Despite being a city girl at heart, as the snow melts and the mercury rises, an overwhelming desire to get out of town and into nature comes over me. In Toronto, we’re blessed to be within a 2-hour drive of two wine regions: Niagara-on-the-lake is the better known of the two, but Prince Edward County is becoming increasingly developed and offers a fair collection of wineries, without the crowds. After all, while lounging in nature, the last thing I want to do is battle a throng of tourists.
During
sunny days, being outside in a vineyard is serene – basking in the sun and
taking in the greenery and rows of vines. At Norman Hardie, you can do this in
comfort while enjoying a glass of wine and a hot wood-burning oven pizza. Ah…
relaxing perfection.
Before
tackling their pizzas, our foursome shared a large portion of their organic
greens ($15), tender lettuce leaves with crunchy heirloom carrots dressed in a light
tangy oven roasted shallot dressing. It feels like you’re doing something
healthy and dampens any hunger pains as we wait for the mains to arrive – given
the pizzas are made-to-order by one person in one oven, it can take a while.
Ordering
a margherita ($14) pizza is a great
way to gauge a restaurant’s quality. It’s just tomato, cheese (in this case fior de latte) and basil – no overly
strong flavours to detract from the tried and true ingredients. The crust made
me swoon: despite being paper thin the bottom was crispy and allowed slices to
be held without becoming a droopy soggy mess. Yet, the dough still has a soft
chewiness to it and didn’t become a crispy cracker. If you’d prefer a meat
version of the margherita, try the di taleggio ($17), which has the same
base but also incorporates salty cured speck and mild taleggio cheese.
Yet it’s
the salsiccia ($17) white pizza I
yearn for with its plump pieces of crumbled sausage, sweet caramelized onions, spicy
hot peppers, garlic, and fior di latte.
The pizza is satisfyingly rich and flavourful; it went particularly well with
the glass of County Gamay ($12).
Do
yourself a favour and set aside at least an hour and a half for the meal – you
may need to wait for a table and the freshly made pizzas take time. But most
importantly, enjoy the time just being outdoors amongst the vineyard, sipping
wine and tucking into a hot pie. Road trip anyone?
How To Find Them
Location: Wellington, Canada
Address: 1152 Greer Road
Address: 1152 Greer Road
Website: http://www.normanhardie.com/
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
Is That It? I Want More!
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