Frasier Café

[AdamH]

http://www.frasercafe.ca/dinner.htm

They opened in May on Beechwood, where The Works used to be. I've been once for breakfast and it was excellent (I had a house-smoked trout and crab sandwich, others had the breakfast special with house-smoked bacon). The chefs are young, both from Domus and very focused on cooking in season.

I'm going for dinner tonight and will see what it's like at dinner.

[AD]

please post your thoughts and what you ate! and what else is on the menu! then bring me a sample!

[bouche]

can't wait to read about his meal. i'm fuckin hungry!

[AdamH]

So it's Fraser, not frasier the TV character oops.

We shared a few apps including a really tasty mushroom soup (very concentrated and lots of chunky mushrooms), a tomato and grilled bread salad with feta and homemade ranch, a garden salad and some oysters. Katie had lamb with grilled veg and fingerling potatoes – the lamb was two joined chops that had been seared and a few slices from a rolled lamb loin that was stuffed I think with pork belly.

The place was packed and they felt bad for us waiting so he sent us out a crostini with frisee, avocado and a spicy tomato dressing. There was a piece of Berkshire pork prosciutto on top that had been lightly grilled.

3 of us had the Kitchen’s Choice (make whatever you feel like) which ended up as grilled sea bass with preserved lemons, artichokes, fingerling potatoes and a paprika-based sauce (more of a jus). Fack it was good, I haven’t had perfectly cooked fish like that in a long time. And it wasn’t too rich either. One of our group asked for no deep-fried stuff and vegetarian, and they brought her chickpea stew with grilled portabello stuffed with Quebec goat cheese. It was good but nothing on the fish.

Desserts were equally good: homemade Arborio rice pudding with chocolate mousse, coconut and pineapple, their homemade vanilla ice cream, a chocolate torte and a strawberry crisp with a graham crumb topping and barely cooked strawberries…more like a compote with fresh chopped strawberries added to it.

The wine list is pretty small, selections by the glass were around 6 - 7 and were about 50% Niagara/VQA and imports. I had a pint of Beaus with my apps and a french sauvignon blanc with the fish. Bottle options were a mix of french and Aussie, most in the range of 40 - 60.

The meal was a gift from friends so I can't comment on the bill, but apps were between 8 and 12, mains around 17 - 25. It was well worth it and I will definitely go back again.

Overall I was really impressed with the meal and principles behind it - all of the tastes and flavours were well defined, and the ingredients were very fresh and I'd say almost exclusively local (lamb and cheese from Mirabel, QC...produce from local sources for sure, some ontario wines and beer...even the sparkling water was bottled in Quebec).

Highly recommended!

[jaybone]

Not to be picky but your sea bass was definately not local.

Sounds like a great meal!

My in-laws were in Ottawa a few weeks ago and were raving about a little Italian bistro called Moji. Anyone familiar with it?

[bouche]

where's Moji?

I definitely am sold on trying out Fraser Cafe. Sounds like a fine meal out.

To be clear, it took over the original Works establishment?

[AD]

yup

22 seats inside, more on the patio.

[AdamH]

You're quite right jaybone. I was describing this meal to someone else and got the same response. I'd have to go back and ask what it actually was because our server was pretty green, and she may have misheard what the chef said. I suppose it could've been a freshwater bass but it's very unlikely to have been sea bass in retrospect.