Sonya's Blog - Day 88 - Experiencing St. John's

Sonya’s Blog - Day 88 - September 18th - Experiencing St. John’s

We had plans to head out to Cape Spear, Quidi Vidi, and Petty Harbour today to do some touring around and hiking. The weather did not cooperate with us and it was rainy and cold with a balmy +8 to be the high for the day. Over breakfast we decided that we would head to the Museum, The Rooms instead since it was inside and it was a unique museum.

The Rooms is dedicated to the history of fishing in Newfoundland and the importance that it played in the history of Newfoundland. The Museum is called The Rooms because when a fishing premises is set up on a wharf it is called the rooms. We headed straight to the top floor and started looking at the exhibits. Not long after we got there a tour started called “When Cod was King”. We decided to join that tour. It took us all the way through the Husky Gallery and each exhibit in that gallery tells a story about the history of Newfoundland and the importance of Cod. It was a very good tour and our tour guide was very informative. Before Newfoundland was settled the fisherman would come to Newfoundland just for the season. They would set everything up (buildings for processing the fish and whatever else they needed) and then dismantle it at the end of the season before they went home. They did this so that nobody would come in and use their buildings prior to their return. At some point people started to take up residence and the first people that stayed we called Livyer.

She then went through how more and more people came to stay and villages started popping up and it all centered around fishing. Fishing practices improved and this lead to the heydays of fishing in Newfoundland in the 20th Century up to the closing of the fisheries in the 1990’s and a moratorium on commercial cod fishing. Then she described how this was a period of mourning in Newfoundland and they really didn’t know where to go from there. This was effectively the larges layoff in Canadian history and 18 000 people lost their jobs and a way to make a living. The closure was necessary due to the fact that the cod populations were down to less than 1%. Everyone thought that the cod would recover much faster than it has and it is now at about 15%. This year when the food fishery opened fisherman were catching much larger fish and there is hope that the growth of cod with now increase exponentially with each passing year. The larger the fish, the more eggs that are laid and hopefully the faster the population comes back. It was all very interesting.

After the tour we looked around the gallery some more and then we went and looked in a few other galleries. It was then time to go for lunch. I wanted to see Petty Harbour (due to the fact that I read Alan Doyle’s book Where I Belong) while we were in Newfoundland and there is a new fish and chips place in Petty Harbour. We decided to head out there so that we could have lunch and I could see Petty Harbour. Petty Harbour was about 1/2 hour away. We hopped in the cars (girls in one and boys in the other) and headed out. Petty Harbour is a super quaint fishing village and it looked just like I pictured it when I was reading Alan’s book. We found the fish and chips place, Chafe’s Landing, but it had the tiniest parking lot and there was no space. The roads are really narrow, so there was no chance of parking there. We went down a block and there was a corner beside a house and it looked like we could park there. We went over to the restaurant and discovered that it was a 45 minute wait for seating, which was too long for us to wait. We went and had a look around and got some pictures, but this time the boys had caught up to us (they drive super slow and like to take the scenic route). We decided to head back to St. John’s for lunch. We ended up at Leo’s, which is a St. John’s institution. The decor is very simple, but the fish and chips were fantastic. You can have them with dressing and gravy. I chose not to, but Blake went for the whole works and they were really filling.

We looked at our watches when lunch was over and it was 2:30 PM - ooops. We had supper reservations for 5:30 at The Merchant Tavern. Maureen got on the phone to see if we could change our reservation and luckily they were able to push it back an hour to 6:30. We were a little worried because she called a month ago to make the reservation and 5:30 was the only time she could get, but it was all good. Madeleine was due to get off school at 3 or so, so Peter headed back home to pick up Madeleine and Gigi because we were going to head out to Quidi Vidi to explore around there. While Peter was doing that we headed to Gower Street to get a picture of the Jellybean Houses. St. John’s is famous for it’s row housing and each house in the row is painted a different bright colour. This tradition started in the late 70’s when the downtown core underwent a revitalization project and an architect came up with the idea of painting a row of houses bright colours and re-doing all the trim so that it looked nicer. At this time the houses were all painted drab colours and didn’t have interesting architectural details to make them stand out. The trend caught on and now pretty much all the houses in and around downtown are painted and decorated this way.

Next we headed up to Signal Hill to look at the battery and the great views of the narrows, the harbour and downtown St. John’s. We walked around and explored the area. Peter and Madeleine joined us with Gigi and we all had a good walk. We got some great pictures, look how warm we are!

Quidi Vidi is a unique little fishing village and is pronounce “Kiddy Viddy”, it is now a neighbourhood of St. John’s. It is located at the end of Quidi Vidi lake where the famous annual St. John’s Regata takes place every summer (the 1st Wednesday in August - weather permitting). It is the longest running race in Canada and because it is held on a Wednesday it makes it a 5 day party in Newfoundland. The walk around the neighbourhood does not take long. Lots of people were going to the Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, some with instruments. Maureen remembered that it was The Kitchen Party night, but we couldn’t go because we had our dinner reservation to make:( It is so hard to fit everything in. We would have also popped into the Quidi Vidi Inn of Olde because it is worth a visit (for it’s uniqueness and charm), but with the dog and kids we decided against it. We got some nice pictures and enjoyed walking around, it was worth the visit.

We headed back to Maureen and Peter’s to get ready for our dinner reservation and to set the kids up for their night alone. The kids were having pizza and a movie and we were going to the newest restaurant in St. John’s where reservations are hard to come by, it was a good deal for us. After dinner our plan was to head to famous George Street and try and get Screeched in and also to head to a bar to listen to a band or two play.

We got a cab downtown for convenience. They sure know how to run a taxi service in St. John’s. We called the cab and it was at Peter and Maureen’s house in less than 5 minutes, we couldn’t believe it. We are used to cabs taking at least 45 minutes, but St. John’s is much smaller than Calgary. We were at the restaurant in less than 10 minutes, so it was nice and quick. The Merchant Tavern is in an old bank, so it is a lovely stone building. The inside has been nicely done and it had a pleasant atmosphere. We had a very good waitress and she recommended that we choose the Chef’s Choice 5 course meal. All of us had to get it in order for it to be served to our table and it was $75 each. Maureen wasn’t too sure about it because she doesn’t like raw foods (like Oysters and such) and some other stuff, so she was worried that she wouldn’t like anything that was being served. The rest of us were game so we cajoled Maureen into going for it and convinced her it would be exciting. The waitress wasn’t sure what we would be getting because none of her tables had gone for it yet, but it is different every night and is at the discretion of the chefs. She assured us that it is always very good and there is lots of variety, so even if you don’t like one thing you will like something else. So we ordered it and a bottle of wine, well I ordered Perseco because I don’t like red wine. Then we waited for our surprise meal. Everything is made on site (even the bread) so we were in for a real treat.

First course was 3 plates of foods for an appetizer. We got oysters, mussels and crab legs on one plate. There were fermented pickles and a type of ham that was similar to proscutio, but wasn’t. Then there was a plate with smoked salmon and a creamy type dressing to go with it. Everything was so tasty.

Salads: Caprese type salad, with a twist - the yummiest I have ever had. Squid with runner beans and chipolte. Eggplant and Kale on toasted brioche.

Pasta: Gnocchi with chanterelle mushrooms in some amazing sauce. Pasta with basil, heirloom tomatoes (grown nearby), breadcrumbs and a couple other ingredients. Super simple, but the tastiest. At this point we didn’t think we could eat anymore and we still had our main course to go. We each had good sized servings of each pasta dish, but there was still lots more to go. The waitress offered to pack it up for us, which she did. After she brought us our bag we remembered that we were going to George Street and did we really want to carry this around with us all night. Probably not:)

Main Course: Lamb and pork sausage, served in a full coil with zucchini and mint salad on the side. It was not huge, so we all managed to have some without feeling too full. It was really good, the sausage was amazing.

Desserts: Bake apple sorbet. We think we are done and are so full by this point, but nope. Then we get a berry mousse with I think a fried brioche square in the center and some creamy stuff - so good. Then we think we are done. Nope - next we get 4 chocolate pieces that are all airy (like an aero bar) with raspberry dust on them. OMG they were so good and melted in your mouth, with the raspberry dust giving them a hint of raspberry. If aero’s were made that way, I would buy them. The only thing this chocolate had in common with the aero is the bubbles in the chocolate. Then we were done! I couldn’t believe how much food was served, it was all so good. The flavours and the variety were amazing, making it a really good meal and well worth the price.

Our sitting was at 6:30 and we didn’t finish our meal until after 9, which was unfortunate because the table was reserved again for 9 PM. We hurried to pay and then headed over to George Street.

We decided to go to O’Reilly’s Irish Bar first because they had a live band (like many of the bars on George Street) and they tend to play traditional Newfoundland songs. The band was in full swing when we got there and the bar was packed, but George Street itself was not packed. It was too early for the young one’s to be out! Blake and I wanted to get Screeched in and they do a ceremony at Christians, which was right next door. So we went into O’Reilly’s and then Blake and Peter ran over to Christians to sign us up for the 11 PM Screeching In (they had a 5 PM and an 11 PM). Blake had been Screeched In the last time he was in Newfoundland, but I had never been officially (we did a little screeching in in Carlyle with Maureen and Peter way back when). Blake and Peter came back right away and Christians was not taking any more sign ups for the night. O’Reily’s said they did it as well, but when we talked to the waitress she was not very excited about it and said she would get to it if she had time. So Blake and Peter went back to Christians and signed us up for the Screeching in Ceremony for 5 PM tomorrow. Maureen and I stayed at O’Reily’s and watched the crowd and sang along with the band. Peter and Blake were gone for over 20 minutes to sign us up and we thought they got lost between this bar and the one next door. When they finally came back it was revealed that they were watching the Blue Jays game and were also talking to a lady from Petty Harbour. She had a different take on Petty Harbour than Mr. Doyle and feels that there was stuff in there that wasn’t exactly true and he put his own spin on it. Well of course he did, it’s his memoir and we all remember things from our youth differently than the next person, even if it is the exact same event. Still a good book and an enjoyable read.

We are all signed up to get Screeched in tomorrow so we settled in and enjoyed the band. We danced and sang and talked to some of the people there (which was hard because it was so loud). Maureen and Blake are really good at just talking to people. So we met a couple of Irish ladies, a Scottish guy. Blake ran over and talked to a guy wearing a Husky jacket and had a nice chat with him. A Newfoundland guy stood behind me and struck up a conversation and he had a very strong accent. I know he was talking about the accordian player, but didn’t catch everything he said. I just nodded along and said “oh yeah”. The first band finished and then another band came on and they had different instruments (a banjo, violin and some other ones. They played a traditional instrument as well, called a ???, you play it like a tambourine). They were really good and we danced along to a lot of their set.

We decided to head out at about 1 because we were supposed to be getting up fairly early the next day to head out to Blackhead and check out the food fishery in action and visit some of the locations out there. Peter’s parents also have a place out that was so we were going to pop in. So another busy day planned.

We got a cab right away and were back in no time. The girls were still up, but Isaac was asleep. We hurried them off to bed and then we all headed off to bed as well. A good busy day, we were all very tired.

Sonya