Stratford is a picturesque city with tree lined streets flanked by Victorian houses and where snow white swans glide down the Avon River. It’s a city where restaurants have names like Othello’s, The Elizabethan and The Old Prune. Most notably, it is home to the Shakespeare Festival and only a stone’s throw from London.
That’s London, Ontario, in case you were starting to wonder.
Many of Stratford’s streets run on an angle making it difficult to get your bearings every time you leave a building. We were like Laurel and Hardy bumping into each other as we exited a shop. “We go this way,” my spousal unit would say. “No, this way,” I’d counter, followed by his, “No, I’m sure that’s West…we need to go this way!” And we’d gesture and argue and point and then realize that it really didn’t matter because regardless of which way we went, we were bound to find a quaint boutique, a wonderful candy store, a coffee house or a bistro with a name somehow connected to the Bard.
We stayed at the very non-Victorian, newly renovated boutique hotel, Xis. Very chic. The rooms are done in minimalistic style with espresso stained wood and Italian marble bathrooms decked out with Bulgari bath products. The beds and pillows are sinfully comfortable. It felt strange having hotel staff actually go out of their way to accommodate the guests, but for those kinds of rates, they should. And they did. I would come back every year just for the home-made granola served in the breakfast room. Don’t tell anyone how good Xis is because there are only six rooms, and I want to be sure I get one next time I’m in town.
I’m embarrassed to say that we did not take in a play while we were there. Time was short and our priorities were food, and then more food. Stratford is lucky to be surrounded by some of the most fertile agricultural land this country has to offer. It’s also home to the internationally acclaimed Stratford Chef’s School, a major perk for the area. Food, glorious food! Farmer’s markets, dairy farms, cattle, pork, fruit, vegetables…you name it, Perth County grows it, makes it or bakes it. When you ask a server in a restaurant if the food is sourced locally, they gasp and look at you like “Are you joking?”
We arrived late on Friday night and had dinner at The Old Prune. If you are in Stratford, you must go. The service was professional without being pretentious (thank God), and the food was as good as they proclaimed it would be. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tasted a better duck confit. 
With only 2 nights in town, we had to choose our restaurants wisely. The next night we went to Rundles for supper. One of the founding directors of the Stratford Chef’s school owns The Old Prune; the other founding director owns Rundles. But where the Prune is in a Victorian style house, Rundles is in a building designed by architect stars Shim-Sutcliffe of Toronto and decked out with Viktor Tinkl creations, a man whose name just begs to be repeated. Viktor Tinkl makes stuff out of stuff. The pieces are quirky, odd and just plain weird but they did a nice job of breaking up the otherwise sterile decor of the restaurant.
We spent the morning with Paul Finkelstein, culinary program head at Northwestern Secondary School in Stratford. Paul is the man behind the Food Network show “Fink”, and graduate of the Stratford Chef School. (A good article on Paul can be found here.)He took us down the back roads of Perth County stopping in at heart-and-soul food destinations like McCully’s Hill Farm, where the general manager, Sara, was tending to fresh-baked cupcakes and bread. The store is packed with home-grown products, fresh bread, fruits and vegetables, and the seductive aroma of bacon coming from somewhere. Pretty much a foodie’s idea of heaven.
From there we headed to St. Mary’s where the farmers’ market (all 10 stands of it) was in full swing. You’ve heard of the 100 mile diet? These guys have that beat by a mile. Actually, 70 miles. All the products sold have to contain ingredients grown/raised within a 30 mile radius of the town, so put that in your locavorian cud and chew it!
Down the road and over the hill brought us to Soiled Reputation where owner Antony John waxed organic as we strolled through his greenhouse. (Gremolata.com has a good article on Antony.)Wearing rubber boots and sporting and earring or two, Antony is not your typical farmer—a claim I’m sure he’d be happy to endorse. He is also known as the Manic Organic, and had a show by that name on the Food Network. Antony plucked some shoots from the earth, popped them into his mouth and proceeded to educate me in the field of weeds. I took a bite of the greens. Peppery, slightly grassy. Hmmm…quite pleasant actually. It was chickweed. Chickweed? Right on! I just found the perfect excuse to not weed my garden. Who knew you could eat it!
Next stop: The student-run Screaming Avocado Café at Northwestern where Paul whipped up a lunch of brisket, veg, ham and salads. I showed my teenage daughter pictures of the school cafeteria. “That’s a cafeteria?” she asked in disbelief. Her school cafeteria is about the size of my linen closet and serves fat-laden, sodium-spiked processed goodies like poutine and cheeseburgers even though she insists students constantly tell the teachers they want healthier food options. Alberta beware: In the words of Stephen Colbert, “You have officially been put on notice!” If anyone out there is up for a school food protest, send me an email.
We lucked out by walking in to Rhéo Thompson Candies and talking with owner Kristene Steed who was happy to explain the history of the company and gave us a tour of the facility. Although the chocolate itself comes from Massachusetts, the centres are all made from recipes that hearken back to the day when Rheo Thompson actually owned the company in the 60s. Okay fine, so Perth County doesn’t grow cocoa beans. We’ll give them that. What we did find out was that the treats they make here are outstanding…especially the Mint Smoothies, which have become their signature treat.
In 2005 the Food Network filmed a “Food Finds” episode at the store. The Food Network sure likes this town and it’s easy to see why.
We couldn’t leave Stratford without hoisting a pint or two, and seeing as we had gone up the street to Down the Street the night before, we thought this time we’d go down the street and a few doors over to Molly Bloom’s on Brunswick Street. 
Saturday night and the place was packed. A three piece band was doing a good job of some Great Big Sea songs and the Penguins and the Red Wings were battling it out in game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. It was the perfect pub environment. To make it interesting, two big Ontario boys thought they could take us Albertans on in a beer drinking contest. They should’ve known better. The Ontario lads staggered out before we did leaving us to proclaim ourselves the Kilkenny Swilling Champions of Stratford. That’ll look great on my resume.
Good beer, great servers, good music. It seemed fitting that in this Irish pub, located in an English city, set in an Amish inhabited county named after a town in Scotland, our beer was served by a country music singer aptly named Callie McCullough. The place was perfect—eclectic and diverse. Much like Stratford itself.