Well Preserved

Today has been a blur for all the wrong reasons.  You know those days when there’s so much going on and you struggle to keep up but are swept away by the exhilaration of the moment and you collapse in a heap of doneness because you did everything you could and the day kept giving you more?  Yeah, that wasn’t today.

I have been in San Diego (lovely town) for 6 days and was flying home for a few days of work and home life before leaving for another 5 days (this time to Richmond, Virginia).  I got to the airport (3 hours early) around 12.30 yesterday afternoon.  I was catching a flight to Denver and then a connection to Toronto and would get into town around midnight (local time).  Excessive for in San Francisco delayed my first plane and I ended up on the red eye to Chicago where we landed at 4am before catching a 6.30am to Toronto.  I was so happy to get home that I wanted to hug the customs agent and then thought better of it and waited till I got to my house for an embrace.

Went for a stroll to grab a bite at lunch and ended up at Jamie Kennedy’s Gilead.  It’s easy for me to be impressed (bordering on enthralled) about this man and what he does.  Local food grown right and then cooked as needed.  Simple, wonderful and you just feel good about yourself eating there.  He (and his team) proudly display hundreds of jars of their preserves and sell them retail in addition to using them in their cooking at the store.

Gilead is very informal – you order and pay at the counter off a chalkboard menu that change from time to time and includes a lot of “categories” (like “soup of the day” or “Daily Poutine”) which require further explanation by friendly counter staff.

Somewhat hidden, Gilead is named after the street it sits on and is a one-size-fits all food business when it comes to sales (the food is all very specific and made to order).  The location is a combination of a catering business, commercial kitchen, artisan grocer, restaurant and host to dinner parties and food-related press events. 

Instead of being consumed by this diversity, Gilead has a pace of its own and imposes that on you.  Lunch is made dish by dish and you have to wait decidedly longer than your average fast food or medium-sized pub.  After 21 hours of sitting on the other side of security, I was growing weary of being slow.  There’s something charming about this place (perhaps it’s all the preserves on the wall) that imposes its will on you and make you slow down a step – even when it is against your apparent will.

The focus on local and made-to-order results in higher-than average prices.  Poutine is $9 and if you paired it with their cheeseburger, you’d be over $20.  The focus here is on quality and the truth is that you don’t need to pair the two together – I was very hungry and my 200+ pounds were sated with the poutine.  You can get half a personal pizza for as low as $6 so there are affordable options available for those on a lunch budget as well.

Predictably I had the poutine (it’s an old favourite food group of mine) – however this was based on the recommendation of the server who told me it was fabulous and started to describe it – I was sold when she said the “gravy” was actually slowly braised local beef and I missed the rest.  Salty, crisp fries, loca(ish) cheese (not quite curds but this balanced the meat and sauce and was a non-issue), and the jus from the braising.  It was all washed down with their homemade strawberry juice and a stool in the window.

We’re going back in a few weeks with a bunch of friends for a local dinner.  Stay tuned for an update at the end of May!