All of the restaurants reviewed on our Website have a story about their connection to the farm. Here is the story of Bacalao.

Around mid-September, we received a phone call from Andrea Maunder, explaining she and her husband, Mike Barsky, who is a Chef, were returning to St. John’s to open a new restaurant. It would celebrate Newfoundland Culture with an emphasis on local, fresh and where possible, organic. She asked for a list of things available, especially the organic salad mix she had heard about. This was Tuesday afternoon. She said she needed the order for salad mix for lunch on Wednesday, which would be the Grand Opening.

I told her I didn’t think this was possible on such short notice. Our routine is to send out the lists of what is available to restaurants on Monday in order to have the totals posted in the packing shed on Tuesday morning. Even though the shed staff begin to pick as they arrive, it is still a challenge to get things picked, cleaned, weighed, counted, labeled and organized into individual boxes sent out to 12 to 14 restaurants on Tuesdays and Fridays. Mike likes to be flexible in responding to individual requests, but we had promised the shed staff that we would stick to the schedule: CSA on Monday and Wednesdays, Restaurants on Tuesday and Fridays and Belbins, Fisher’s Lodge and Lighthouse Picnics on Thursdays, not to mention the two restaurants in the Portugal Cove that have managed to get around the schedule by coming to the farm and doing walk-abouts with the pickers. (Both Atlantica and The Ferry Last Café have been reviewed.)

I explained to Andrea that she should e-mail Mike, leave her name, request the list and that she could probably have an order for Friday. About two hours later, Mrs. Maunder, Andrea’s mother called to speak to Mike. I realized it was about the Bacalao order but went out to find Mike on the farm anyway. When Mike returned the call, I heard him say, that he would go back out, talk to the shed staff to try to get some lettuce mix for their opening luncheon. If he was successful, he would call her back and deliver it himself on Wednesday morning, in time for lunch. Thus, began our relationship with Bacalao, who placed regular orders for the remainder of the season.

My experience with the Bacalao
I was in St. Johns later in the fall, helping a friend with a project. It was around 4:30 on a very cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. We decided to take a break and go for a snack. We walked to a restaurant near the Convention Centre. We looked at the menu and at each other. I started pulling on my coat, “Let’s go to The Sprout.” We seldom get together. We both love The Sprout. I felt we should spend our time together in a more memorable way. We walked back up the street to the car and found a parking place a few blocks from The Sprout. WOOPS! We had forgotten it is closed on Sunday evenings. Giving up the idea of a memorial event, we settled on a cup of tea and turned the car toward my friend’s house on Longs Hill. Then, I remembered Bacalao, which was at the top of the hill on LeMarchant Rd.

A Memorable Event!! Although we were wet and cold and tracked in wet leaves stuck to our shoes when we eased into the Bacalao, we were received warmly and graciously. Even though it was after five, our meagre order of soup and coffee and a request for two spoons and plates so we could share dessert was treated with the same respect as an order for a five course lobster dinner.