Meet one of Ontario's Coolest Distilleries: Top Shelf Distillers

Top Shelf Distillers certainly don’t take themselves too seriously, or play by the rules. We love their connection to their roots, their commitment to sourcing local and pushing the envelope when it comes to innovation in craft spirits.

Hailing from small town Perth, Ontario, one of the first distilling towns in Canada, Top Shelf celebrates the legacy of the distilling trailblazers that came before them.

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

Top Shelf's commitment to using local ingredients to create high-quality product is how they became a Feast On Preferred Purveyor. Many of their spirits are grain to glass – using locally sourced rye, corn and malted barley for their whisky, moonshine and vodka. We can’t forget the delicious Ontario blueberries, cherries and maple syrup used to flavour their award-winning moonshine! 

Most recently, Top Shelf began the dynamic transition to organic grain in their spirits. By doing so, Top Shelf aims to work with farmers to increase the acreage dedicated to growing organic corn in Eastern Ontario to meet their demand but to also not interfere with other consumers of organic product.

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

The benefits of organic? Why, we thought you’d never ask. By using organic product, Top Shelf will be offering a higher quality product and doing their part to protect their local environment of Perth and Eastern Ontario. It’s only a matter a time before corn farmers begin to switch their crop to organic (which can be a lengthy process) and by taking a leadership role with these farmers, Top Shelf can prevent local farmers from being left behind the curve. Now, THAT is the power of local economics.

The Top Shelf team hopes to be fully certified organic in two to three years with their demand for organic corn to double and quadruple!

In addition to their delightful liquor, their creative team has come up with a full range of bitters to create that perfect cocktail! We got a chance to see a couple of them in action at Terroir 2018:

Captain Otty
•1 ½ oz Top Shelf Gin
•1 oz Lemon Juice
• ½ oz Blueberry Moonshine Syrup
•Blueberries
•3-5 dashes Top Shelf Lavender Bitters
•2 oz Soda

Scene On The Tay
•1 ½ oz Top Shelf Gin
•½ oz Elderflower Syrup
•1 oz Lemon
•3 Cucumber Slices
•3-5 Dashes Top Shelf Lemongrass Bitters
•2 oz Soda

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If you’re like us and enjoy affordable, Ontario-sourced, handcrafted spirits, keep an eye out for Top Shelf Gin and Vodka in LCBO stores. It’s the bottle with the wacky, upside-down logo…

And if you’re in the area, check out the distillery in Perth, Ontario, just outside of Ottawa for a tour and a tasting!

Kicking off Terroir with Ocean Wise and Ripley’s Aquarium

We love to partner with our friends at Ocean Wise year after year to continue the sustainable seafood conversation. For Terroir 2018, they took this partnership to another level and collaborated with Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada to highlight their best-tasting commodity.

The evening before the Symposium, the annual VIP Reception was hosted at the renowned Ripley’s Aquarium in downtown Toronto. It was the first chance for speakers and sponsors to meet and mingle before the big day.

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

Ocean Wise seafood is a guarantee of an ocean-friendly seafood choice. With thousands of locations across Canada, the Ocean Wise seafood program makes it easy for consumers to make sustainable seafood choices that ensure the health of our oceans for generations to come. Additionally, to support Ocean Wise’s new global initiative to combat ocean plastics, Plastic Wise, this event was completely free of single-use plastics!

Among the fishies and jellies, our guests experienced a variety of Ocean Wise certified chefs bringing their A-game with sustainable seafood options.

An oyster bar featured Glacier Bay cultured oysters grown in off-bottom cages in the Northumberland Straight, New Brunswick (Seacore Seafood Inc.). Shucked, of course, by Shucker Mic aka Paddy Jr. of The Ceili Cottage.

Raised in Aylmer, Ontario, Planet Shrimp shrimp was poached in butter and served on local lettuces with pickled beets -- a dish created by Kristin Donovan of Hooked Inc.

The “Tony Cod Cobb” by Murray Mcdonald from The Ritz Carlton
Photo credit: Jo Dickins

The dish's namesake, Tony Cobb from Fogo Island Fish, provided us with the wild Atlantic cod caught by hook and line near Fogo Island, Newfoundland.

Daniel Duketovsky from Gusto 54 served up saffron-poached wild Canadian black cod, sturgeon caviar, chicharone and cucumber. The black cod was caught by bottom longline in British Columbia while the Acadian sturgeon caviar was from shortnose sturgeon farmed in a land-based recirculating aquaculture system in New Brunswick, both generously provided by Seacore Seafood Inc.

Laura Maxwell from Le Select Bistro prepared a sockeye salmon tartare with buttermilk crème fraiche served on potato gaufrette. Organic Ocean provided us with the wild sockeye salmon that was caught by troll near the Skeena River in British Columbia.

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

And last, but certainly not least, Ocean Wise Executive Chef Ned Bell in partnership with Centennial College students served up torched albacore tuna with wild leek pesto and pickled wild leeks. The wild tuna was caught by Bruce Martinelli on the Tantrum No.1 troll fishing boat off the west coast (Skipper Otto).

What a difference it makes to know exactly where your seafood comes from and that it was harvested in an environmentally sustainable way.

Moreover, we heard from some incredible Ocean Wise ambassadors at Terroir 2018. Chef Ned Bell was joined by Sonia Strobel of Skipper Otto, Maxime Daigle of La Maison BeauSoleil and Hana Nelson of aFISHionado, to discuss the importance of environmental, economic and social sustainability in the seafood industry.

Our takeaways from the Reception and this session were simple, but powerful. It’s not as hard as you think to work directly with fishmongers and oyster farmers and small purchasing changes can make a monumental impact. And boy, can Ripley’s throw a party!

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To learn more about protecting our oceans and living sustainably, visit ocean.org

On The Sweeter Side of Things with Crosby Molasses

We're so excited that Crosby Molasses joined us again for Terroir 2018. If you like to cook (or bake!) you know that they are a Canadian culinary institution. They are a fifth generation, family-owned, Canadian company based in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Crosby Molasses has been importing sugarcane molasses to Canada for 139 years and is proud to be one of the world’s largest importers of fancy and blackstrap molasses.

The Terroir story of Crosby’s fancy molasses is an interesting one. It comes from one place: the Madre Tierra sugar mill in the village of Santa Lucia, Guatemala. It is made from the juice of sugarcane grown in the surrounding volcanic soils.

Much like how our beloved maple syrup is made, pure sugarcane is inverted into a syrup to make unrefined, fancy molasses with no additives or preservatives! And contrary to popular belief, fancy molasses is not a by-product of the sugar manufacturing process.

This natural sweetener is non-GMO, unsulfured, gluten-free and safe for those with peanut allergies and celiac disease. Need we say more?!

The beauty of Crosby’s fancy molasses is two-fold, offering a tangy sweetness and unique flavour profile that is well suited to sweet and savoury dishes.

To demonstrate the versatility of this ingredient at Terroir 2018, Crosby’s joined forces with Chef Tobias Pohl-Weary of Topowe Events. He prepared Molasses Spelt Oatmeal bars and a Molasses brined duck breast with duck confit & mushroom purée on red fife molasses bread for our delegates. The dishes were a hit, we didn’t even have a chance!

For unique ways to incorporate Crosby’s Molasses into your cooking, check out crosbys.com for recipes.

Book your Table Today with OpenTable

Since their inception in 1998, OpenTable has led the way in restaurant tech to help diners have an easy and enjoyable experience. 

With a quick scroll, a diner can use their mobile app anywhere at any time to discover new restaurants, view menus, read reviews and create & manage reservations. 

We’re so very honoured to have welcomed Alisa Weiner, VP of Restaurant Marketing at OpenTable, into the Terroir 2018 speaker fold. She joined our panel, ‘Hungry? There’s an App for That’, alongside other inspiring hospitality tech trailblazers from bitemojo and DINR. 

Some incredible topics were discussed in this panel. A big takeaway was the instant gratification that these mobile apps provide. In the last year, a majority of OpenTable mobile reservations were made on the same day (42%), some even within 90 minutes of their reservation time (15%)!  

Sure, OpenTable provides huge benefits for guests, but what about the restaurants themselves? As you can imagine, having this kind of access to diner insights is advantageous to restaurants that partner with OpenTable. 

They provide a full-service tool to their restaurant partners, providing brand integration, resources to maximize your business and full data reporting.

No matter where you are, OpenTable has got you covered. They have launched worldwide in cities across North America, Europe and Asia and will offer the perfect suggestion for whatever you’re craving. Download the app today!
 

Must-see: The George Brown College Wine Symposium

Have a thing for Symposiums?

Are you a wine lover?

Wine is a tough, competitive and expensive business that is quickly adapting to changing markets, technologies and consumers. George Brown College’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts will hold its inaugural Wine Symposium on June 25, 2018. Its theme will focus on The Business of Wine in the new Global Economy: An exploration of trends in the World of Wine.

The symposium will bring together a renowned group of wine industry leaders for an interactive day filled with discussions, tasting workshops and presentations. The day begins with a robust line-up of speakers addressing the impact of digital and the global economy on the industry.

Morning presentations will feature:

·         George Soleas, President of the LCBO

·         Philadelphia based Wine Educator/Author Marnie Old

·         Darryl Brooker, General Manager of Mission Hill Family Estates in British Columbia.

Interactive Master Classes and Panel Discussions in the afternoon will feature celebrated wine personalities such as Quebec’s Veronique Rivest, Paul Grieco from New York, Winemaker Ann Sperling and Master Sommelier Jenifer Huether to name a few.

In conjunction with the Wine Symposium, you can also join a one-of-a-kind tour where you will get a behind the scenes look at some of the finest wine destinations in Ontario – Prince Edward County and Niagara.

The Symposium weekend will also feature two outstanding dinners highlighting wines and cuisine from New Zealand and Spain.

Don’t miss an incredible wine and food-filled weekend that will change the way you think about and execute your wine business.

Tickets are still on sale! For more details and the agenda, click here.

Try Vinea, the new 'Spirit of the Vine'

Have you heard? The folks at award-winning Reif Estate Winery have created a grape-based liqueur and it was finally released at Terroir 2018!

The juice of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, a touch of brandy and a secret blend of ingredients and Vinea was born! This unique liqueur is a taste of Niagara on the Lake with fruit-forward notes of candied cherry and red licorice and dominant raspberry, strawberry and red currant flavours.

This sweet ‘Spirit of the Vine’ is the perfect aperitif on its own but check out the variations below that were created for this year’s Terroir festivities. 

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

Vinea on the Rocks (this one’s pretty straight forward) at the Symposium

Photo credit: Jo Dickins

Vinea Spritz at the VIP Reception presented by Ocean Wise
Vinea on the rocks + Reif Estate Winery Sparkling Chardonnay (or your favourite bubbles!)

And finally, we love pairing our favourite local artisans to create delicious new ways of displaying our terroir:

The Cocktail Collab at The After Party
1 oz Vinea
1.5 oz Top Shelf Distillers Gin
0.5 oz fresh lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
3-5 dashes Top Shelf Distillers lavender bitters
Garnish with grape, mint or sprig of lavender

Interested in trying this one-of-a-kind spirit? You can find it in store at Reif Estate Winery or order it online at vinea@vineaspirit.ca.