Café 349 Hosts Town Harvest Dinner
Glen Hartle
Shawville July 22, 2023
Ruth Hahn has long wanted to host the town for dinner. The kind of dinner where, in that romantic notion handed down from so many beautiful stories of Italy and France, a long table filled with the bounty from the land around town is tended to by familiar smiling faces and where the entire community sits in laughter, good will, great company and amazing food.
You know – that kind of dinner.
Well, Ruth realized her dream on Saturday with her own Café 349 leading the way and with the help of the Shawville150 committee, the community and a solid team behind the scenes. Some almost 80 patrons seated in an outdoor festival tent helped complete the dream under clear open skies on a warm summer evening. Word? Bliss.
This year marks the 150th anniversary for the town of Shawville and, for Ruth, it seemed the perfect opportunity and occasion to chase her dream. A successful pitch at town hall to Shawville Mayor Bill McCleary and the rest of the Shawville150 organizing committee started the ball rolling, and the momentum took it from there.
Essential to the dream was planning and sourcing the menu. Ruth is already well-known for being a strong advocate of local businesses and producers. Her café often features lunch specials derived entirely from the farms in and around town.
For this occasion, Ruth secured supplies from: Pure Conscience Farm (yak meat, zucchini), Paul Amyotte Greenhouses (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers), R & R Farms (beans, beets), Cedar Creek Trout Farm (trout), Netherleigh Farm (beef, pork, chicken), Dr. Donna Courchesne and Andrew Simms (lamb), Nicky & André Chrétien (blueberries), Glen Hartle (haskap berries) and Brauwerk Hoffman (beer). What a statement of community!
Attendees were also invited to bring their own wine and many had opted for provisioning from a local vineyard, The Little Red Wagon Winery.
And, if the raw resources weren’t enough to inspire, the menu was an extravaganza in culinary goodness only those not familiar with the café would find odd for this small town in Western Québec!
Appetizers consisted of trout pâté, yak sliders and Caprese skewers. The buffet included three bean salad, beet salad, tabouleh salad, lamb curry, ratatouille, paella, meat kebabs and whole trout. And not to be outdone, dessert was an extraordinary burst of flavour with chocolate stout cake, haskap berry sorbet and fresh blueberries. Even the coffee was particular with the café’s Grumpy Roaster Coffee brand having produced a special blending of their own freshly roasted varieties for the occasion.
There was a near constant murmur amongst attendees at the diversity, quality and quantity of food.
On hand to join in the celebrations were MRC Warden Jane Toller, Shawville Mayor Bill McCleary, local Quebec Ministry of Agriculture representative Christine Rieux, a variety of farmers, business owners and locals, salted with a few tourists captivated by the opportunity to join the fun. Community-style seating provided an opportunity to gather with friends and family, or to meet neighbours, officials and other attendees.
Ruth’s team consisted of herself, Wayne Bohart working on the barbecue, kitchen helpers and servers Cassidy Dresselt, Holly Smith, Alana Larocque, Robin Dubeau and Jael St-Louis, as well as emcee and float, Glen Hartle. Together, they were the glue that made all of the planning and preparations come together into one cohesive evening.
Local hobby-historians Nancy Conroy and Shelley Potvin, along with a small group of volunteer helpers, had crafted a set of “this is our town history” panels which they installed in the main café seating area while inviting attendees to venture inside the café and explore some of their research into Shawville’s history. They, along with Gloria Tubman, each also took occasion to speak to those gathered, offering anecdotes from their own family annals as well as to unveil commemorative plaques honouring John Dale Sr. and Thomas Hodgins as founders of the village of Shawville. These latter will eventually be mounted on the town hall.
As a gesture of remembrance for the event, Ruth provided attendees with glass mugs emblazoned with a modified town logo helping to celebrate 150 years.
A few last words from Ruth and the sun set on the Harvest Dinner of 2023. Good news, however, as both she and the town are already planning for next year. Who would have thought that a small dream born so many years ago might now be a town tradition carried long into the future.
