This one was a quick interlude – we decided to take a long-weekend vacation to Fogo Island, Newfoundland over this years’ Labour Day Weekend. A couple of our friends from Ontario moved out there to work last fall and having never been to Newfoundland, much less Fogo Island, we decided to make the trip out there to see them.
Fogo Island is geographically three times the size of Manhattan, but with a population of just 3500, and no stop lights. This is a great way to picture how much land there is, yet how small-town it feels. You can see how small the island is relative to the rest of Newfoundland in the map above.
The island has recently been made famous by the Fogo Island Inn, a stunning and modern boutique hotel and restaurant perched on top of a rocky coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The Inn was built about 6 years ago as a solution to a declining economy on the island. Harsh climate, remoteness, and a cod fishing moratorium have made economic progress in the region very challenging over the last several decades.
The Inn is a not-for-profit business, that takes all surpluses and puts them back into building up the economy on the island. The Inn has created jobs for locals who work at the Inn, or build furniture and create beautiful quilts used at the inn, or work at other businesses such as restaurants on the island.
We met and spent some time with a few locals, and it seems the community was hesitant to embrace this idea at first. It appears that they have come to appreciate the inn, knowing that it is providing support for their way of life, but also is an opportunity for them to share their rich culture with people visiting from around the world. We met people from the US, elsewhere in Canada, and as far away as Australia.
Our friends Dacha and Brie both work in the restaurant at the Inn. Dacha, who is the Sous Chef, has been there for about a year and a half, and Brie, who is the Sommelier, has been there for just under a year. We spent 4 days with them exploring the island, eating at the restaurant, and spending some time with their local friends. We were certainly given a very unique opportunity to experience their world here. They took good care of us!
The dining room at the inn. It was smaller than we expected; we are sitting at the furthest table from the window so you can see most of the tables in this picture. The lights are a really interesting creation by a local artist made entirely from fish nets. The cocktails are chilled with real iceberg ice!Fogo Island on a plate. Cod tongue and turnip. Cod is extremely plentiful and turnips are one of the few vegetables that can grow and be kept in good shape long term here.Despite the harsh climate there are also more than 37 different varieties of berries that grow on the island. The restaurant incorporates many of them into the compound butters you can see on the plate in the background.The pictures are incredible, and they don’t do it justice. This really is a special place. The design of the Inn somehow creates the impossible bridge between something that feels minimalist and postmodern, but at the same time the incredibly warm and homey feeling of a backwoods cabin.
We could not believe how incredibly beautiful this island is. The landscape is very reminiscent of areas we’ve been in western France, and what we imagine Scotland and Ireland looking like. Dacha and Brie took us hiking every day, where we saw some of the most incredible views we have ever seen. These views rival Italy, BC, and California.
It may not look like the most luscious landscape but there’s a certain beauty in the harshness of the mostly rocky landscape and the constantly blowing winds off of the North Atlantic.
There are 4 studios on the island that were built by the Inn that artists can apply to use for a few months at a time. This is one of them, called “Squish”. This was one of our favourites of the studios.Here is another studio, called “Bridge”. This was Alicia’s favourite. It felt like we another planet here. The ground was covered with carpet like moss that gave way when you stepped on it, along with blueberries and a shockingly wide variety of other edible low lying plants and berries. The bounty is really remarkable when you think about how harsh the weather is along with how little soil exists.Notice how few people are in these pictures. This wasn’t a result of us waiting for the perfect shot; we rarely saw any one else while out hiking. It was part of what made it so special and other-worldly.We picked about 4 cups of blueberries while hiking, and Dacha made a delicious blueberry tart using the fruits of our labor. Pictured here is Dacha looking for berries off the beaten path. Dacha was constantly finding new plants that he wanted us to try, and that they use in the restaurant.More blueberry picking. Dacha went to extreme lengths to get as many as he could!Looking down on one of the multiple communities (this one is called Little Fogo) spread out on the island.
One night, we went to the “shed” of one of the locals. This is what we would call a detached garage, and in most cases, they are right on the edge of the water. We were told to come by after supper (to our confusion, dinner means lunch in Newfoundland), bring some beer, and prepare for some music. We did not expect what we found – a dark, eclectically decorated shed lit by Christmas lights, and filled with incredible live music, that was very reminiscent of a small local bar. There were about 40 people sitting around, singing, dancing, stomping, hooting, and laughing. It was the most truly local, as well as Canadian experience we have had.
On our last day, we went fishing with one of Dacha and Brie’s friends from the island. We were allowed to catch 15 cod per boat. As we are from Ontario, we expected to be out all day and maybe catch one or two. That is successful fishing where we are from. To our surprise, we caught our 15 cod plus one mackerel in 30 minutes! As soon as the line hit the bottom, there was another fish on it! We were using both rods and traditional hand lines, called jiggers, so the part that took the longest was pulling the line back in.
Safety first for Alicia!
We ended up bringing a few cod and the mackerel back to cook up that night, and of course, we came prepared with a cooler and brought a couple of cod back to Toronto with us.
Filleted cod and the 1 beautiful mackerel we caught.The fisherman who took us out, butchering the fish on the ‘stage’, which is a dock commonly used for this.The most delicious fish (cod 3 ways!) and chips ever.View of the inn and the community its in, Joe Batt’s Arm, in the distance.“Crab and barley porridge” that we had at the inn for lunch.Another lunch dish of fresh scallops.We had a fire at one of Dacha and Brie’s friend’s houses on the beach.
Here is Dacha cooking his first Spider Dog.
This was an extraordinary trip. We had pretty high expectations and they were more than exceeded. Dacha and Brie gave us a wonderful glimpse into this beautiful speck on the map that made us extremely proud to be Canadian. It’s a reminder for us to explore all that our vast country has to offer. We would highly recommend going to Newfoundland, and if you can, to Fogo Island.
Thank you to our amazing friends for sharing their home with us,
and giving us an excuse to visit Fogo!
M&A
