open for lunch (12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) on Sundays. We had intended to go somewhere else, but my partner noticed while driving by that it was open. Not having darkened the doorway of Get Stuffed for a few years, we decided to give it a try.

The restaurant hasn’t physically changed in years. Everything looks the same: black and grey table cloths, purple upholstered banquette augmented with cushions of various colours and fabrics, and a few pieces of art. While a change in décor is warranted at this stage, one constant that’s a definite asset is the man in charge of the kitchen, chef and owner, Rob Summers.

Summers and his partner, Dana Williams started Get Stuffed seven years ago after Django’s closed. They’ve been relentlessly devoted to the restaurant and that devotion has been rewarded. Get Stuffed is a success, a small family run restaurant with a loyal following. Some of those fans were present when we arrived for Sunday lunch. One chap made it a point to say hello and tell me he dines at Get Stuffed every Sunday.

Hard worker

Rob Summers spends 30 to 35 hours a week on his feet at Get Stuffed’s stove. Unlike some executive chefs these days who spend time cooking for or otherwise taking part in events outside their restaurants, be it in the city, outside the city or even outside the province, you know that when you visit Get Stuffed, chances are very good Summers will be preparing your meal.

I thought it was fitting that just as I was thinking of Summers back there in the kitchen, on his feet yet again, that on the restaurant’s sound system Lana del Ray was singing in her plaintive tone, “Feet don’t fail me now; Take me to the finish line.”

Piper-Heidsieck and Chambord aperitif

The day was warm and sunny. I was in the mood for something light, alcoholic and effervescent. Our very competent server, Mark, had just opened a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck brut champagne. He made me an aperitif consisting of 1.3 ounces of Chambord (raspberry liqueur) and topped off the flute with the Piper-Heidsieck. It was bright red, cool, light, sweet and summery.

Although it’s more of a dish for cold weather I decided to order the cream based seafood chowder. Server Mark said it contained surf clams, fresh cod and mussels. Everything, except two mussels on the shell, had broken down into small bits in the chowder but I could identify the taste of cod and (I thought) shrimp. Shrimp wasn’t advertised as part of the dish so I took it to be a bonus feature. It was creamy and satisfying chowder. Just a bit more intense seafood flavour would have made it even better.

Spectacular

Partner started with grilled calamari that was spectacularly presented. The body of

Get Stuffed’s grilled calamari

the squid had been cut into rings but not all the way through. In other words, all of the individual rings still remained attached to one another by a thin strip of meat – like keys on a ring. The calamari was cooked quickly and tossed with a sun dried tomato vinaigrette. On the plate it was served on arugula with the unattached side of the rings facing skyward. Our server said, “You won’t taste finer in Spain.” I believe you won’t taste finer in St. John’s, unless you’re one who favours battered and fried calamari, where it’s really more about the fat and the batter than the calamari.

Fettuccine with shrimp by Get Stuffed

Get Stuffed has a daily pasta special. The pasta is handmade and, like anything made from scratch, adds to the experience in my view. The chef had made fettuccine, served with sautéed shrimp, pesto, olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, shallots and white wine. The pale puff of steam rising from the plate and the aroma were all it took to make me want to immediately start twirling fettuccine around my fork. The dish was everything I wanted it to be.

When properly done a pulled pork sandwich is manna for meat eaters. A fatty cut of pork slowly barbecued (on very low moist heat) and regularly basted with a sweet and tangy sauce is intoxicatingly good eating. You then pull the meat apart with your hands, pile the ribbons of pork on a bun, add more sauce and serve it with coleslaw. That pretty much describes the pulled pork sandwich at Get Stuffed. The difference is, they put the coleslaw on the pork. (I like it separate.) It was a very authentic tasting version of the classic Southern US sandwich. A lightly battered, deep fried (fritto misto style) slice of dill pickle was served with the sandwich. It was simply done but surprisingly delicious.

Banana in phyllo with nut covered ice cream

We ended lunch by sharing a dessert of bananas and chocolate cooked in phyllo, served with vanilla ice cream coated in a crunchy, fine mixture of pecans, hazelnuts and coffee beans. It was high in calories but worth every one.

Rating:

***  

Price:

Lunch for two with wine and gratuity – $125.00 (approx.)

Sound level:

Moderate

* Fair  * * Good  * * * Excellent  * * * * Exceptional