The manly side of Stratford; bacon, beer and small-batch spirits

STRATFORD, ONTARIO – It’s a gorgeous spring day in southern Ontario, one of those days when the entire world seems to have woken up from its winter slumber and taken to the streets; discovering flowers in bloom and new smells and the feeling of sunshine on its collective faces.

I’m standing near the Queen’s Jubilee Statue in the centre of town when a young woman in fashionably torn jeans (think Meghan Markle) and a black t-shirt decorated with a white skeleton on the front comes skipping along the sidewalk, looking for all the world as if she’s eight years old and it’s the last day of school.

A couple hours later I’m wolfing down a Cowboy Burger with barbeque sauce, caramelized onions and bacon at Downie Street Burgers, which features cool lighting and old-style tin ceilings; the sort of hip industrial look one expects in Toronto’s Leslieville or West Queen West. I also dine on a special poutine the restaurant offers up as part of Stratford’s Bacon and Ale trail (more on that in a minute); a giant serving of fries with cheese curds, gravy and bacon jam.

Across the street is a men’s shop selling trendy shaving gear and grooming products. A few steps south I find Black Swan Brewing, where I settle in and use one of my Bacon and Ale Trail tickets to sample some macho beers; English Pale Ales with smoky goodness, chocolatey, rich Porters and super-hoppy IPA’s.

As I walk the streets, I’m struck by the architecture of the city; handsome, solid Ontario buildings that speak of a modest, well-built, old-fashioned kind of style you don’t see enough of these days. It’s a striking city, but not overly fussy in the way that some well-visited towns can be.

This is a city with a well-deserved reputation for the arts. As home to the much beloved and world-famous Stratford Festival, it’s a destination that offers up plenty of intellectual stimulation. Not to mention fine dining, a yearly parade of swans, tea rooms and gentle rivers lined with gracious willow trees.

I can and do appreciate all those things. But there’s also a bold, perhaps more testosterone-friendly side of this city, which I quickly discover on the Visit Stratford Bacon and Ale Trail.

The trail is a very good deal. For $30 you get five vouchers, which can be redeemed for food or drink at any of 14 places in town. The tickets are good for a week, so you don’t have to pound down the food or drink. Unless you want to, of course. Stratford also has a Chocolate Trail but I stick with the Bacon and Ale side of the equation for this visit.

At The Boar’s Head pub, I sit outside on the patio and hand in one of the Bacon and Ale chits the tourism board has provided. I enjoy a cold Creemore lager with jalapeno “poppers’ filled with cheese. As part of the Bacon and Ale Trail experience, the poppers come with a maple bacon dipping sauce.

Across the street at Mercer Hall, my Bacon and Ale script gets me a four-ounce serving of local, craft IPA and two types of bacon served with pickled onion. The bacon loin is like a pea meal bacon without the pea meal, soft and moist after being brined and roasted in house. The “regular” bacon is a thick cut that’s dry-cured with wine, salt, chili flakes and other bits. It’s as delicious a slice of pork as you’ll ever have, and it disappears from my plate in a flash.

Chef Ryan O’Donnell, who was worked in restaurants in Toronto, Japan and elsewhere, tells me he gets his pork bellies from Perth Pork Products, just down the road. The restaurant has a fine interior space but on a sunny, warm day I opt for the sun-splashed patio out front.

Dinner that night is at Bijou restaurant, where I dine on a lovely duck confit with couscous and a delicious take on traditional bruschetta, which comes with not only crushed tomatoes but piles of tender mussels. Alas, no bacon here. I also try their wonderful 007 Negroni, with gin, Campari, vermouth, orange simple syrup and an orange slice.

While The Stratford Festival has earned its stripes with performances of such Bard classics as The Taming of the Shrew or As You Like It, I’m instead given a chance to see a production of a much different type, The Rocky Horror Show. Okay, some of the guys here are not exactly registering high on the macho meter, the star of the showing being a lanky, well-muscled fellow in a lovely black corset, fish net stockings and heels. But it’s a far cry from “Wherefore Art Thou Romeo.” It’s a hoot and a holler, a rollicking, fabulous production with great music, terrific dancing and raucous audience participation, complete with rude shouts and choreographed silliness.

The next day I grab my morning coffee and a tasty scone at Revel, one of my favourite coffee shops in Canada. It’s a warm, inviting space with exposed brick walls and fabulous, local photography on display. One of the offerings is a vegan breakfast cookie, but I opt for a cranberry scone and a glass of local juice made with orange, ginger, lemon, raw honey and turmeric.

I’ve got a few minutes before a scheduled appointment at Junction 56 Distillery in town, so I wander Ontario Street and check out the shops. I have a bit of a rule that no city can be a truly cool one without a great, independent coffee shop (Revel is a fine example) and also a great, independent bookstore. Fanfare Books is definitely the latter, a fine old space with not only literary works but also history, mysteries, nature books and Canadiana. It’s got a great feel to the place and tons of character.

Down the road a bit I stumble into a newish spot called Got It Made. The store features works from some 60 artists, most from Stratford proper and the rest from within a two-hours drive. There’s everything from pretty jewelry to skull candles (skull t-shirts, skull candles, I’m thinking this is a Hamlet thing but I could be wrong) and delicate scarves.

“Things are definitely on the upswing here,” a worker tells me. “There’s a lot more people on the street these days.”

I stop in at Junction 56, a fine craft distillery spot west of downtown. The building is located in a former lumber yard and also served at one time as a Lutheran church.

General Manager James Donnelly, an affable sort who doesn’t go overboard with distillery jargon, tells me that he and owner/distiller Mike Heisz worked for years at Blackberry but gave it up to pursue their dream of making craft spirits. Mike left first, then persuaded James to join him.

They make a terrific vodka that sells for a very reasonable $28; about what you’d pay for the commonplace things you usually find on the shelves at the LCBO. They also make a moonshine and sell chocolate and cinnamon liqueurs.

They’re working on their first whiskey but it has to be aged for several years before it can legally carry that label. In the meantime, like other craft distillers, their early whisky products are labelled as moonshine.

Donnelly says all the corn and wheat they use to make their spirits is grown locally.

Their regular gin is a soft, floral variety without the same juniper snap that some gins have.

“A lot of folks come in and say, ‘I don’t like gin,’ or ‘I had a bad experience with gin when I was 19,’” Donnelly tells me. “But they try ours and say, ‘That’s not how I remember it.’”

Donnelly says folks looking for that ideal, dry, snappy gin for a martini should look elsewhere, as theirs is a much softer style.

“I like to be honest with people so they’re not disappointed,” he says.

I tell Donnelly about the raft of Ontario beers on tap at Mercer Hall and he sighs.

“That’s what we’d like to see for spirits,” he replies. “Smirnoff has 12 rows of vodka at the store. We just want a little bit.”

One of the spirits we try is a raspberry gin, which has a nice, not overly sweet flavour. They got the idea for the raspberry gin after a local farmer told them he had oodles of leftover fruit they could have.

On the way out, I tease him about his career change.

“Hey,” I tell him. “Look at this way. You went from blackberries to raspberries.”

I finish my 24-hour visit with a fine lunch on yet another patio, this time at the delightful Keystone Alley. I’m a little worn out from heavy food so I opt for a nice salad and a homemade quiche. I also sample an utterly tremendous “Hippie Bowl” with warm rice, shredded carrots and beets, crunchy chickpeas, toasted almonds and kale chips.

Hey, even bacon lovers need some veggies now and then.

SLEEPING Lofts at 99 has spacious, well-appointed rooms above Bentley’s Bar on the main street in town. There’s plenty of space for a family and the location can’t be beat. My room had a fridge and microwave and a second-floor loft with two beds. The main floor had a big, comfortable bed and a big-screen TV.

GETTING THERE Stratford is a mere 150 km’s from downtown Toronto and a short drive from both Kitchener-Waterloo and London.

STRATFORD TOURISM www.visitstratford.ca

NOTE: THIS TRIP WAS SUBSIDIZED BY STRATFORD TOURISM. TOURISM OFFICIALS DID NOT APPROVE OF THIS STORY OR READ IT PRIOR TO PUBLICATION