Red House

Well, readers, it has been a little while. It seems that contrary to my hopes, I was not immune to the sicknesses that have been plaguing so many of my friends over the course of the late Winter... Add to that the challenge of getting schedules with my 40-in-40 adventure friends to sync in perfect harmony, and the result is a week away from the adventure all together, and another week to get my butt in gear and write about where we did finally venture. Here's hoping you're still with me. If you're reading - I guess you are... and if not... well, I guess I'll never know. In that case, ignorance is bliss. 

This edition of the adventure brought Tonia and I to Red House - a pub on King Street in downtown Kingston. Now, you may be wondering why I just said "Tonia and I"... This week was just one of those weeks where people had lots going on, so the two of us ventured on our own. As former residents of downtown, it was nice to wander and hit the "pub scene" again. Red House is certainly one of the newer places in the downtown core, but it seems to be making a good name for itself. Just a few weeks ago, we walked by on a Friday night to see that they had a line forming outside. Not something that happens frequently for pubs in my opinion - and certainly not a bad sign. 

Founded by 3 brothers who all have a history of working in local establishments, Red House (find their website here) is a bit of a "classier" pub (inside and out) that has done some things differently from most pubs in town. Certainly, like many other places, they are blessed with a location that has exposed limestone as a feature (Kingston didn't get its nickname by chance)... but what's different  begins with another aspect of the atmosphere - space. So many places downtown feel crowded and slightly cramped based on set-up alone. Red House, though, has set itself apart. High ceilings highlighted by exposed wood beams and a very well planned out floor plan including a bar along one side, booths on another, and large pub-height tables in the centre optimize flow so that when you walk in, you immediately think "social". And then, you realize that there is even more seating in the back. Certainly, a crowd could be very happy here (just ask the people who line up outside!). Building the social atmosphere at Red House is the fact that, while they are a pub, there isn't a single TV in sight. If you're looking to catch the game of the night, this isn't the place to go - but don't worry - they won't be offended since I'm sure they won't have any trouble filling the seat you would have taken.


The last aspect that really sets Red House apart from other pubs is their use of local ingredients. Certainly, a number of restaurants try to do this, but it isn't as often that you hear of a pub trying to accomplish it, and Red House not only does it - they pride themselves on it.

The menu at Red House is short - a handful of appetizers, sandwiches, salads and mains. A one-pager, in fact - the front consisting of food, and the back consisting of drinks. And what did Tonia and I have?

We each started with a small caesar salad (no shock there), and then we opted to split two sandwiches - the Chicken Club (with smoked bacon, tomato relish, basil aioli and iceberg lettuce), which I ordered with poutine; and the Pulled Pork sandwich (pulled pork topped with creamy coleslaw on Navajo bread), which Tonia ordered with fries.

The restaurant wasn't overly busy, but certainly wasn't empty when we visited - and service was in good time from a very polite, friendly and attentive server. Basically, they gave us what we always want and expect in the service department. When plates arrived, I was impressed by the presentation - plates were clean and simple white, letting the food speak for itself... nice to look at, but as always, the goal was to eat. And we sure don't ever turn away from that.

What did we think? Well, since there were only 2 of us, I think I'll break from the usual writing format a little bit and just tell you like it is... er... was. Ultimately, we both decided to give the food a score of 3 forks (which, is an average overall score of 3 forks, just in case you can't follow the math ;). Our reasoning? Ultimately, the food was quite good - but in our opinion, everything was missing something... The salad didn't have as much garlic as we would have liked; the poutine had very little gravy that was spooned only over the centre of the fries, which meant that the edge of the bowl consisted of warm fries covered in cold cheese curds without gravy; the club sandwich didn't have as much aioli as we would have liked and was dry in some bites; and the pulled pork sandwich was missing "tang". 

Again - overall good food, but just not amazing for us. Would we go again? Definitely. We would certainly like to go and have a drink on a night that is busy - especially if we can beat the line.











Next week, we are off to Cambodiana - and luckily for us, more than 2 people can make it.