Thank you for the warm welcome we have enjoyed in Waterloo Region & Wellington County! This is only our second issue here, so we’re definitely the new kid on the block, but what a friendly neighbourhood we have moved into. We’ve been adding new distribution points for our print editions every week, at select locations where we think we’re likely to find readers who will enjoy and appreciate our presentation of local food and drink stories. We do our best to keep that list updated on our website (eatdrink.ca/find-us). Of course, the magazine is also always available online, in full, for those who prefer that. The magazine scales beautifully to your device — smartphone, tablet or computer — and we encourage you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or all three! Your feedback is always appreciated.
In this issue, we’re excited to tell the stories of two very different restaurants. Bryan Lavery visited Gilt Restaurant in Downtown Kitchener for Eatdrink, while Andrew Coppolino checked out Guelph’s Crafty Ramen. We know that “all that glitters is not gold,” but Bryan discovered that Gilt is truly golden, while Andrew found out that “craft” is definitely an apt descriptor for the food at Crafty Ramen. Our approach at Eatdrink is to only write about businesses that we like, and we’re confident you will share our enthusiasm.
Andrew also drove out to Ayr on the magazine’s behalf to visit the innovative folks at Willibald Farm Distillery. Fortunately for consumers (us drinkers), the province of Ontario is removing some of the obstacles that have made the craft distillery business so challenging. Read on to see how cool the agriculture business can be.
Bryan took a road trip to Stratford. In truth, he took a number of trips, and you’ll see his recommendations on where to eat and drink in”Festival City.” The theatre is world class, but so is Stratford’s culinary scene.
I know full well how much Bryan labours for this magazine, but it’s also hard not to feel a little envy at times. An exploratory trip he took to Guelph with our sales rep TL Sim turned into such a treat that we found room to feature it in a short “Spotlight” story. Read about Taste Detours on page 28.
Our cookbook reviewer Tracy Turlin spent some quality time with Canada’s firefighters, but only through the pages of Firehouse Chef by Patrick Mathieu. Patrick is a firefighter with the Waterloo Fire Department and we’ve been looking forward to feauturing his book for awhile. Bonus: we got permission to share three recipes and you’ll find them all here.
There’s plenty more in this issue, with reviews of a couple of unusual (perhaps unsettling for some) books on eating insects. I do not envision many readers muttering “Yum” at this thought! But there is definitely food for thought there.
I will close here with a plug for our “Buzz” column, which is our summary of the culinary news that we know our readers devour. We encourage local chefs, restaurateurs, managers — and readers — to send us info. While we’ve always got our ears to the ground, the area we cover is so large and there is so much happening that we truly need assistance with this. There is no charge to be included here and we strive to include as much news as possible. In addition to sharing this info in the magazine, we often also share it through our social media channels. Contact info is at the end of the Buzz column. We look forward to hearing from you.
Chris
