I was on the road through the Okanagan last week, trying to find which part of it was closest to the sun. Much of it was spent camping, the secret to which, Ive learned, is to purposefully mix its many inherent deprivations with a few shots of luxury. In this particular case, the sometimes trying and mostly hot exercise of being cooped up in a Volkswagen van with two children was ameliorated by a brief stay at the tranquil, air-conditioned Casa Loma Lakeshore Resort in West Kelowna, and all the hurried road meals and gas station snacks were forgotten by a long and exceptionally languid supper up the hill at The Terrace.
Ive always looked at The Terrace that open-air, fine dining operation running the length of a stone-covered, sun-soaked colonnade on the gorgeous grounds of Mission Hill Family Estate as one of those very rare instances in BC where the calibre of the food, drink and service of a vista-rich restaurant matches the breathtaking impact of its location.
In my experience, rooms with views are generally guilty of cutting beyond every corner possible in order to maximize profit. How often do you find highly trained, white jacketed servers delivering plates of local, sustainable ingredients prepared with innovation while beachside or overlooking an incomparable swath of natural beauty? Seldom, if ever. More often than not in such locations (of which Vancouver has many), effort is a test never taken. Instead, we are given overpriced, mechanically separated chicken fingers with plum sauce and limp fish and greasy chips by gum-chewers working for paintball money after summer school. Clearly, someone at Mission Hill gives a damn.
We owe the winerys owner, Anthony von Mandl, a debt of thanks for that, not only for his overall vision and investment, but for his hires as well. His chef, Matthew Batey, is a food wonk of the first order who much like his predecessor, Michael Allemeier (sadly gone east) has a genuine affinity for the bounty of British Columbia. Im sure Bateys mandate dictates that he only draft the best staff and grow or source the best ingredients to create his signature cuisine de terroir, but it takes no small amount of talent to make them sing clear and Maria Callas-like. Each plate is an aria, and though they dont come cheaply, theyre worth it.
At the height of the summer season, with so many ingredients sprouting around the Okanagan, Batey and his crew are like prodigies in a playground: experimenting, striving, and enjoying themselves and their craft evidently and tremendously.
Supper was an al fresco masterpiece. Our meal began with a chilled soup of vanilla, pear and citrus so softly textured and scented that it washed over and cleaned our palates like so much liquid sunshine in a glass. It led to a tasting of beets from Green Croft, an organic farm outside Grindrod on the Shuswap River. The fuschia roots tasting as if theyd just come from the ground were rendered pickled and plainly, as puree, carpaccio, and foam, wrapping decorously around wedges of soft, contrasting cheeses.
This was followed by a beef tartar, a tidy, sizeable square of ground Sezmu (wine-fed) meat topped with a quails egg, spiralled ribbons of pickled carrot, and crisp shards of tomato brioche for spooning. Its corners were dolloped with whipped Dijon cream, so there was little room for further decadence. Even better, however, were triangles of alder wood-smoked albacore tuna further flavoured with shiro lemon confit and a scoop of sour cream sherbert a daring combination calculated to leave diners in puddles of their own drool.
We then thoroughly forked a plate of perfectly pan-roasted halibut sourced from Haida Gwaii with late-season sea asparagus and plump, smoked mussels before closing simply and classically with a vanilla bean creme brulee capped by a thick ginger biscuit that had been anointed with blueberry preserves. Paired with a couple of Mission Hill wines (suggested matches are written into the menu), it went down as one of the best meals of my summer, made all the more memorable by the surrounds, which are heart-stoppingly attractive on a good day, which this was indeed.
Despite being recognised as one of the top five winery restaurants in the world by Travel + Leisure magazine, The Terrace is often forgotten when it comes time to list BCs best restaurants. Our little camping trip was a delicious reminder of how its there, close to the top, quietly and confidently (if remotely) mixing it up with the Hawksworths, the Wests, and the Sooke Harbour Houses.
Even if it were robbed of its blessed location and stuffed inside a basement suite in Dunbar, it would still best those establishments lucky enough to have secured a room with a view or a spot on our 25km seawall. Its nothing short of a serious misdemeanour that we have nothing of comparable scope and quality to represent the local, emblematic vistas that cause our knees to quake. Short of raising millions for John Bishop (and doing a great deal of convincing) to open a second restaurant on Grouse Mountain or Third Beach, we can only hope that someone of Mandls millions will one day come along and say Surely we can do better. Heres looking at you, Chip Wilson.
