This autumn, let your palate soar while migrating birds descend on the waters of FortWhyte Alive (FWA).
From September 18 to October 20, Wednesday to Sunday, Winnipeg’s brilliant nature reserve will once again be presenting its super popular, thrice-nightly Goose Flight Feasts in the Buffalo Stone Café, offering diners an enchantingly avian atmosphere to enjoy a seasonal three-course meal.
(To specify, you won’t be eating in the air, nor will birds actually be whirling over your head in the dining room – that could prove messy – but rather FWA takes advantage of the sounds and sights of the season to provide a figurative feast for the eyes and ears while you eat dinner.)
During fall migration season, FWA is the nightly home for thousands of geese and waterfowl, who have just spent the day foraging in the surrounding fields. Come nightfall, these members of the family Anatidae then turn the sky at dusk into a glorious symphony composed of flapping wings and feathers swishing onto water (and yes, the occasional honk), while your family (you lucky ducks), or you two love-birds – whatever it may be – witness it all.
During these scenes, FWA’s Buffalo Stone Café – which directly overlooks the wetlands – offers three seatings (5:30, 6:15, 7; book in advance here), where you’ll get a salad, followed by a main, and a dessert, for just $55.50 per person (or $32.71 for kids under 12).
The Buffalo Stone Café is known for its farm-to-table ethos, with a good deal of ingredients often coming from the on-site FortWhyte Farms, while they also utilize great local producers like Nature’s Farm, Independent Fish and Fresh Cut Produce.
The prix fixe menu is seasonal, with one menu going until October 6, and the next running October 9 to 20.
The first menu’s mains include options like walleye in lemon caper butter; pork tenderloin in an herb marsala sauce; a creamy basil bucatini (vegetarian); or a 6 oz tenderloin with cremini mushrooms and truffle oil. Dessert is a chocolate pecan tart with Cointreau Chantilly cream and candied ginger.
The menu later in the season consists of choices like beef bourguignon, steelhead trout with a sour cherry gastrique, butternut squash ravioli with goat cheese foam and salsa verde (vegetarian), and chicken stuffed with wild mushrooms and brie. Dessert is fall on a plate – a spiced walnut cake with apple crème anglaise, ginger Chantilly cream and poached pear.
On top of this, one new addition to migration season is the addition of Lake of the Woods Brew Co., who are the Goose Flights beer sponsor. As part of this, members of the LOTW Brew Co. will be at FWA every Wednesday night providing samples and selling beer. (And on that note, you'll also soon be able to find the brewery's newest location at Hargrave St. Market within True North Square this fall.)
Should you have any more questions before you book please call 204.989.8355 x 215 for more info.