By Julie Card
We were tipped off that The Pottery Restaurant; one of our local favourite dining establishments is now offering all-you-can-eat Mussels every Tuesday evening, so Dan and I thought we’d check it out. We were professionally greeted by Ellie at the hostess stand, a lovely young lady who is visiting our area from the UK, and working at her first job in the food and beverage industry. She led us to what happens to be our favourite table at The Pottery, right in front of the massive fireplace that was throwing off some night heat on a chilly winter evening.
We were delighted to find that Carol Thompson was our server for the evening. Carol is a Team Lead at The Pottery and has been working at Blue Mountain Resort for over 30 years which we think is really quite incredible. Carol offers amazing customer service, is very knowledgeable about the menu offerings and it’s always a delight to see her.
Carol explained that they were offering two varieties of mussels to choose from. We could order either Beer & Bruschetta Mussels made with Creemore Springs Lot 9 or the Red Thai Curry Mussels. As both choices were something neither Dan nor I had ever tasted, we decided to order a pound of each to start with.
We ordered a nice, very reasonably priced bottle of wine to kick off dinner and a lovely little loaf of Rosemary Focaccia bread, with dipping oil, infused with herbs and chili flakes arrived at our table. Absolutely delicious!
The main event, one pound of steaming hot mussels for each of us was served in beautiful bowls with more bread for dipping. The aroma was fantastic! Half-way through, we swapped bowls so that each of us could try each variety. They were absolutely delicious! My favourite was the Beer & Bruschetta Mussels and Dan liked the Red Thai Curry Mussels the best, so much so, he ordered another ½ pound.
We were lucky that Chef Oleg Bazavic, had time to pop out of the kitchen to see how we enjoyed our meal. It was really nice to be able to meet him, find out a little bit more about his culinary journey and discover how he made his way to Blue Mountain. It turns out that Chef Oleg moved to Canada with his family when he was 7 years old from Serbia. He did his culinary training at the Niagara Food & Wine Institute with co-op placements in Muskoka and achieved his Red Seal Chef certification in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Like so many people that move to the area, Chef Oleg loves to ski and tries to get out on slopes as often as he can. He’s recently engaged and looking forward to his upcoming wedding in August at one of our local wineries.
We look forward to returning to The Pottery soon as it’s always a fantastic dining experience, and lucky us, just around the corner from where we live.
