Cath at Nora Gray
Cath and I just returned from a brief weekend in Montreal, I think we were gone about 50 hours. We ate out enough in Montreal that a friend asked if we were on a food tour. It seemed that way at times, though we also shopped, visited the Musee de'Arte Contemporain, went to the Marche Atwater farm market and walked. We walked a lot.
Saturday evening we went to dinner at Nora Gray. We were very lucky to get into Nora Gray. I had a list of restaurants for Saturday, and was calling through the list. I kept dialing Nora Gray and getting no answer. Finally a very nice woman answered, and said she had just hung up with a cancelation and told me we were SO lucky to get in. I think the food gods were smiling on us.
All of our food at Nora Gray was superb. I had a scallop starter and hangar steak as the main. Cath had a grilled radicchio starter and grilled mackerel as her main. The mackerel, normally an oily fish, was done with lemon that nicely balanced the fish.
While all of our food was good, that standouts were the wine and the dessert.
2010 Arianna Occhipinti Il Frappato Sicilia IGT
Our server at Nora Gray was a model for what I hope for in a good restaurant. Extremely knowledgeable, passionate about food, engaging, and not pretentious. She steered us well on all of our food choices, and her wine recommendation was perfect.
My limited experience with Sicilian wine has been positive, and Arianna Occhipinti's 2010 il Frappato was excellent. It was soft enough to go with both the mackerel and hangar steak, but complex enough to be a valued partner to the food. The wine is great example of a red that goes well with fish.
Arianna Occhipinti is a young winemaker who farms organically with no chemical intervention. I look forward to trying her other wines.
The other standout from our meal at Nora Gray was dessert. We had a 'no flour' orange cake with almond ice cream and poached pears. I thought the pears were a bit superfluous, but the cake and ice cream were amazing.
We were told that the cake is made from cornmeal, and includes two whole oranges in each cake. It is crumbly as you would expect without wheat flour, and has the intense orange flavors that come from using a lot of orange zest or rind.
The almond ice cream nicely balances the orange, providing a nutty smoothness to balance the sharp bite of the orange. This dessert would be worth a return trip.
Orange cake with almond ice cream and poached pears
Nora Gray is on a street where I would not have even looked for a restaurant if we had not had the exact address. We walked to it from the Old Port, and the last four or five blocks seemed like vacant industrial lots and rows of apartments. We did not see any other restaurants, shops or street life. Nora Gray is in a nondescript block, marked only by a few potted plants on the sidewalk in front.
Once inside, the atmosphere is wonderful. The staff was friendly, the small dining room with a nice 'eat at' bar is inviting. This was a relaxing fine dining experience that would stand out in any city.