Saffi/Dinner at Springbank House, St. Catharines Ontario

Thursday March 27

H: Saffi . . . to restore the cosmic balance.


Barbara flew North to Canada (like the geese) to revisit the Niagara Escarpment, a spectacular region for wine and soft fruits, and scene of so many happy previous visits to Holt's parents when they lived up in Grimsby. She was giving a talk at Brock University, and they put her up at Springbank House, an elegant inn on one of the few streets of older houses left in St. Catharines. The innkeepers, Andrea and Stefan, made her very welcome in the Wisteria Room of their beautifully-decorated home, and Bruno, their polite German Shepherd, ushered her from room to room.

Stefan is also executive chef (his Meisterbrief hangs on the wall in the kitchen), and appeared in professional whites to cook dinner. The first course was a succulent nut-encrusted chicken breast on a bed of bright asparagus and tomatoes, on a plate painted with balsamic vinegar. The second was a breath of spring despite the freezing temperatures outdoors: hot green-pea cappuccino with a drizzle of white truffle oil over its froth. Then came a tranche of salmon dotted with mushroom caps atop wild rice and creamy lemon sauce, with a fan of snow peas, and carrots cut into flower shapes, alongside. Andrea decanted Jackson-Triggs Cabernet Sauvignon, a local Niagara wine. And the meal ended on a high note, with a faultless plum custard tartlet and chocolate-almond ice cream on a plate cross-hatched with white chocolate ganache.

Many B&Bs make their guests comfortable in pretty surroundings, and some serve quite good food. But Springbank House goes well beyond, to give its guests an extraordinarily pleasant and memorable experience.