An Edible Winter Weekend in Victoria

Chef Castro Boateng has mixed feelings about winter. Born in Ghana, the owner and executive chef at Langford’s House of Boateng moved to Toronto with his family when he was nine years old. “Coming to Canada, I was told it was going to be cold,” he recalls with a shiver, “but I didn’t expect it to be like a freezer.”  

But winter in Victoria, with its wet but mild climate, is an excellent time for an urban getaway, when you can linger over a meal crafted from Island ingredients, sample your way through local craft beers, or take time to explore the community’s lesser-known food spots. 

Foraged and braised 

At House of Boateng, which opened in 2018, Chef Boateng says that his goal is to use local ingredients to celebrate the heritage of West Africa and the Caribbean. In winter, that might mean braised oxtail with chanterelles, a hearty seafood chowder, or vegetarian sausage made from chickpeas and quinoa and sauced with a jerk marinade. During the colder months, he says, “our food goes from light to more long stews. We do a lot of braising,” using meats like ham hocks or short ribs.

“Where I’m from, when food is abundant, you preserve it for the season,” Boateng continues. He and his staff might forage for mushrooms that they dry or pickle to use over the winter months. Root vegetables, such as parsnips, turnips, and carrots, find their way into his winter dishes as well. 

Winter vegetables

Robert Cassels, chef-owner at Saveur Restaurant on Victoria’s Herald Street, also leans into vegetables. “We love the local produce that the Island has,” he says, but as the seasons change, so, too, do his vegetable offerings. “We don’t serve salad, green salad, in the winter. We can’t source it locally, so I prefer to do a roasted squash salad.”

“I thoroughly enjoy smoking vegetables. I find it gives an incredible depth to them,” Cassels says. One of his winter menu staples is smoked beet purée. “A lot of vegetarians have described it as vegetable beet bacon.”

Brussels sprouts are another cold-weather favourite. The Vancouver Island-born chef might gently wilt the leaves with pickled shallot juice and pistachios and pair them with elk or other wild game.

“The abundance that we have on the Island is not near what we have in the spring and summer,” Cassels acknowledges. Yet, whatever the weather, “every season brings some pleasure.”

Food walks

Especially for foodies, Victoria is an excellent city to explore in any season, suggests Bonnie Todd, owner of Off the Eaten Track Tours. She recently launched a series of self-guided food tours in Victoria, available year-round, as a complement to her regular guided food walks.

The self-guided James Bay Food Tour pairs a GPS-triggered app with recorded commentary about your route, some of the neighborhood’s more colourful residents, and the half-dozen food businesses where you sample food and drink, from bannock to chowder to chocolate. On the self-guided Victoria Public Market tour—well-suited to winter, since it’s inside this historic market building—visitors can learn more about the architecture, vendors and surrounding neighbourhood while tasting a few of the market’s foods. Both tours also share entertaining tidbits about Victoria’s history.

To sample Victoria’s food and drink scene from home, gather a small group of friends for one of Off the Eaten Track’s virtual private experiences. Try a sommelier-led wine tasting with local foods, or a virtual “beer and bites” sampling of local brews and snacks. 

Todd also recommends warming up by drinking chocolate at Chocolat & Co or a classic cocktail at Clive’s Classic Lounge, sampling the tapas at Chorizo & Co, or enjoying a locally-sourced meal at Nowhere Restaurant or Zambri’s. 

Drinks, dinner and drag 

Since Victoria’s mild winters don’t require bulky jackets, hats, and other cumbersome gear, going out feels more like, well, going out, says Rudy Tomazic, who owns LGBT2Q+ cocktail lounge Friends of Dorothy. In a plant-filled indoor–outdoor space, the lively Johnson Street lounge regularly hosts live music and recently started “Dinner & Drag” nights, pairing a multi-course meal with a drag show.

Friends of Dorothy’s bartenders create seasonal cocktails year-round. For winter, Tomazic recommends rich, warm drinks like “Lions, Tigers, and Bears,” their version of an old-fashioned.

“There are really great experiences to have in Victoria when it comes to restaurants,” Tomazic says. He recommends both the food and drinks at Little Jumbo and Citrus & Cane “which feels like you’re going back to the Austin Powers era with a bit of a tiki hut” vibe.

So what do you think of when you think about winter in Victoria? For Tomazic—and for many other locals—“it’s rather lovely.”