1959 Topsail Rd.
Ph. 722-6933
“Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait
very, very long time.”
Jules Renard
When my three companions and I drove onto the parking lot
of the Woodstock Colonial Restaurant it was after dark on a Friday evening. The
brightly lit low profile white wooden structure, looked as handsome at night as
it did in daylight. We were all looking forward to a relaxing end-of-the-week
meal and a glass of wine.
The Woodstock Colonial Inn - as it used to be known - with
its welcoming looks, was established in 1927. The name Woodstock came from the
name on the land, which had been known locally as “Woodstock” since the early
1800’s. Apparently there has been some type of food establishment on the site
for almost two hundred years.
The restaurant has always promoted itself as a traditional
Newfoundland dining spot with local dishes that offer home cooked taste.
Flipper pie aside, I have never felt that the restaurant conveyed anything
other than a strongly American colonial theme. In fact, from looking at the
Woodstock you couldn’t be blamed for thinking you were in southern Vermont.
Remember the Bob Newhart Show? Bob and Mary Frann played a
couple - the Loudens - that owned and operated a small colonial style inn in
Vermont. That’s what I think of when I visit the Woodstock. I’m almost
expecting to see Dick Louden walk by in his blue cardigan while I’m having my
cod au gratin. Or, even better, “Larry and Darryl and their other brother
Darryl.” However, Paradise is not Middlebury and Middlebury, Vermont is not
Paradise.
That said I did like the interior of the Woodstock. Maybe
because it made me feel like I had gotten away to another country and time. I
liked the old fireplace, the dark wood, colonial chairs, hanging lanterns and
bay windows. Then there were the decorative touches. The pictures, the mounted
American flintlock rifles with powder horns, the iron kettles, clay pots, jugs
and early American box coffee mill.
The first alcoholic drink I was allowed to taste - not
order - in a restaurant was the Woodstock’s Muffled Screech. That was in the
late sixties. It was a combination of Screech, Cointreau and cream. I mention
this only because that cocktail and several other current menu choices
indicated to me how little the Woodstock’s bill of fare had changed over the
years. Our table ordered a few dishes that weren’t around in the sixties but I
was still amazed by how much our meals resembled a table from that era. It was
not only the décor at the Woodstock that made me feel like I was going back in
time.
For example, we had cod au gratin. It’s probably been on
the Woodstock’s menu since the dish was invented. They still do a very good job
with it. Their version is very cheesy with lots of cod.
By the way, even cheesier was the music they played for
their customers. It sounded like Montavanni and his Orchestra, 101 Strings and
Ferrante and Teicher with selections like Syncopated Clock and Strangers in the
Night. They must have been playing the original recordings because in the
background you could hear the familiar scratchy sounds of a well-worn track.
While the cod au gratin was up to scratch, the other
seafood appetizers at our table needed a little help. The warm scallop, bacon
and spinach salad with Grand Marnier vinaigrette had dressing applied to the
centre only. Therefore the majority of the spinach leaves were without
dressing. Consequently the salad was mostly cold, not warm. The scallops for
the salad appeared to have been sliced and then cooked. Personally I would have
cooked the scallops whole before slicing them, since scallops cook so quickly.
Slicing reduces the cooking time dramatically. Unfortunately our Woodstock
scallops were dry and overcooked.
The Woodstock offered calamari rolls - definitely not a
sixties dish. These were rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. The menu indicated
the calamari would be finished in white wine and lemon parsley. I tasted mostly
cooking oil and even after emptying most of the juice from a lemon wedge onto
it, the dish still didn’t acquire the acidity it needed.
The Woodstock’s prime rib was fit for a prince. They
provided a piece of steak that looked to be at least an inch thick with a tasty
jus, Yorkshire pudding and medley of vegetables like potato, carrot, broccoli
and snow peas. The entire dish was perfectly executed.
Another winning dish was the Woodstock’s chicken Josephine.
The dish contained a sautéed chicken breast in a fresh cream sauce consisting
of mushrooms, scallions, bacon and Parmesan cheese. It was tender and full of
flavour.
The Woodstock’s “perfection flipper pie” was not
perfection. It did have a tasty fresh biscuit crust and the dish was
flavourful. However, it consisted mostly of a large bone - with little meat
attached - in vegetable gravy. A restaurant should never sell game pies with
bones in them. People go to expensive restaurants to avoid having to deal with
such things.
I couldn’t resist having the roast duckling a l’orange,
another dish from the sixties. It came with a boat of quite acceptable orange
sauce. However, the duck itself did not taste of having been marinated or
basted in anything orange. Worse though was with the quality of the duck
itself. It had very little meat on its bones and what meat there was required
me to wrestle like Gorilla Monsoon to pry it loose from the frame. I literally
broke into a sweat trying to separate the leg, using my knife and bending the
bone back and forth, over and over. Honestly, I was scared that any second the
duck might go flying across the room and hit a fellow customer in the mouth.
Our desserts - cheesecake and chocolate ganache cake - were
very good. The cheesecake was a standard New York style cake that came with a
fruit topping of your choice, like partridgeberry or bakeapple. The chocolate
ganache was a scratch cake made more appealing by its distinctive coconut
flavour, provided by a shot of Malibu liqueur. It was very moist and partnered
nicely with a raspberry coulis and a few fresh raspberries.
I’m glad the Woodstock Colonial Restaurant is still around.
Its history and atmosphere alone give it the right to be. However, they need to
bring their menu more in line with what people are looking for in restaurant
fare these days. They should provide more light dishes with less fat and
calories, concentrate to a greater degree on seafood, be much more innovative
with game and get rid of older menu items that don’t work. Rubber ducks are
fine in the bathtub but not on the plate.
Our meal for four - including four cocktails and a $34
bottle of red wine and tip - cost $276.38.
The noise level at the Woodstock Colonial Restaurant was
low. The restaurant was wheelchair accessible but the rest rooms were not.
Best Points:
Good atmosphere and décor.
Areas for Improvement:
Remove roast duckling a l’orange from your menu.
Ratings Category:
The Woodstock Colonial Restaurant gets 7.5 out of 10
points.