My older daughter wanted to take me out for Mother's Day. We never go out on the actual day, though, so after some discussion and calender checking, we finally made it out today.
She asked me to choose our destination, and I picked a place we've gone by many times - it's easy walking distance from our home - and have wanted to visit for a while. We were always on the way to someplace else, though, and didn't have the time.
Today, we made time!
We went to
Moriarty's Bistro and Wine Bar, which is right next to the downtown
Sherlock Holmes Pub.
Yes, that's awesome. In fact, it's
even more awesome than it seems at first!
For today, we were there for one thing specifically - their charcuterie. I've heard nothing but great things about it, and have been wanting to try it for a while!
Theirs is a mix and match charcuterie, where you can choose any 2-5 items from a list. We went with five for the two of us.
Sadly, my cell phone photo of the board of deliciousness is rather terrible. It does not do the presentation justice.
I chose the Fairwinds Chevre (the slice on the right) and Sheep Pecorino (the snowy white cheese near the cutlery) for the cheeses. Along with those, I selected their House Terrine, which included figs and pine nuts, Soppresate (the sliced meat on the top right) and Smoked Brisket Jerky, another house specialty (under the Chevre). These came with a jalapeno relish, curried cauliflower, clove beets (top left) and wine marinated (?) apples (on top of the clove beets) and spicy carrots - I can't remember what the spice was. There was also a berry jam (sadly, another name I can't remember the name of) and course mustard, plus two types of crackers on the side.
It was awesome! All of it. The spices in the pickled vegetables were just on the edge of being too much for me and my notoriously low tolerance for spice heat, but delicious. My daughter especially loved the Fairwinds Chevre. I think I liked the Sheep Pecorino better, but I liked both cheeses so much, I find myself vacillating. The jerky was something special, too.
We'll be back for this again to try some of the other selections!
As an extra snack, my daughter also ordered the Truffle Buttered Popcorn.
Yes, you read that right. Truffle butter. On popcorn.
It was sooooo good!
Best of all, we came during Happy Hour, so the Truffle Buttered Popcorn was half price, plus it was Off the Vine 1/2 Price Wine Thursdays. My daughter chose
the wine for both of us. I got the Castillo de Monseran Garnacha, and she got the Wine Men of Gotham Shiraz. Both were excellent, and I'm not a bit wine drinker at the best of times!
As for the bistro itself, it was quite enjoyable. The aesthetics of the place is really nice, we were comfortable in our booth, the service was excellent and our server was very helpful when I asked questions about different items and asked for recommendations - which I am happy to have followed.
So if you're ever in Edmonton and hankering for a nice, quietly elegant place to indulge, I would definitely recommend
Moriarty's!!
