I was keen for a dining adventure after my mother suggested we go to a place called Moose Winooski’s one day last week while I was visiting her and my dad (and their cute dog Kiki) where they live in Barrie, north of Toronto. We had spent the morning hitting up some thrift shops (a post of the great things I found will be coming soon) and were ready for lunch. What a fun place it turned out to be!
Upon walking towards the building I just couldn’t imagine what awaited behind the front doors, with (faux) moose antlers as door handles. I might actually have gasped when I entered the place. I didn’t know where to look first. Here was a huge room with the look of a log cabin and decorated in the most charming and humourous way, featuring a vintage camping and outdoor sports theme. Clearly the proprietors of Moose Winooski’s have spent time in the great north and are avid collectors, because the decorations about the place are really good with lots of authentic vintage pieces.
I grew up in a camping family … every summer was filled with lantern light, campfires, folding chairs, sleeping bags and nature walks (and poison ivy, skunks, black flies and mosquitoes but we won’t talk about those). My memories are clad with beaten-up signs pointing to where the lake or the outhouses were. Our trips were mostly spent within the province of Ontario (in which the city of Toronto is, at the southern end), so I can’t say if these items spoke to all of Canada, however I can say that whoever was in charge of decorating the place certainly knew their way around northern Ontario.
We chose a booth, upholstered in fabric printed with moose, by the window and were quickly met by our friendly server Jake. Our cold drinks were on the table before we could blink.
After being told that the turkey was roasted in-house I went for their Turkey Sandwich on a Seven Grain Roll. My mother chose a sandwich of beef, with onions mushrooms and Swiss cheese. It was so huge that she brought half home for my dad, who ate (and quite enjoyed) it for dinner.
After lunch I walked around trying to capture the best bits for you to see …
If you ever find yourself near one of the three Moose Winooski’s locations in northern Ontario, and are wondering if you should check it out, I say ‘go for it’, because even for adults with no children in tow, it is a fun place to see. But more importantly since it is a restaurant after all, is that the food we tried was all very good.
