CORNER PEACH DELIGHTS WITH ELEVATED COMFORT
Comfort food that makes shovelling your driveway worthwhile, writes Peter Hum
Given the weather we’ve been having, you have to feel for Ottawa’s restaurants.
Facing one Snowmageddon after another, interspersed with bouts of polar vortex, prospective diners could be forgiven for ordering food in, or even cooking for themselves. In these conditions, the eatery that lures people in had better be a special one.
Corner Peach, which opened in early January, is just such a place. The tiny room, which holds about 30 in what was formerly a South Asian grocery store in Chinatown, has a hip, welcoming vibe. Meanwhile, its kitchen turns out elevated comfort food that makes bundling up, shovelling your driveway and hustling over there worthwhile. It feels like a refuge from the horridness outside, even if the curtains inside its front door can allow a bit of a draft.
The restaurant has two seasoned co-owners and operators in chef Caroline Murphy, who has previously cooked at town and Edgar, and Emma Campbell, who was the front of house manager at Supply and Demand and Oz Kafe. Apart from a pre-opening flap regarding what to call their business — Corner Peach was an 11th-hour replacement for, and improvement on, a name that had an offensive allusion — the pair seems to have smoothly realized their vision. They’ve created an enticing neighbourhood eatery that morphs from a coffee shop before noon to a diner-y lunch hangout to a from-scratch, casual fine-dining destination at night.
Murphy and Campbell have fit an awful lot of character into their small, simple room. Large windows on two sides offer plenty of natural light. The high, distressed tin ceiling is an attention-grabber. So too is a six-seat bar/luncheon counter that faces an attractive brick wall. Plants and a stuffed deer’s head add warmth. The place’s brown banquettes and chairs are comfy, and most cosy of all is the table for four in Corner Peach’s front corner. You need to be lucky to snag it, though, as Corner Peach doesn’t take reservations.
Beside the cash, a showcase stocked with baked goods pleasantly brings to mind Murphy’s connection to Edgar, Marysol Foucault’s similarly intimate winner in Gatineau’s Hull sector. From Corner Peach’s showcase, the brown butter chocolate chip cookie is totally on point. It will be hard for me to leave the place without one.
At lunch last week, a roast beef melt sandwich ($8.50) pulled together parsley, chives, buffalo sauce and Cool Ranch Doritos in its buttery, bread-y embrace for an indulgent guilty pleasure. A bowl of chicken soup on the side brimmed with flavour, big chunks of chicken, Swiss chard, toothsome pasta and a bit of heat.”
The house baker’s version of a Portuguese egg tart ($3) was commendably rich, although some browning of the custard would have been nice and the rugged tart did pack a lot of crunch.
At dinner last weekend, the fanciness of the fare on Murphy’s concise menu was dialed up a notch or two.
We tried three of six starters and all were pared-down winners. Beef tartare ($16) arrived fresh, coarsely chopped, well-seasoned and in a sizable mound presented without any airs, with impeccably crisp, assertively salted fries and luxurious mayo on the side. French onion soup ($9) tasted of slow, patient cooking to coax the best out of onions and beef bones, topped with a fine hit of melted cheese.
Brussels sprouts ($11) were halved, cooked al dente and left to nestle with thick-cut bacon in warm, rounded vinaigrette that balanced sweetness, sourness and acid. We tried all four of the menu’s main courses and again, everything did the trick for us. Perfectly al dente spaghetti ($17) needed nothing more than a sauce of minced mushrooms and egg, a topping of Parmesan and plenty of pepper. A vegetarian tart ($18) seemed small but contained a multitude of good things beneath its canopy of squash.
Tender seared scallops starred in the kitchen’s most sophisticated dish ($30), offset by crisped ham, bits of cauliflower and broccoli, all set in a cheesy Mornay sauce that was a touch glue-y. A squeeze of the lemon offered with the dish was just what it needed to brighten it.
Best among the mains was a homey serving of confit pork ($24), its meat and fat rendered utterly succulent, sitting on cheesy mashed potatoes and topped with peas, gravy and corn-flake-crusted onion rings.
We gave all three of the night’s desserts a try. While you couldn’t fault the pear and ginger pie ($7) or the peaches and cream “peach-tail” ($9), a flatbread-based dessert riffing on an Ottawa-based favourite, the decadent, brittle-topped chocolate mousse ($9) was something to fight over.
Cocktails here are $13, well-chosen wines are all available by the glass and most beers are Ontario craft brews.
Little Victories Coffee, which is roasted in Ottawa, and teas from Maison Cha Yi in Gatineau are served.
Co-owner Campbell told me this week that unlike many Chinatown and Centretown restaurants, Corner Peach won’t be allowing its food to zip out the door with delivery people. That’s a fine stand to take, I think, when the dining-in here is as solid and rewarding as it is.
Some people speak of authenticity in restaurant-dining as a measure of how much dishes follow the strictures of a faraway cuisine. I’m starting to think that the term could be more meaningfully applied to refer to having a true restaurant experience, with all the benefits that a place like Corner Peach offers when you show up and grace its dining room.