Where do I begin? I fell in love with this charming restaurant. During the covid isolation, I found this gem on the Internet. One of my favourite things to do besides cookbook reading is searching for restaurants and studying their menus. I couldn’t wait to eat there. I knew I would be making dining reservations.
Nested in Annapolis Valley, you can find Founders House right on the golf course. I was honoured to meet and chat with the owner Laura Robinson several times during our six-course tasting meal. I think I could have chatted with her all evening because I could tell she was a foodie. The fact that she loved cheese, wine and is a mom, we paired well.
Planters Ridge Chardonnay!
The debate this week was, should we do the three or six-course pairing. I emailed Laura and said, what do you suggest, and she said, “the six-course is a progressing meal perfectly paired by Chef Pyne.” By the way, he has the best covid mask. It was a lobster mask.
Before I go into the details of our meal, here are the things I loved about Founders House:
- The art on the wall is very Nova Scotian and perfectly matched.
- It was very intimate and romantic
- The staff is knowledgeable and friendly!
- Every course has unique plating and dishes!
During the meal, I looked at my husband and said we’ve eaten around the world, and this is world-class. We’ve had incredible meals in California, New York, Boston, Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Cannes, Las Vegas, London, Barbados, St. Lucia. Now our home province has this fantastic meal as well! I would say our dinners at Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud restaurants had terrific menus. What we had at Founders House is up there with them if not better.
Here is what we ate!
You start your meal with snacks, which are Chef-inspired bites. Tonight the bites included a ceasar oyster, croquette and eggplant. Amazingly good!
Then we had the quick bread with a house-made yeast molasses butter. So delicious!
The wine pairing I had with these two courses was Infatuation by Planters Ridge. My husband had the Fenwick Beer by Annapolis Brewery.
We moved on to the appetizer portion of the meal. The first one was octopus and nduja with tomato, turnip and pea. This was so delicious, and it had a little kick to it. I had my eye on this dish the whole week, and it met my expectations.
The second appetizer was chicken and corn. There was hispi cabbage, nectarine and walnut with the chicken cooked in duck fat. When I had a bite of the nectarine with the chicken, it surprised me how delicious it was. I enjoyed this dish!
The wine pairing for the appetizer was a Tidal Bay from Grand Pré. I don’t think you can ever go wrong with a Tidal Bay! It’s genuinely a Nova Scotian wine gem.
Moving on to the main courses. If you think this is a lot of food, yes, you are right, but the portions are perfect. It’s just amazing how you try a bunch of different food.
The first main was probably my favourite of the whole meal. It was a halibut and gnocchi with smoked bacon lyonnaise and mushroom. This is my definition of heaven in a bowl, as seafood and mushrooms are my thing! The gnocchi was soft and melted in your mouth. Perfectly shaped.
This course was paired with a Planters Ridge Chardonnay. It’s buttery and delicious. I highly recommend you try this wine.
The second main was equally delicious! It was beef striploin and ox-tail with risotto, carrot, zucchini and burrata. Everything on the plate was excellent. Chef Pyne served our two mains, which added to the experience.
The wine pairing with this course was a special edition of Grand Pré 20th year anniversary wine! I think this wine is special to us because it’s been 20 years that my husband and I have been together. Here’s the link to the wine.
The 20th year anniversary red wine was served by the head bartender Gavin Robichaud! We chatted with him, and he said that this wine is delicious when you let it sit for 36 hrs. He said open the wine, have a glass and enjoy the rest in 36 hrs.
We had two courses left of dessert, so we both ordered some coffee to enjoy the last few bites. The desserts were so good.
The first dessert was a hot and cold dessert, and what we had was red pear and caramel with puff pastry and the best ice cream ever. The ice cream was infused with earl grey tea.
The six-course meal ended perfectly! The sun was starting to set, and then a jazz version of Dave Matthews Crash Into Me came on, a song we both like.
The last dessert was presented to us, and it felt like a perfect evening. I was enjoying my evening with my best partner/foodie in life. No joke, I started to cry. It was simply a fantastic, exquisite meal and evening that I won’t forget for a long time and was the best way to end the summer. Our last dessert was chocolate and plum with spiced chantilly and milk crumb
I hope you have enjoyed this foodie post! I highly recommend Founders House, and I want to thank the Founders Team for a job well done. I can’t wait to go again. Also, they do offer a vegetarian option meal that I want to try someday. You can find Founders House on Facebook and Instagram. Follow them to drool at all their delicious posts.
Happy long weekend!
Love, Backend Kitchen xx
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