Eating Out: At Buvette Daphnée, saucy dishes and particular wines prevail

Article content material

Buvette Daphnée

11 William St., 613-680-0380, buvettedaphnee.ca
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 5 to 11 p.m., closed Sunday, Monday
Costs: dishes from $5 to $36, multi-course menu $75
Entry: no steps to entrance door, washroom

Article content material

After Dominique Dufour served Grey Jay Hospitality’s last meals on the final night time of 2022, her restaurant’s closure was an indeniable blow to Ottawa’s eating scene.

Article content material

Dufour’s meals was definitely to not blame. She served imaginative and crave-worthy all-Canadian dishes at Grey Jay’s Echo Drive location, and, earlier than that, on the restaurant’s authentic, smaller Preston Road incarnation. However “an ideal storm of circumstances,” together with silent companions backing out, made it inconceivable to maintain Grey Jay open, Dufour mentioned late final 12 months.

Nonetheless, Dufour’s boosters knew she would return. As fellow chef Justin Champagne-Lagarde, who opened Perch in Grey Jay’s Preston Road digs, mentioned then: “You’ll be able to’t maintain folks with that type of expertise quiet for lengthy. They’re too artistic and hungry.”

Fortunately, Champagne-Lagarde has been confirmed proper. Simply earlier than Labour Day, Dufour, in partnership with chef Jordan Holley, opened Buvette Daphnée on William Road. I’ve been twice to this very partaking ByWard Market eatery, and my very constructive experiences make me need to maintain going again.

At this self-described “Quebec wine bar,” Dufour, who’s initially from Montreal, runs an attention-grabbing, open kitchen that pumps out scrumptious, shareable dishes that obtain that difficult mix of unfussiness and wonderful eating at which top-notch Montreal eateries excel. The “buvette” of Dufour’s creativeness is a small, welcoming place the place cooks would need to collect for drinks and meals, the one-time Prime Chef Canada contestant instructed me.

Article content material

Holley, finest recognized for his work at Riviera on Sparks Road, is “a pillar and a mentor,” Dufour mentioned. Holley contributed the opposite half of the enterprise’s title, which is the French type of his grandmother’s title, Daphne.

The restaurant leans laborious right into a love of many issues Québécois, together with meals, drink and the French language. Right here, many servers put on T-shirts with “Pardon My French” emblazoned on the again, even when, for a lot of prospects that I overheard, French was their mom tongue.

Our server was actually an ex-Montrealer. Not solely did Nicholas Leduc’s accented English add to the vibe, extra importantly, because the restaurant’s wine director, Leduc, a former colleague of Dufour, had assembled a wine checklist of alternative Canadian bottles, a few of which have been obtainable by the glass. An oenophile who dined with me one night time was extraordinarily happy to seek out {that a} bottle from B.C.’s Ursa Main Vineyard was available.

Leduc additionally delivered the type of assured, educated and pleasant service that I believe is frequent in Montreal however much less so in Ottawa. His suggestions for meals, drinks and pairings have been bang-on, and you possibly can inform {that a} ardour for wine, meals and hospitality animated him.

Article content material

From Dufour’s taut however regularly altering menu of a few dozen savoury gadgets and a number of other desserts, I attempted many dishes that I’d gladly eat once more.

All, I ought to say, have been blessed with strikingly good sauces that teemed with flavour. Chances are you’ll need to order some bread ($5) right here simply to sop up all of the goodness.

For starters, we actually appreciated the croquettes de cretons ($15), a humble however elevated deep-fried deal with enlivened by a luscious, vibrant inexperienced sauce constituted of fermented ramps, cabbage, leeks and mustard greens. If the truth that the meaty stuffing of the croquettes contained veal brains makes you squeamish, it is best to give attention to the creamy, moist outcomes.

Simply as spectacular have been morels full of duck sausage ($23), their particular sauce additionally splendidly inexperienced however made with caramelized fennel and herbs, lemon, apple cider vinegar and oil. The sausages, Leduc instructed us, got here from geese that Dufour and her husband raised on their property within the nation. Dufour instructed me her husband additionally produces duck eggs and bread for the restaurant.

Swordfish crudo ($19), its meaty uncooked fish accompanied by an eel-flavoured foam, vin cotto, pear and celery, was distinctive — doubtless among the finest, most attention-grabbing and even appealingly priced crudos on the town.

Article content material

Of two vegetable-based dishes, caramelized cauliflower with an herb French dressing ($18) was extra recent and direct. A dish that paired comforting, autumnal squash with radicchio, onion, apple and an espresso-spiked smoked aged mozzarella mousse ($14) was extra fanciful and intriguing.

Three meatier plates have been all show-stopping. Pork stomach ($22), completely seasoned and cooked, after which accented with still-crunchy daikon and celtuce, sat in a giant puddle of smile-inducing sweet-sour sauce. Whereas “pastrami” veal rib ($37) hinted at Montreal with its smokiness and seasoning, what I appreciated most was the dish’s crisp toothsomeness, plus, on the threat of repeating myself, its delectable sauce. However pressured to select a favorite, I’d vote for the “hay” hen ($32), its flavourful pasture-raised Ferme Rêveuse chicken brined after which slow-baked over hay. After all, it too was very well-sauced.

As befits a Quebec wine bar, Buvette Daphnée gives an assortment of cheeses, at $8 an oz. However we ordered desserts, from a small however potent token of sweetness to a deluxe possibility nearly as indulgent as these meat programs.

Article content material

Name me a barbarian however after I visited Bordeaux years in the past, I didn’t get the fuss about cannelés. However Buvette Daphnée’s easy pastries ($12 for 2), topped with pastry cream, received me over. A  boozy melon sorbet ($10) served in a relaxing bowl was refreshing. Finest was the subtle but gooey brownie ($14), flavoured with Earl Gray spices and topped with blueberries, partially as a result of the milk-foam ice cream on the facet was a dollop of pure nostalgia.

Beforehand Shelby Burger, Buvette Daphnée, after intensive renovating, is a bifurcated restaurant that seats about 45. The u-shaped bar that surrounds the open kitchen immerses visitors within the motion. I most popular the arguably larger consolation of the neighbouring eating space.

“We’ve tried to create one thing very consultant of our upbringing,” Dufour says of Buvette Daphnée.

Having tried her boutique-hotel fare at Norca within the Le Germain Lodge Ottawa in 2018, adopted by her Canada-on-a-plate creations on the Grey Jays, I believe Dufour’s meals has improved with every iteration. Her newest dishes could be her finest but, maybe as a result of they’re so direct and private.

phum@postmedia.com

Wish to keep within the learn about what’s taking place in Ottawa? Join the Ottawa Citizen’s arts and life e-newsletter — Ottawa, Out of Workplace — our weekly information to consuming, listening, studying, watching, taking part in, hanging, studying and dwelling nicely within the capital.

Article content material