Life is a bowl of cherries AT CHERRY HOUSE
A Burlington steak and seafood restaurant with tasty extras
There’s a saying: “Life is short. Eat dessert first.”
I did not eat dessert first when dining at Cherry House, but it was the bait and I was hooked. Opened in November by owner Michael Cherry, working with executive chef Anthony Trenton, the casual upscale setting has all the ingredients of a steak and seafood restaurant with extras.
The dessert that caught my attention when it appeared on their Instagram feed was Baked Alaska. Wikipedia says that Baked Alaska was first served in New Orleans in 1867. While Canada was celebrating Confederation, the U.S. was celebrating the acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire.
I had never eaten Baked Alaska, but coincidentally, had just seen Jacques Pépin make it on his cooking show. He encased cold ice cream in slices of sponge cake and then covered it all with beautifully piped meringue. Traditionally, the next step is to place it in a super hot oven long enough for the meringue to be beautifully browned, but not long enough for the ice cream to melt. Lighting an alcohol pour-over transforms it into Bombe Alaska. That the concept would work always blew my mind. Eating it was on a sort of dining bucket list.
Since dining at Cherry House, I have noticed another steak and seafood establishment also serving Baked Alaska — maybe it’s a throwback trend. The preparation has morphed a bit. At Cherry House, ice cream was perched on a chocolate biscuit and covered with meringue that was torched to achieve the toasted highlights. When delivered to the table, a Grand Marnier pourover was set alight and the spectacle was fun.
But all that came after our dinner selections from the menu that their website describes as offering “the best of North American cuisine with French culinary influence ensuring a true epicurean delight.”
Some would say you should never begin a meal with bread, but I like to have something to nibble on and you couldn’t ask for bread better than what was delivered. Made inhouse focaccia style bread was sliced, drizzled with olive oil, salted and served warm. We were off to a promising start.
We shared two appetizers. Norwegian Smoked Salmon was fresh and plated with red onion, capers, horseradish and house-made crème fraîche. The Crab Cake was plated on smoked chorizo aioli and topped with avocado/cucumber salsa and fine herbs. Both appetizers were delicious with the (perhaps odd) grumble that the portion sizes were too large. All that bread and then generous appetizers? We worried that we’d hit our consumption limit, but the road to Baked Alaska beckoned us to continue.
Forgoing their impressive steak options, one of our mains was delicious Lobster Carbonara with sautéed lobster, smoked bacon, Parmesan and lemon. Chicken Supreme was an appealingly plated Frenched chicken breast with roasted mushroom and wild rice stuffing atop apple/cherry compote. No complaints that cherries show up with some frequency on the menu. The flavours on this dish were good, but the chicken texture was oddly tough — the only blip in the meal.
When I mentioned this in my post-dining chat with manager Jesse Melbye, he underscored what he called their mantra — “when we present something that is not exactly to your enjoyment … we will bend over backward to ensure our guests are happy before they leave.” Service and hospitality up to that course had been excellent, suggesting that I should have given them a chance to rectify the situation.
Melbye — who is more like a welcoming maître d’ — said popular dishes are their signature appetizer of escargot and the daily risotto. He wants diners to know that the culinary team is talented, making many items from scratch, in-house. The 40-ounce Tomahawk steak brings Melbye to your table for a bit of theatre as he carves and serves the dish. His tableside skills also include mixing and pouring specialty cocktails. Melbye has worked with owner Cherry and chef Trenton for many years which included their last (now closed) location of Aria Bistro in Brampton.
Cherry House opened in the space that used to be The Stonehouse. A substantial renovation completely refurbished the bar and all furnishings. The restaurant boasts what they describe as an “esteemed 200plus list of the world’s finest wines.”
They were still at 50 per cent capacity when I visited and this was listed as 115. The spacious restaurant is cleverly chunked into various smaller spaces that create an intimate ambience. They have begun to host events such as weddings. Melbye encourages diners to look forward to a new patio that will feature fireplaces and trellised gardens. Meanwhile, they continue to offer takeout as well as dining in.