Western Canada: Amuse Bistro on Vancouver Island

The baby of American-born Brad Boisvert, a Culinary Institute of the Arts graduate who was brought to Vancouver Island by our hotel, The Aerie, and his wife Leah Bellerive, Amuse is a little gem where just about everything that’s used in the kitchen is locally sourced; some of the produce even comes from Brad and Leah’s home vegetable and herb garden next door.  

Set in a little white house at the edge of a small village, its comfortable upstairs dining room is decorated with shades of wine and gold and features paintings by local artists.  

The downstairs kitchen is immaculate (with at least four appliances we would have gladly walked away with), and the backyard patio, our choice despite the chilly day, is shaded by a fabric-hung arbor and surrounded by a flower and herb garden of its own.  Here, as part of Kathy’s insider offerings, we were served lunch for just the three of us; the restaurant didn’t open to the public until three hours later.  

A beautiful small menu had been designed just for us as Kathy’s guests; I paired a subtle asparagus bisque with Blue Grouse’s Bacchus, and then some of Farmer Lyle’s chicken paired with a risotto croquette and the delicious “Kings & Spies” from nearby Sea Cider.  

In between were an amuse of tomato essence with basil and then an intermezzo of utterly incredible orange-tarragon sorbet garnished with chive flowers from their garden.  

Not quite done gorging ourselves, we then indulged in a sampler platter of blissful desserts.  

We had lunch for three and a half hours.  This wasn’t a reflection of the service or even the fact that the food is cooked to order, just how much fun we were having.  Our waitress, another Shawnigan Lake local who had long lived in France, kept us entertained with stories about food from the Island, and Brad himself came to our table to hang out a bit and get to know us.  

When his morel mushroom supplier arrived with the day’s delivery, Brad told us how they are grown and gathered locally, then sold for vast amounts in Japan.  When we admitted we’d never seen morels before, he happily agreed to let us see and sniff the woodsy little treasures.  It was like breathing in the forest itself, and made us wonder how long before we’d be hungry again…for dinner.

But we’d already kept Kathy too long, and she still wanted to take us to a local market to pick up some local cheese to have later, with the last of our True Grain spelt baguette and our Cherry Point blackberry port. After all, it was still only 5:30.  

Within a few short hours, we would actually regain the desire not only to hold our torsos upright, but also to snack on a little more of  Vancouver Island.

 

Continued in Salt Spring Island