Necessity is the mother of invention, and there’s no necessity like a global pandemic. The challenges we’ve faced at Avling over the past few months are certainly not unique, nor the most harrowing, but that’s not to say it’s been easy, either. We’ve missed welcoming you in our space and doing our part to improve people’s days. Thankfully, the adversity drove us to creativity, and the necessity to invention.
Offering local food boxes to share produce from our rooftop and the many great Ontario farmers we work with was always part of the plan, but the pandemic admittedly accelerated our timeline. While prepping to reopen our restaurant this Wednesday, September 16, we also got to work on our new weekly farm boxes, set to launch in just a few weeks with a mix of prepared food from our kitchen, meat from our in-house butcher, and produce from our rooftop and partner farms for you to cook with at home. We’re happy to report these boxes will be here to stay, because the more we can do to support local farming and shorten the link between you and your food, the better.
Our kitchen team also took the unexpected time off to develop a new pasta program, as well as start baking our burger buns and (like everyone) our sourdough bread in-house. Plus, all the produce we weren’t able to share in our food boxes will feature on the menu for months to come in the form of pickles and other preserves that saved our summer bounty for the long haul.
In the brewery, the downtime spurred creativity as we focused on our barrel-aged beer program. Before we even opened, we stowed a batch of beer away in barrels, and this additional time allowed us to revisit those beers and work on a slew more. Soon, you’ll be able to sample a blend aged on Cabernet Franc skins from our friends at Rosewood, as well as a barrel-aged take on our popular Brevis Cherry Tart Saison.
The complex flavours developed in barrel allow us to play even more than usual with the distinct flavours of local grains and other local ingredients that we like to use in our beers. We’re excited to continue experimenting with innovative flavours, like marigold flowers and orange wine skins. The wine skins are a waste product of the winemaking process, and the marigold from our rooftop was planted largely as an organic form of pest management—both ingredients have already served their purpose but find new life here. More than ever we want to minimize waste and maximize flavour, and this brew accomplishes both at once.
While we’ve found a way to make the best of the situation, we can’t wait to safely welcome you back to Avling this week. (OpenTable reservations are available now.) Our staff is eager to serve you again, and we’re excited to show you the fruits of our shutdown labour. Speaking of pandemic projects, we’re also planning more gardening workshops to bolster all the budding gardening habits you picked up during your time at home.
Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity,” and we are proud to have taken this opportunity to make our little corner of the world more resilient, inviting, and exciting for you.