For its fourth summer, the Fort Garry Hotel’s swish west-facing patio is back with its best food menu yet, while the drinks continue to offer both a splash of spectacle and plenty of flavour.
Plus, it’s all Friday vibes on the Sunset Terrace, as you’ll learn below.
The menu
Let’s start by talking pie, because this patio is entering Winnipeg’s best pizza chat.*
The dough in particular –– which is a fermented for 72 hours, and composed of a blend of local organic wheat from Prairie Flour Mills (a top choice for local bakers) and a premium, very soft semolina from Altamura, Italy –– has been tinkered with for the past seven months, all while proving that there might not be too many cooks in the kitchen.
It was developed in concert by the Oval Room Brasserie’s chef de cuisine Kyle Lew, Vida Cucina Italia’s resident chef Fabrizio Rossi and the Fort Garry Hotel’s owner Ida Albo, who just also happens to be a certified pizza chef who trained in Italy. Ida essentially brought her recipe to the chefs, which was of a classic Neapolitan style, and they’ve since evolved it after visiting many of the best pizza joints across North America –– from New York to Chicago to Vancouver and Toronto –– to ensure their dough stacks up.
“This pizza dough can be called, like a modern style kind of pizza,” said Rossi, who was a chef in Rome before moving to Winnipeg years ago. “It’s long fermentation – about three days – and high hydration – about 78 to 80 per cent – makes the dough very light and also digestible.”
“So, it's very airy inside. It's crunchy and soft at the same time,” continued Rossi.
That long fermentation time and those months of study have paid off, as the four pizzas on the menu are delightful. That dough is indeed so airy – if you are one of those types who cuts open your sourdoughs on Instagram you’ll appreciate all the bubbles and the webbing of gluten – while it still has a bit of a chew.
The Diavola pizza, featuring nduja and spicy salami on fresh mozzarella and San Marzano tomato sauce, had us releasing mini moans. The smatterings of nduja (which is mildly spicy pork spread from Calabria) showcases the Maillard reaction from the oven, which has produced a toasty crust on top of each little ball. When it first hit the table, we thought it was clumps of fried capers. Along with the salami, it provides just enough heat, and the freshness of the mozzarella envelops it all on the airy crust. (Note: the only thing this pizza isn’t good for is an all-white outfit, as it does release red juices from all those chilis).
We also gave high marks to the Montanara, a mushroom pizza with Taleggio that melts beautifully into a cream-like sauce with just the right amount of tang. It’s topped with confit cherry tomatoes for acidity and texture, and peppery arugula on top. Lovely stuff, plus all the pizzas are just $24-$28, a modest ask in today’s food economy.
Fans of mortadella will gravitate toward the sandwich section, where the cured pork is accompanied with creamy burrata, pistachios and a honey drizzle, while the steak sandwich featuring CAB flat iron steak is very tender, all dressed up with garlic aioli, carmalized onions and Swiss cheese. These sandwiches all come on that same pizza dough, which is folded over the ingredients like a giant taco or open-ended calzone.
As someone who doesn’t eat too much gluten these days, the three-day ferment really does make the dough much easier on sensitive tummies, while there are of course a number of gluten-friendly items on the menu, too. This includes share plates like classic poached shrimp with cocktail sauce; a chilled seafood platter featuring lobster, shrimp, crab claws and oysters; and big salads like the Mediterranean that utilizes locally made Chaeban feta.
To accompany all this food, the hotel’s wine director Christopher Sprague has created a roster of drinks that provide a bit of flair. On top of a selection of margaritas (which, along with a Negroni is the drink of summer), refreshing spritzers are presented in a tower for the table that comes with a vine garnish that screams garden party. There are popsicle cocktails that are popped right in your drink tableside, bringing just the right amount of theatrics to fit the patio’s vibes.
The vibes
“Sunset Terrace feels like Friday… that’s the vibe” said Maria Cefali, the Fort Garry Hotel’s director of marketing.
The staff are fun, professional and just saucy enough while the whole setting – with its huge umbrellas, planters overflowing with herbs (many of which are used to garnish drinks and pizzas), artificial grass underfoot and green walls encasing the whole scene –– does feel like the weekend is about to hit.
We should also mention that the smells of fresh dough being transformed into crusty goodness permeates over the patio, as the hotel’s massive bakery and kitchen has a window that’s located right at the entrance to the patio. Surely some customers will show up having simply followed their nose on Broadway (walk-ins are welcome, while you can reserve a patio seat on OpenTable).
There’s live music courtesy of either Curtis Newton, Walle Larsson or Nadia Douglas every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night ( here’s the schedule), while the patio is open Tuesday to Saturday every week –– weather depending.
But on that weather… a little drizzle isn’t going to stop this patio, as the abundant white umbrellas cover most of the real estate. There are also heaters above just about every table, so even the occasional chill is no problem here.
The Sunset Terrace Eat + Drink is open now, Tuesday to Saturday from 4:30 to 10 p.m. For full menus and more, click here.
*We’ll have a new Winnipeg’s best pizza guide out later this summer covering every style, from Neapolitan to NY, Chicago-style, and wood-fired.
