Woodlot warmth!

It was cold and wintery night outside but arriving at Woodlot with the enormous stone oven all fired up made it perfectly cozy, and worth the snowy trek. And the additional bonus of hot cocktail (hot apple cider with Wyborovka vodka) in hand waiting for our table made it even better.  As a note - I made reservations 2 weeks ago to ensure we had an ideal time of 8pm for dinner and that said, we waited for another half an hour but over cocktails, catch up and people watching, it was fine. 
The hostess placed us at the large communal table at the front where both my friend Cat and I chose to sit next to each other and stare at the open kitchen and wood burning stove.  Since the communal table was wider than a standard table, this made sense or we would been shouting across the very full table to each other and not been able to intimately catch up.   

After our orders were taken and a hot cocktail was stomached in our bellies, our friendly server let us know our table was ready and it was the best table in the house on the top tress of this lofty restaurant, overlooking the large communal table where we had sat below and a view of the the kitchen and oven area which was perfect!
We have heard a lot about the "woodlot" bread and it's even served at the Brockton General so we had high expectations.  Woodlot makes their own bread in-house but it was a bit drier and denser than we expected.  Maybe we should try it again as now upon researching - it was sour dough and fife bread with a pot of house made butter.

The menus are great at Woodlot with one for the carnivores and a separate menu for the herbivores with a variety of items.  All of their ingredients are organic and locally-sourced, and everything is cooked in a wood-burning oven.

Let's get to our meal:
For appetizers, I started with the french onion soup. What intrigued me is they made the broth without beef.  It was salty but worked well with the melted gooeyness of the cheese and the dry, crustiness of the rye bread that topped it off. 
Cat ordered the potato and whitefish salad -  with Maple Mustard, Arugula, and Herbs, it was unassuming, simple and exactly what she expected.

For mains:
I ordered the whole wheat parpadelle w/ wild boar ragu. It was pure comfort food.   Papardelle was perfectly tender and the boar ragu was nicely spiced, super tender, they married well together and made it a beautifully homey dish.

Cat ordered off the vegetarian menu and got the tempeh tart with root vegetables.  This was a highlight as it was delicious.The outside crust was very buttery, and the inside of the tart was savoury which was amazing. The portions are huge; so we debated dessert but that was short lived as it was necessary to try the Lemon tart with blueberries and a homemade roasted marshmallow topping!
It was the perfect mix of sweet, creamy and tartness all in one.  HUGE recommend! You have to try to get all the elements -the crust, the blueberries, lemon custard and the marshmallow, all in one bite.

**** stars
Woodlot Bakery and Restaurant
293 Palmerston Ave (College west of Bathurst)
(647) 342-6307
www.woodlotrestaurant.com