The Story of a Happy Stomach: Fondue Night at Absinthe Café

A friend recently told me about Fondue Night at Absinthe Café. I checked the online menu and discovered that you can choose from three different types of fondue: cheese, beef or chocolate. Even better, from late fall until April, Absinthe offers Fondue Night every Tuesday, which includes all three fondues for $69. That was too good an idea to pass up, so off we went!

Absinthe Café is a casually elegant dining space on Wellington St. West, near Parkdale. It has a spectacular back wall behind the bar, which lends a creative ambience to the room. The wine list is extensive, and there’s a delectable list of cocktails, including special Absinthe cocktails. Weekdays, from Tuesday to Friday, there’s a Happy Hour Menu, which includes Duck-Pistachio Paté, Duck Wings and Smoked Salmon Dip. The impressive main menu offers one of the best appetizer selections that I have seen in a while. The chef uses locally sourced ingredients prepared in an imaginative and sophisticated manner.

We kicked the meal off with a Cheese fondue, served with Emmental & Cave-Aged Gruyere, seasoned to perfection with a variety of spices. I asked for the chef’s secret… it’s a combination of nutmeg, pepper, salt, brandy, white wine and garlic. That dollop of brandy lends a special richness to the cheese sauce. It was served with baguette chunks and for the gluten-free, a dish of crudités was an excellent option. The wine pairing for the cheese fondue was Faustino Art Collection Rioja 2021. The Rioja was a rich, flavourful red wine that enhanced and balanced the spicy cheeses. The fragrant wine had lovely aromas and flavours of strawberry, sandalwood and vanilla, with enough body to balance the rich cheese sauce. Faustino is the leading winery in Spain’s Rioja region. I’m a big Rioja afficionado, so I was delighted to see this particular pairing.

This was followed by a beef fondue, served with tenderloin and four sauces: Green Goddess, Bearnaise, Ramp Relish and Lime Habanero. They all complemented the beef, with one of us choosing the Bearnaise as the favourite, while my own preference was the Lime Habanero. For this course, the wine pairing was Domaine Saint-Michel Cotes du Rhone 2023, a Grenache-Syrah blend. While this would be a great wine to pair with roast beef, the spicy sauces require a more full-bodied wine, so I would recommend an Australian Shiraz or a rich Malbec from Argentina.

Dessert was a dark chocolate fondue, served with a scrumptious array of bananas, strawberries, kiwis, brownies, (i.e. more chocolate) churros, banana bread AND cookies! Okay, I might as well admit that the feasting season has begun, and I plan to go skiing in January to re-organize my waistline. I’ll also go snowshoeing and maybe some swimming at the pool, for good measure. The wine pairing is usually Tawse Cabernet Franc Icewine, which is a beauty. They were out of it the night we visited, though in its place, we were offered the Taylor Fladgate 10-year-old Tawny Port. I didn’t miss the Icewine at all, because rich Tawny Port, with its luscious toffee flavours, is an ideal accompaniment to a chocolate dessert (think Rolos on steroids).

We decided to go for the total Absinthe experience and ordered a drink of Absinthe after dessert, choosing the Czech brand from a selection of three. Absinthe is a bright green anise-flavoured spirit, typically with an alcohol level of around 50 percent. It was prepared traditionally, using an Absinthe Fountain. This is like a ceremonial presentation and it was a fabulous way to finish our meal. There are tiny faucets on the fountain, which is basically a glass carafe filled with ice water. You can adjust the taps to drip water into your glass in order to dilute the Absinthe to your desired strength. Adding water releases absinthe’s aromatic compounds and enhances the complex herbal notes. A sugar cube is placed on a slotted spoon atop the glass and ignited. As it burns, the sugar melts into the glass to add sweetness to the flavours. I felt as if we had slipped into an Ernest Hemingway novel! This was fun to watch and I highly recommend ordering a drink of absinthe to end your meal on a very special note.

Fondue Night is an ideal way to celebrate a birthday, a cozy date night or maybe an après-ski meal. I’ve already decided to go back soon, because my taste buds tell me that Absinthe is my new favourite restaurant!

Find Absinthe Café at 1208 Wellington Street, and online at www.absinthecafe.ca or call 613-761-1138

For more wine and food discovery from Jane Staples, visit www.bellovinoj.com

Photos: Header image and Absinthe fountain courtesy Absinthe Café. All other photos, Jane Staples.