Looking for a meal made with farm fresh ingredients? These four spots offer menus with locally sourced food.
1. With a chalkboard menu that changes daily, Cowbell Restaurant owners Mark Cutrara (the executive chef) and Karin Culliton are dedicated to serving fresh fare. Cutrara and his kitchen staff use naturally raised organic meat and produce sourced from local farmers, many of which participate in the restaurant's Farmers Nights. Trillium Spring trout served with beef hash and mushrooms, and Muscovy duck served with carrots, mushrooms, and cherries are a sampling of the dishes offered. Cowbell, which resembles a French bistro, seats 44.
2. Executive chef Anne Yarymowich and chef de cuisine Martha Wright offer contemporary dishes with a focus on sustainable farming and slow food at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s new restaurant, Frank, named for architect Frank Gehry. The eatery offers Ontario wines, and the menu includes dishes crisp provimi veal sweetbreads with Yukon gold potato galette, grilled treviso, and Niagara golden raisin caper sauce. Frank is filled with modern Danish furnishings and original works of art from the gallery's collection. The restaurant seats 130 and a private dining room holds as many as 40.
3. As cohost of Food TV's Restaurant Makeover Brad Long, the chef and owner of Veritas Local Fare, has been an advocate for local, sustainable, and organic ingredients—the foundation of the menu at the King Street East restaurant. Dishes include items like grilled Hope Farms Berkshire pork loin served on a forest mushroom gallimaufry and pan-seared Kyuquot Sound sable fish with heirloom carrot threads in miso broth. Veritas has a lounge, a courtyard patio, dining room, and a small private room for groups of 10. The full restaurant can hold 200 for receptions and 115 seated.
4. Vdara Restaurant, a contemporary space on Queen Street West, offers an intentionally vague menu of dishes made from locally sourced ingredients, including "Pingue Niagara Proscuitto, chaved n' laid over pesto puff pastry sticks n' house mix pickles" and "so soft Barney beef ribs on a bed of basmati, infused with arugula pesto, edamame n' zucchini." David Kozicky, Vdara's baker, makes all of the breads and pastries in house. The space, decorated in cream and black with natural materials such as granite and reclaimed wood, seats 104. A patio holds 116 during the warmer months.
