Vegan Practically

Summer is such a great season in Ontario and I have had lots of outings, with more to come. Most recently, I attended a wedding in the Longpoint/Port Dover area and a few days later went to Stratford for lunch and a play. They’re not really the sorts of day trips or even weekend trips that you would do together, but I am blogging about them together because they’re all easy to get to by car from other parts of Southwestern Ontario, like London, and also from the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

Let’s start with Port Dover and Longpoint. I attended a beautiful wedding at the Burning Kiln Winery on the August long weekend. It’s out in the country, not really near much else other than a lovely eco-park across the street called Longpoint Ecoadventures Resort and Retreat Centre. It’s near Turkey Point Provincial Park, about halfway between Port Rowan and Port Dover, both on Lake Erie. The park itself is not on the lake but it’s nicely situated with a great panoramic view over parkland, marshland, and the lake in the distance.

We spent two nights in a yurt at the lodge. I’ve never done that before and I recommend it. It had a little front yard with a fire pit and some Muskoka chairs. They provide each site with firewood for the night. And our beds were so incredibly comfy and cozy. But to the food!

On Friday night we went into Port Dover for dinner at 211 Main. It’s a hopping spot with an omni menu and two levels of seating both inside and outside. You can’t reserve a table outside, but they do take reservations inside. They have a selection of vegan options, including black bean burgers, beyond burgers, and pizza with vegan cheese and a good selection of veggie toppings. Burgers come with a choice of fries or salad with an option to upgrade to waffle-cut sweet potato fries, which my friend did.

I had a Beyond Burger and fries and my friend Steph had the black bean burger and sweet potato fries. Hers was supposed to come with avocado and chipotle sauce, but they somehow thought that, like me, she was just substituting a vegan burger patty in place of meat on the “Ol’ Faithful” burger. I took some photos of the meals with my phone, but to be honest I don’t much like the way food looks when captured with a phone camera, even a good phone camera, so I’m not posting them. The place had great fries (both kinds) and the burgers were good. We both came away from our meals too full to think about trying the plant-based ice cream (multiple flavours) at an ice cream place we passed by on our post-dinner walk to the beach.

The next day we had lunch at the Marshview Patio and Bar at the resort. It’s got a pleasant outdoor space that overlooks the beautiful view I talked about earlier. The whole outside is under a shaded roof, so it’s very pleasant even on a hot day. Here I had one of the best salads I’ve ever eaten in my life. They call it the Peanut & Lime Quinoa Power Bowl and it was absolutely loaded with fresh ingredients in a delicious dressing. The menu describes it as “tri-coloured quinoa, red beets, carrot, spinach, red cabbage, bruschetta, sesame marinated edamame, peanut&lime dressing topped with pea shoots and roasted peanuts” and it looked like this (though really it looked better than this):

I could only get through half of it even though I wanted to keep going because it was so yummy.

They said they could do a portobello mushroom burger, so that’s what Steph had and she said it was good too. This restaurant is a real find, worth the extra time to get to if you’re in Port Dover or Port Rowan, or even camping at Turkey Point. They also have oat milk for their coffee and you can get coffee to-go and take back to your campsite (or wherever).

Stratford is, for me, an annual summer destination and I usually go more than once. From London it was an easy 45-60 minutes by car. It’s not quite as convenient from Toronto but I’ve so far been twice, with one more time coming up in September.

The first time we went with friends to Stratford Thai Cuisine. It’s not a fully vegan Thai place but they have good lunch specials with some vegan options to choose from. I had red vegetable curry and Diane had steamed veggies with peanut sauce. I’m not going to oversell it, but it’s a decent pre-theatre lunch option. The red veggie curry is quite tasty. They have a few outside tables but it’s been a muggy summer and we sat in.

Just this week we went again and had lunch at Mercer Kitchen + Beer Hall + Hotel. Again, it’s not fully vegan — my favourite and only vegan place in Stratford was the Planet Diner, and it closed last year when the new owner didn’t renew their lease. Mercer Kitchen is on the main street that runs through town, and they have a few outside tables and lots of inside tables. It’s a large menu with a few vegan options. I had a large Peanut Crunch Salad with tofu added to it. Diane had a small one (which is very small) and a side of fries (which is ample). Side note: Our friend Vicki had a bento box but sadly they have no vegan version of it (which makes no sense because surely they could do something with the tofu that they already have for other dishes).

The Peanut Crunch salad is definitely a keeper, with a lot of crunchy ingredients and a really good sesame vinaigrette. The large is a good size for a meal, but it adds up when you add tofu (an additional $9 on top of the base-rate of $18). At $13, the small size felt to me like a bit of a rip-off — it’s tiny.

I have to give a shout-out to Balzac’s coffee, across the street and down a little ways from the Mercer. Though it’s now a small chain, the very first Balzac’s is on the main street of Stratford. They’ve got great coffees, alternative milks, and their cashew cookie is so good that I have trouble not getting one whenever I see a Balzac’s. Diane vouches for the chocolate oat bar. After lunch I got a cookie for the intermission of our play and an iced latte with oat milk. Then we set off to walk to the wrong theatre, when the one we actually wanted was merely two blocks from where we started. It was a very hot trek back, made in record time, and we ended up missing just the first five minutes of our play.

Enjoy the last month of summer and Bon Appétit!