The cosmopolitan beacon of Montréal shines bright for Vermont gourmands craving a global menu. For a mellower route to Québécois food and drink, cross the border at Highgate Springs and take your first right.
Just over an hour's drive from Burlington, the Eastern Townships' Brome-Missisquoi region is a landscape of country roads winding through dairy farms, orchards and quaint villages anchored by steepled churches. Comfortably familiar, in other words, but also transporting — the French accent extends beyond language to cozy café-bakeries and bistros, on-farm pubs, and gracious vineyard restaurants. Between meals and sips, there are galleries, shops and farmers markets to visit, plus biking and hiking trails to explore.
The region boasts a well-established wine-making community going back more than 40 years, along with many cideries and breweries. Serendipitously, our recommended breakfast, lunch and dinner itinerary starts at an award-winning coffee roastery followed by stops at a cidery, a winery and a brewery. Just call me beverage-motivated.
One of the joys of the townships is that a day trip to the Québécois countryside can be a spontaneous excursion. And if you stick to the towns closest to the border, you can easily hit several destinations in one day.
That said, the region is bustling right now with apple and grape harvests, and fiery foliage is starting to light up the hillsides, so you might consider making reservations. Business picks up every year as summer slides into fall, according to Brasserie Dunham pub manager Annie Cardinal. It's like everyone suddenly realizes winter is coming, she said with a smile, and collectively decides to go for a drive.
That's what I did, too, with my husband on a recent weekend. Here's a day trip's worth of what we ate and drank.
All prices are in Canadian dollars.
Sutton was buzzing with cyclists and farmers market shoppers on a Saturday morning. In the hubbub, we almost missed Café Yamabiko tucked back off the main street through town. Then we spied the sign, sporting an adorable three-eyed creature with a grin and its tongue hanging out: the universal language of "yum."
Inside, the small counter-service café smelled of freshly roasted beans, which are sourced from small farmers and cooperatives. Expert baristas pulled excellent espressos and served from a small case of sweet and savory pastries.
Yamabiko belongs to married couple Nahoko Nakada, 33, and Chris Shinn, 38, who launched the coffee business at the Sutton farmers market in 2020 before moving into their own space in spring 2021.
In 2022, Yamabiko won Québec roaster of the year for the region beyond Montréal. Shinn roasts most beans to medium and light-medium, allowing the natural aromas of each to shine, whether they're the floral and berry notes of a Kenyan coffee or a washed Guatemalan with flavors of hazelnut and milk chocolate.
Sitting at an outside table, we enjoyed a tall, iced cold-brew ($4.50) and a small latte ($4.50) alongside a tender scone studded with olives, cheddar and sun-dried tomatoes ($4) and a moist, fruity carrot muffin ($3.95). Several appealing options made without gluten included orange-ginger-almond cakes ($4.50) and cocoa power bars ($4.25) packed with tahini, carrots, oats and cranberries. Nakada and her mother-in-law bake many of the pastries, and the café also sources from Bromont's PittNik.
For a more substantial breakfast, try the prepared foods at the Saturday-morning Sutton farmers market, whose vendors whip up breakfast burritos and pull translucent dumplings from bamboo steamers. Nakada and Shinn also recommended Mollies Café Dinette Buvette, where I have enjoyed meals including the buckwheat "crêpe monsieur" with ham, mushrooms, béchamel and cheddar ($15).
Yamabiko means "echo in the mountain" in Nakada's native Japanese and, for her, recalls childhood hikes: "I played with yamabiko all the time, calling 'Yahoo, yahoo!'" You could do the same after breakfast on trails at nearby Mount Sutton.
I first stumbled upon Farnham's Ferme Cidricole Équinoxe while meandering through the townships in 2022. Co-owner Audrey-Anne Lussier, then very pregnant, guided me and my husband through a tasting of its dry, naturally fermented, organic ciders. She and her partner, Marc-Antoine Arsenault-Chiasson, were in their second year of making hard cider on the small orchard and farm they bought in 2019.
The couple, now in their late twenties, have since added not only a child but also, new this year, an on-farm pub. During their season from Mother's Day weekend through October 20, guests sit at outdoor tables under cover near the open kitchen for lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday, plus Sunday lunch. (The final weekend is also a province-wide hard cider open house called La Grande Presse.)
The pub's simple but beautifully presented plates pair well with Équinoxe's ciders and also meet the couple's broader goals of building a diversified, organic operation. They grow much of the produce, such as the tomatoes and herbs for the tomato salad ($11.50) with green herb sauce topped by fresh local cheese. The grilled chicken ($16) was delicious, with an apple reduction and farm-grown zucchini served over spelt risotto. After eating, we strolled over to see those free-range chickens dust-bathing under apple trees.
What they do not raise, the couple source from neighbors, such as the corn featured in the corn ribs ($9). The long strips of kernels still on a strip of cob looked like the curly legs of a deep-sea creature and tasted like the best fried fair food.
Lussier and Arsenault-Chiasson have added 1,000 apple trees to the orchard, mostly traditional cider varieties, plus other fruits and berries. Some of the latter are used in their cider-based spirits, which are featured on their cocktail list.
I tried a flight of four ciders ($10). I particularly liked Rafale, Lussier's favorite, which was tart with a whisper of sweetness, and Inséparable, made from the farm's aronia and sea buckthorn berries as well as apples.
The young couple are building a reputation for their ciders. "When people say, 'This tastes like it's from Bretagne," Lussier said, referring to a fabled French cider region, "that's one of the best compliments."
When chef-owner Hakim Chajar of the new Restaurant Ôma at the Vignoble du Ruisseau winery first toured the property, he was immediately taken by the picturesque building nestled among vineyards and rolling hills.
The 43-year-old chef cooked at Michelin-starred restaurants in France, California's Napa Valley and Spain before winning a "Top Chef"-style Québec television contest, landing his own show and opening two restaurants in Montréal.
"I said, 'This is like California; this is like France,'" Chajar recalled, "'but in the middle of nowhere.'"
Driving on dirt roads to Vignoble du Ruisseau for our 7 p.m. reservation, we did wonder if Google Maps was taking us nowhere. But then, there it was: the winery château in which Chajar's new restaurant occupies a 90-seat top floor with high, beamed ceilings and an expansive vineyard view.
Chajar named Ôma with a word that means "the origin of all life" in the Arabic dialect spoken by his Moroccan Canadian family. It opened in June with an elegant vineyard-to-table lunch and dinner menu, served year-round from Thursday through Sunday.
One of the chef's first steps before committing to the restaurant was to taste all the Ruisseau wines, which not only pair with his menu but are often ingredients. "The wine and food have to be good together," Chajar said. "It's kind of like being a couple."
At lunch, dishes such as gazpacho ($15); fresh pasta with lamb, ricotta and harissa ($32); and charcoal-roasted chicken for two with apples and Gewürztraminer sauce ($50) can be ordered individually or as part of a prix-fixe menu for $50 on Thursday and Friday or $55 on weekends.
Dinner is offered at three prix-fixe levels, from three courses for $70 to nine for $145. Wine can be ordered by the glass ($13 to $26) or bottle, or as a paired tasting of four wines ($60).
My husband and I went for the whole shebang, which began with a sweet, bubbly blanc de blancs made, surprisingly, with the vineyard's Chardonnay grapes. We learned that an innovative geothermal heating system helps the vines survive winter.
Our first dish arrived in a large box containing six spoons cradling meticulously constructed bites: confit of sweet tomato; a pastry shell filled with gingery tuna tartare; and a mélange of feta, grape and artichoke.
The meal continued as a steady flow of well-composed plates, many featuring not only the vineyard's wines but also its grapes.
Scallops swam in bright, creamy buttermilk sauce spangled with fresh grapes and plums and crunchy toasted buckwheat. A spiced, roasted hunk of maitake mushroom came with a velvety blanc de blancs cream deeply infused with the flavor of oysters that had been puréed into it. Tender poached cod received a theatrical tableside pour of tomato-and-vegetable consommé that channeled all the goodness of a peak-summer garden.
We could see Chajar and his team working in a windowed kitchen at the heart of the restaurant. Unfortunately, service was a little bumpy for such a high-end experience, and he later acknowledged dining room staffing has been challenging.
After a tripart chocolate-and-fruit dessert course, we were grateful to be staying the night nearby. For those with gastronomic inclinations, I recommend Ôma, but for a day trip, I'd suggest a less ambitious dinner order or a lunch visit.
After Équinoxe closes for the season, or if you're looking for a more relaxed vibe than Ôma, Brasserie Dunham makes a great lunch or dinner destination. The Dunham village brewery, founded in 2011, is known for saison beers, but its list ranges from Wit de Ouf — a crazy wit brewed with lemon, lemongrass, black pepper and coriander — to Sovy, a Bohemian-style blond lager.
The brewpub buzzes with tables of cyclists and Montréal hipsters mingling on the terrace. There is also a seasonal weekend beer garden with a pizza oven.
Pours of the Propolis blond saison brewed with honey and the cloudy, citrusy, lightly hopped Cyclope IPA (each $6 for 12 ounces) go down easily with the approachable, well-made fare. Try the fire-blistered Alsatian pizza ($22) topped with mushrooms, bacon and local cheddar or the house-smoked pork sandwich ($25) with local raw-milk cheese and jalapeños.
Grab a four-pack from the beer boutique to take home as a quaffable souvenir of a day well spent.