Delicious Cuisine, History and Ceramics Define Tiny Gagetown

Fredericton is one of our favourite Canadian cities. New Brunswick’s leafy, progressive, and quirky capital is situated along the wide Saint John River with an arts, culture and culinary scene that punches well above its modest size.

On our recent visit to Fredericton several friends said we should visit nearby Gagetown, a small gem of a village farther down the river with several unique attractions. Those included an unusual restaurant run by a Canadian chef trained at one of the most prestigious culinary institutes in France. Loving fine cuisine, we made our plans.

Driving from Fredericton to Gagetown takes half an hour but can be a bit confusing. The first turnoff from the Trans-Canada Highway is for CFB Gagetown, Canada’s second largest military training facility covering more than 1,100 square kilometres. Its headquarters are actually in nearby Oromocto. Driving on, the sign for Village of Gagetown appears on the divided highway. After the turnoff, a secondary road (it needs repaving) takes us to the small community (population: 800) originally called Grimross by the Acadians and Maliseet, who settled there prior to the expulsion of the Acadians in the mid 1700s.

Named for British General Thomas Gage, the village was a Loyalist community in the 1800s and early 1900s that served as a regular stop for riverboats. Only pleasure craft now cruise the river but visitors and locals have the option of reaching Gagetown via a cable ferry across the Saint John River in summer.

Driving by neat, well-maintained homes and a quiet downtown (there’s one off-brand gas station and mini-market) we made our way along the river to Gulliver’s World Cafe, housed in an 1860s restored farmhouse with two guest suites and an attractive restaurant with 45 inside seats and 24 outside on the patio. Chef Thane Mallory and his wife, Nancy, provide a warm welcome and a promise of extraordinary cuisine.

Mallory, a former product development and promotion executive for Canadian chain restaurants, said his passion for international cuisine began at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where he was the only student in some classes with English-speaking parents. Fascination with ethnic cooking was born and over the years he travelled the world seeking new ideas and flavours. He says the name Gulliver’s is appropriate.

Mallory trained in Italy and was one of only 10 people each year accepted to study in Lyon at the Institut Paul Bocuse. He told us he spent time as a child in Gagetown and thought the riverside setting would be ideal for a restaurant. His skill in the kitchen was evident in the meal we enjoyed.

Our appetizer was a lobster dip with freshly fried tortilla chips while our main courses featured salmon and fiddlehead ravioli (fresh pasta with citrus butter sauce and tomato concasse) and stracotto with pappardelle (beef cooked four hours in passata and red wine on pappardelle noodles). Mallory says he learned to make the beef dish from a Sicilian chef he worked with last winter. Both main dishes were new to us and among the tastiest we’ve ever enjoyed in our world travels. For dessert we marvelled over his signature rum runner cake (white bundt cake with chocolate almond ganache filling and a rum glaze with whipped cream). The flavours and presentation of all the courses were exceptional.

Another fascinating Gagetown resident is Flo Greig, who started the Greig Pottery studio in 1976 and is now one of three talented potters in the village. A graduate in ceramics from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Greig is known for her craftsmanship and innovation. Her work is often gifted to visiting dignitaries including a piece presented to Prince Charles and Princess Diana during their New Brunswick visit in 1983. We bought a couple of pieces we love including two small pots joined together with a handle (peanut butter and jam anyone?). We then joined her in the adjacent workshop where she was busy working the wheel.

Mallory and Greig are contemporary artisans making Gagetown a place to visit, but Gagetown’s history is also a draw to the village.

John Montgomery (born 1788 in Gagetown) owned Montgomery’s Tavern in Toronto, now a National Historic Site of Canada. It served as the base for the rebels during the Upper Canada Rebellion. The 1837 Battle of Montgomery’s Tavern, an insurrection inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie, was eventually crushed by British authorities.

Much more prominent in Gagetown is the memory of Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley (born: 1818). He was a former premier and lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick and one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation, ensuring that the province became one of the first four during Confederation. His birthplace on Front Street, The Tilley House dating from 1786, is also a National Historic Site. The museum, dedicated to Queens County history, includes Loyalist and Victorian furniture and many artifacts from Tilley’s life, such as the room in which he was born.

Tilley is believed to have suggested the name Dominion of Canada for the new country after the term, Kingdom of Canada, was rejected as too provocative to the United States. He was an architect of the British North America Act and served as a minister in the government of Sir John A. Macdonald. He was knighted by Queen Victoria.

We were delighted that we received a tip to visit Gagetown while we were in the Fredericton area. Slightly out of the way from the main roads and little known to New Brunswick visitors, we found it was a perfect half-day or full-day getaway from the ordinary with great cuisine and several unique attractions. No confusion at all driving back to Fredericton.

MORE ABOUT GAGETOWN, NEW BRUNSWICK

Gagetown Website Information: tourismnewbrunswick.ca/listing/village-gagetown

Tourism New Brunswick: tourismnewbrunswick.ca/