Make a 'Run' for the border to Ivy Lea
Ivy Lea is a tiny village in Canada. It’s a short drive on Interstate 81 and over the Thousand Islands Bridge. Across the border, take the 1000 Islands Parkway west about a mile and you’ll see a sign for Ivy Lea.
Acting on a recommendation, we were headed for a seasonal restaurant on the St. Lawrence River called Smugglers Run. It wasn’t difficult to find. Ivy Lea is about the size of a postage stamp.
But did we get a bad tip? We pulled into the parking lot and were facing several dumpsters and what appeared to be a kitchen door with a sign over it that said “Employees Only.” An old plastic sign on the very top of the roof confirmed we were there, all right.
With visions of burgers and mozzarella sticks dancing in our heads, we made our way around the side of the building and found the entrance. Surely we had been duped into dining at a shoreline fast-food joint.
Once inside, we still couldn’t believe we were in for an evening of fine dining. It certainly had a casual-looking dining crowd. Shorts, T-shirts and baseball caps were the norm at the bar and most of the tables. Boater garb, we figured.
The carpet was stained, and the ceiling patched in several places. But the panoramic view of the river through large plate-glass windows made up for any visual shortcomings inside.
The bartender seated us at a table by the window. He’s a friendly fellow with a constant smile and pleasant manner. He told us Megan would be our server. She is an equally upbeat and positive employee, we were soon to learn.
She was good. Real good. Her second season at Smugglers. She had the menu down pat, and what a menu it was — a great read with graphic descriptions of the fantastic offerings all on one page.
Appetizers like sea salt-poached shrimp with smoked chipotle cocktail sauce. Seafood chowder with root vegetables in a creamy maritime broth. Fondue with sherried Gruyère cheese. Spice-dusted calamari tossed with chili garlic sauce and Parmesan cheese.
Arugula salad with local greens, watermelon, roasted pecans, grilled beef tenderloin and blue cheese with blackberry apple vinaigrette.
Duck salad with duck confit, cider-infused sausage, cracklings, baby spinach and chèvre tossed with maple tangerine vinaigrette.
Getting the picture?
For entrées, pistachio chicken, baby Berkshire ribs, roasted Australian rack of lamb with mixed-nut crust and port reduction, roast vegetable ravioli, Andouille sausage and penne with triple-smoked bacon, oven-dried tomatoes and roast garlic, tossed with spinach, olive oil, tomato concassé and fresh Parmesan.
What stained carpet? What patched ceiling?
Megan got things started with a crusty sliced baguette. We got things started with a couple of tall, frosty Canadian beers, Alexander Keith pale ale.
Megan warned us that the appetizers were quite large, easily shared.
“Crostini” ($13) was a killer escargot sautéed with garlic and wild mushrooms in a reduction of red wine and cream, finished with Gorgonzola, accompanied with toasted crostini.
Nice sized, nicely cooked escargot. Earthy mushrooms. A sauce to die for.
Mussels à la Ritz ($14) was, literally, a mixing bowl full to the brim with tender P.E.I. (Prince Edward Island) mussels. The mussels were steamed in a smooth, white wine and cream sauce, aromatized with garlic, al dente leeks and red chilies providing a noticeable kick.
There were so many mussels (we lost count at 40 something) that we not only had enough to share among the four of us, we sent a plate to the people at the table next to us who were remarking at the size of the appetizer portion.
Blackened shrimp ($13) was a more properly sized appetizer, five very tasty Cajun-spiced shrimp served over a bed of equally tasty braised spinach, smoked bacon and herbs.
I know what you’re thinking. Pretty expensive, right? Remember those are Canadian dollars. The current exchange rate would convert the appetizers to right around $10 in our currency.
“Duck Two Ways” ($28) was the first of our entrées, or “mains,” as they call them.
It consisted of a Magret breast and a confit leg. The breast was cooked to my request of medium-rare, moist and tender. The meat on the leg was fall-off-the-bone marvelous, full of flavor, enhanced by a mysterious hoisin lime demi-glace.
The vegetables that accompanied completed the presentation: baby carrots with their greens, quartered patty pan squash, white asparagus and green asparagus. Rice pilaf was studded with flavorful bits of red pepper, carrot and scallion.
Smoked wild-boar bacon-wrapped tenderloin ($30) rated a 10! The menu promised an eight-ounce portion; it was more like 10 ounces. The extra thickness made for a really great piece of meat. And they cooked it exactly to our call of medium-rare.
The sauce was intense — hunter’s sauce (a brown sauce accented with tomato purée) plus the addition of melted Gorgonzola and mixed mushrooms. It complemented perfectly. The cheese disappeared in the sauce, but the pungency was still there.
Pistachio chicken ($26) was another very, very good production number, moist and juicy chicken coated with a pistachio “gremolata” crust and surrounded by an apple cider and cranberry reduction.
The colorful veggie medley accompanied, as well as flawlessly cooked roasted potatoes.
Root-vegetable-stuffed ravioli ($26) couldn’t be called typical in any way. Eight sizable squares of pasta were stuffed in-house with a roasted-root-vegetable mix, served over a white wine-lemon butter sauce with braised spinach and sage oil, dusted with Parmesan cheese.
A very nice wine list prompted us to try two reds by the glass, a very palatable Italian and a chewy Cabernet from California’s central coast.
Our silverware came wrapped diner-style in paper napkins, but in retrospect, who cared? I would have eaten this food with my bare hands.
We had absolutely no room for dessert, but duty called. They’re all locally made, priced at $5.95 each.
Skor cheesecake was studded with pieces of that toffee candy bar, a wonderful melding of chocolate and caramel in a really fine, fresh-tasting cheesecake. As rich as it was, nothing was overdone.
Banana chocolate cheesecake, subtle banana flavor in the filling, mini chocolate chips on top was second best. Guinness chocolate cake was third best, in my book, but the recipient voted it “the best in a very crowded field.”
The restaurant got quite busy as the night progressed. Both the bartender and a gentleman who we assumed was a manager or owner jumped in at the end to give Megan a hand, presenting checks and taking credit cards up for processing.
The total food tab before tip came to $195 in Canadian funds, of which $22 accounted for taxes. That converts to about $146 in U.S. currency. We spent an additional $29 (Canadian) for two beers and two glasses of wine.
This was a gem of a find, a fabulous food discovery. We imagine it will be a crowded place throughout July and August, so it might be a good idea to call ahead for reservations: 1 (613) 659-4334
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Smugglers Run
95 Ivy Lea Road
Ivy Lea, Ontario, Canada
1 (613) 659-4334
There’s a restaurant across the border tucked away in Ivy Lea, Ontario on the St. Lawrence River. It might not look like much from the outside, but the food ranks right up there with some of the best we’ve enjoyed recently.
HOURS: Serving lunch seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dinner: 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday.
APPETIZER PICKS: Crostini with escargot; mussels à la Ritz
ENTRÉE PICKS: Roast vegetable-stuffed ravioli; smoked wild-boar bacon-wrapped tenderloin
DESSERT PICKS: Skor cheesecake; Guinness chocolate cake
RATING: 4.5 / 5
