Take a bite out of Fredericton

On summery Saturday mornings, the Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market is a flurry of colour and activity. Stalls teem with strawberries, cherries and blueberries and just about every vegetable you can think of – all fresh-picked from farms located within an hour or so from the city – while families snack on ready-to-eat treats, from cupcakes and wood-fired pizza to Lebanese specialties and samosas. Vendors sell maple syrup, dozens of local cheeses, fresh fruit tarts, donairs, BBQ pork buns and handmade samosas.

With two food truck alleys and 250 vendors, this 67-year-old market is more than a thriving community hub. (Though it’s that too – the Market, as the locals refer to Boyce, has been recognized as one of the top 10 community markets in the country). According to Jesse Demers, chef at the acclaimed nearby restaurant Isaac’s Way, it’s also the top “culinary must do” for visitors to Fredericton.

But this lively year-round weekend tradition is also just one of the ways you can savour Fredericton’s distinctive local flavour.

“We’ve avoided the influx of franchises,” says Sainte-Julie, Que.-born Demers, who made his way east in the aftermath of the 1998 ice storm. “What makes the food scene here great is the amount of owner-operated restaurants in the downtown core. It brings a lot of diversity to our food scene with many ethnic choices and a great variety of independent restaurants, many focused on the use of local ingredients,” he says.

The sense of community and the creative, collaborative approach to supporting local producers that he says set Fredericton’s food scene apart is a key reason he chose to stay here, he says.

Few places embody the local sensibility better than Isaac’s Way, where just about everything on the elevated gastro-pubʼs menu is made in-house from scratch or – from chorizo sausage to haddock and salmon – sourced nearby. Demers also likes to show some love to underused root vegetables such as turnips and squash, and adds a salty, savoury note to chowders and even fries using locally harvested dulse seaweed. Even the venue – a historic former courthouse building – is in on the local love, with more than 70 art pieces on display created and donated by New Brunswick artists.

From the casual (and also local-art-filled) vegetarian/vegan Abbey Café & Gallery to upscale Brewbakers, where Demers recommends splurging on the Wagyu beef or anything with truffle, Demers says the breadth of Fredericton’s food scene surprises. But even more surprising to many visitors, he says, are all the great options with which to wash down the local fare. “We have over a dozen local microbreweries and are considered the [craft] beer capital of Atlantic Canada,” he says.

Indeed with so many craft beer and cider producers located within easy distance from downtown, Alex Vietinghoff, Fredericton resident and co-director of the documentary Beerocracy, says one of the best ways to get a true taste of Fredericton is to make a self-guided crawl of it, hitting up several taprooms on foot, by bike, or using public transit. “This summer I’m looking forward to biking from brewery to brewery along the walking and biking trails,” he says, referring to the trail network that lines the Saint John River.

“A great thing about the Fredericton craft breweries is that most of them will share taps with each other, so you can often try more than one brewery’s beer in a single taproom,” Vietinghoff says.

Visiting Grimross Brewing – which specializes in Belgian-inspired ales – is a must on Friday afternoons, he says, when they host food trucks and offer live music and performances by comedians in the taproom. And since food and beer are meant to be paired, Vietinghoff has some suggestions for combining bites and brews into a perfect Fredericton taste experience.

“I love the garlic cheese fingers at the Joyce Pub. They taste delicious with a pale ale or IPA,” he says, noting that the Joyce has 36 taps, all New Brunswick brews. “Milda’s Pizza has a food truck that makes wood-fired pizza that goes perfectly with Maybee Brewing’s Work Horse IPA, or juicy New England IPAs like those found at Trailway Brewing.”

Beer or cider, pizza or seafood, narrowing down your choices of what to eat and drink on a Fredericton visit won’t be easy. But one thing is clear: Whatever you land on, you’ll be guaranteed a tasty – and uniquely Fredericton – experience.

Pour lire cet article en français, cliquez ici.