"You only turn 40 once." Thus said the fiancé before whisking me off to one of the world's best foodie destinations for my birthday. So how did we end up in a small fishing village at a mini-strip-mall diner, seated at a back-corner table beside the ice machine?
That's my sweetie - the last of the big spenders.
Just joking. The journey's end will eventually bring us to Sooke Harbour House, a culinary outpost of international renown, where owners Frédérique and Sinclair Philip were advocating local, organic, slow-food cooking long before it became trendy.
It was actually my idea to make a pit spot in town at the year-old EdGe Restaurant, where the retro wood panelling is adorned with what looks like a paint-by-number, alpine-scene mural and the home-style fare is absolutely terrific.
Since 1979, Sooke Harbour House has nurtured an inordinate number of extraordinarily talented chefs: Michael Stadtlander (Ontario's Haisai and Eigensinn Farm), David McMillan (Montreal's Joe Beef), James Walt (Whistler's Araxi), Melissa Craig (Whistler's Bearfoot Bistro) and Andrea Carlson (Vancouver's Bishop's), to name but a few.
Edward Tuson is the latest executive chef to depart the inn's lauded restaurant. And when you consider that during his tenure (1998 to 2009), his kitchen helped the Philips earn some of their highest accolades - No. 1 Country Inn in the World (enRoute magazine), One of the Top 15 Hotels in the World (Travel & Leisure magazine) and Best Restaurant in the World for Authentic, Local Cuisine (Gourmet magazine) - he could have written his own ticket almost anywhere.
Instead, he and his spouse, Gemma Claridge, decided to stay right here in Sooke, 30 kilometres southwest of Victoria, population 9,700.
From a lifestyle point of view, it's easy to understand why they jumped at the opportunity to take over the lease on this ramshackle building and open their own humble, 28-seat restaurant. By remaining in Sooke, they were able to keep living on their nearby farm, where they have a 250-tree orchard, butcher shop and barnyard of heritage-breed pigs.
You can taste the fruits of their passion in freshly cased, spicy lamb sausage that pops with fennel, coriander seed and bits of cilantro ($9.95 when tucked into a panini with a side salad, or $3.50 on its own). Intensely sweet cubes of house-made apple jelly melt like caramel into a bed of whipped cream cheese that sprouts tart apple spring rolls ($6.95), tightly wrapped in piping hot, shatteringly crisp phyllo pastry.
But from a business perspective, the impromptu gamble (they stumbled upon the property last March and opened two months later) has also paid off in spades.
The EdGe doesn't take reservations and has limited hours (noon to 2:30 p.m. for lunch; 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for dinner). Yet when we arrive on Saturday afternoon, the place is hopping. We take the last table and watch the rest of the room empty and fill once again while we eat. Keep in mind that the tourist season hasn't even begun. These customers are all locals.
"You're in for a treat," says the woman seated beside us, as if letting us in on a big secret. "The chef worked at Sooke Harbour House for 12 years. You're getting real quality here." Leaning in to whisper, she adds: "But it's not nearly as expensive."
The prices on the daily chalkboard menu certainly are reasonable. Lunch entrées average $10; dinner rarely tops $20. But you can't really compare the two restaurants. They're in entirely different leagues.
The Sooke Harbour House restaurant is an upscale, white-clothed, fine-dining affair that boasts impeccable service and a wine cellar of such astonishing breadth and depth, it has held a Wine Spectator Grand Award since 2000 (last year, there were only 72 given out).
Sam Benedetto, the new executive chef (Mr. Tuson's former sous chef, who returned after opening Victoria's acclaimed Temple Restaurant) creates exquisite, multicourse tasting menus with exotic local ingredients grown in the restaurant's own certified organic garden and harvested from the waters right outside the charming, white-clapboard inn. Think creamy wild stinging nettle and roast onion soup, tender butternut squash agnolotti puffed up Mabel Grey scented geranium and studded with chewy little gooseneck barnacles, or swimmingly fresh pan-fried silver grey rockfish bathed in a gingered-carrot sauce laced with calendula petal oil and sea lettuce froth.
The EdGe, by contrast, is far more casual. "I was tired of cooking food that I don't necessarily eat," Mr. Tuson later said about his reasons for leaving.
On any given day, his scrumptiously homey menu may include a satisfying Caesar salad ($6.95) lightly tossed with Parmesan dressing and a generous handful of densely, smoky house-cured bacon. If you're in luck, the soup of the day ($4.95) will be the amazing green Thai curry broth blended with fish and lamb stock, which gives a curiously deep yet fresh chicken flavour.
We can't resist the fish and chips ($11.95), which everyone seems to be eating. Mr. Tuson uses the same flaky silver grey rockfish that we later taste at Sooke Harbour House. But instead of fussing it up, he simply batters it in a crispy panko-and-egg white crust. (Jalepeno mayo served on the side is the only misstep of the meal. Someone in the kitchen must have added the oil too fast, or perhaps didn't use enough, because the texture is frothy).
The Kitchen Sink Bowl ($8.95) is a wonderfully eccentric jumble of chicken, squid, mussels, clams, halibut and noodles in a mellow sweet and sour broth that finds us fighting over a few pork meatballs scented with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.
The pork is so succulent I imagine it must be made with Mr. Tuson's Ossabaw Island pigs, a famously buttery and extremely rare direct descendent of the feral Spanish black hog. Nope, this piggy is from Alberta's Sunhaven Farm. The chef's Ossabaw pigs - he has two new litters - are still piglets. But let me tell you, when those little hogs grow up and hit the menu, the EdGe could very well become a foodie destination all its own.
In the meantime, it makes a splendidly delicious stop if you happen to be passing through or are lucky enough to live here.
The EdGe Restaurant, 6686 Sooke Rd., Sooke, B.C., 778-425-3343 , edgerestaurant.ca
Editor's note: The original version of this article incorrectly stated the population of Sooke. This version has been corrected.
Alexandra Gill