Local sugar shack reveals its new year’s maple menu
St. Lawrence restaurant has hosted a west coast version of Quebec’s famous and traditional sugar shack meals for three years now
Railtown’s St. Lawrence restaurant has released the menu for its annual tribute to Quebec’s “maplesyrup season”. Every winter and spring, cabanes à sucre (sugar shacks) showcase the fruits of Quebec’s forests with “sugaring off” activities and other fun related to the making of maple syrup.
Some families travel to actual working sugar shacks to watch the syrup-making process, enjoy sleigh rides and petting zoos, listen to toe-tapping music, and taste maple taffy on snow, among other traditional treats. Other cabanes are more like pop-up restaurants for the special season.
St. Lawrence, with chef-owner JeanChristophe Poirier’s blend of Québécois and classical French cuisine at 269 Powell Street, has hosted its own table d’hote cabane à sucre menu since 2020.
After the restaurant’s winter closure (from December 31 to January 24), the menu until the end of February will feature dishes inspired by Quebec’s sugar-bush bounty (available by online reservation, Tuesday to Sunday, until February 27, for $75 per person).
This year’s menu sees lots of options in starters, mains, and desserts. To begin, there is a choice between very traditional split-pea soup with smoked bacon, maplesmoked trout with scrambled eggs, pâté
with maple syrup and Grand Marnier, and crêpes with mushroom ragout, herbs, and cheddar.
A traditional main, tourtière (this one with venison and red-wine sauce), shares the bill with maple-glazed pork short rib, scallops-and-beef-cheeks croquette, and aged duck breast with sausage braised in apple cider.
Finally, desserts don’t stray far from traditional fare here, with classic sugar pie and vanilla ice cream to choose alongside maple mille-feuille, a maple crème caramel with apple and Chantilly cream, and Quebec cheeses with brioche and jam.