If you live in Durham Region or the GTA and haven’t visited Bistro ’67 yet, you’re seriously missing out. This post is long over-due, I’ve been a few times with my blogger pals, and I’ve always been completely blown away. It’s definitely one of my favourite local gems.
Bistro ’67 is a local restaurant that is re-defining the term “eat local” through their field to fork philosophy, and is actually a part of Durham College’s Whitby campus, the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food as a teaching inspired restaurant.
Last week, a few of my blogger pals and I went to try out their Wine and Cheese Thursdays, which is probably the greatest weekly special if you ask me. For $25 you get a cheeseboard and two glasses of local wine, it’s the perfect deal for a girl’s night out or a date night!
Gluten-free friends: you’ll be very excited to learn that Bistro ’67 is extremely accommodating. They even baked some fresh gluten-free bread for me, which was warm on its arrival to the table. Spoiler alert: it tastes incredible. I honestly think it might have been the best gluten-free bread I have ever tasted. I made some of the girls try it and they said they couldn’t tell the difference.
Ok, getting back to that whole “field to fork” philosophy I mentioned at the start of this post and how it works. Basically, how it works is that the horticulture students grow the produce on site, the culinary students then prepare the food along side professional chefs, and then finally the hospitality students who work within the restaurant as servers and hosts.
How cool is that? See what I mean about how you can’t get any more local when it comes to food at Bistro ’67?! Any produce that isn’t grown or produced on site still comes from local farmers. I’m sure you guys are all well aware by now that I love supporting local communities, so this is easily one of my favourite things about Bistro ’67. You also get a meal with a view, as the restaurant overlooks the fields.
Our spread consisted of a variety of compotes, oils, toppings, which were all locally sourced and made in-house. They included seasonal fruit chutney, DC pickled vegetables and condiments to pair with two generously portioned cheeses: spicy feta and fresh parmesan. I opted to pair my spread with a glass of Creekside Estate’s Ionocast, a semillon sauvignon-blanc. This wine screams summer.
Just when we thought our girl’s night out couldn’t get any better, Executive Chef Raul Sojo came by our table to see how wer were enjoying our spread. After chatting with him for a bit, he offered us a little tour of where the magic happens – the kitchen! It really made our evening special.
During our tour, one of the students was working on creating Mexican-style corn appetizers. The chef asked us if we would like to try some, and obviously, we said yes. While it was being prepared for us, we had a quick tour of the gardens and got up close and personal with the tomato and cabbage fields and the apple trees. We even spotted some honey-bees, which is a new addition to the CFF. We then headed back inside to continue stuffing our faces.
Once back inside, we were presented with the most visually stunning corn I have ever seen. Seriously you guys, I never knew corn could taste so good! It was made with chipotle aioli, lime, Feta cheese and cilantro. I will never be making boring corn again, it left me inspired to trying to take corn up a notch when cooking at home.
We finished our evening by sharing a gluten-free strawberry shortcake, which was simply to die for. The cake was topped with a variety of berries, all of which were grown on-site. It was also served with french vanilla whipped cream (I could eat a bucket of that alone!) and berry syrup.
Bistro ’67 is a must-visit for anyone who is local to the GTA area. It’s a designated Feast ON and Durham Farm Fresh destination and is a 3 Star Certified Green Restaurant. In addition to the Thursday Wine and Cheese night, they have lots of other events and daily deals. Garden Fresh Thursdays and a paint night are just two of the other options. I’m already planning my next trip back in the next couple of weeks!
Bistro ‘67
1604 Champlain Ave, Whitby
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday: 11:30 am to 9 pm
Friday: 11:30 am to 10 pm
Saturday: 5 pm to 10 pm
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