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Finding your way to Avon
Emporium is well worth the effort
By BILL SPURR Bourgeois Gourmet
Avon Emporium, Summerville
1-877-875-2805
TO GET TO Summerville and the Avon Emporium, start at either Newport Corner or Sweets Corner, go past Union Corner and then through Upper, Centre and Lower Burlington.
But without an advanced course in the back roads of Hants County, I would strongly recommend consulting the Avon Emporium website for directions. It’s almost exactly an hour from west-end Halifax and whatever route you take, it’s worth the drive.
Well worth it.
I had decided to come here because of a letter-writing campaign by two of Avon Emporium’s most loyal and enthusiastic patrons, and BJ was enthusiastic before we even got out of the car. "Yes, it’s a buffet!" he said when he saw the sign.
The emporium is open every day, but the buffet is Sundays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
There are half a dozen or so tables inside and a few more outside, including a table for eight under a pergola that’s especially nice.
The proprietor’s husband did the landscaping at Domaine de Grand Pre and the similarities are striking.
After we’re seated, a waitress gives us the lowdown: there’s a cold buffet and a hot buffet, any breakfast items we want will be made to order, and for dessert there’s fruit salad, strawberry shortcake, strawberry cheesecake and chocolate and vanilla cheesecake.
"And there’s a pie in the oven, too, and it should be out by the time you’re ready for dessert," she says.
You help yourself to coffee, tea or orange juice. It’s not a fancy place, but very comfortable.
The Avon Emporium is a large, rambling building that also includes an inn with four rooms, a country store and a post office.
The restaurant is run by Doris Hagmann, an artist in the kitchen who believes in lots of variety and lots of cream.
She and her three daughters and two other women start preparing food for the buffet at 5:30 a.m., making everything from scratch. That includes a full table of baked goods and pastries, about a dozen salads, as well as quiche, soup and chowder.
The whole setup looks like a very elaborate country potluck supper that you’ve somehow been fortunate enough to be invited to.
The hot buffet also includes paprika chicken — sliced chicken breast cooked in a paprika cream sauce that’s incredible — and Ham in a Blanket, a pork shoulder wrapped in bread dough and roasted.
We all take our first trip through the buffet, then BJ and I order bacon and eggs and Kath an omelette.
The eggs were so delicious and the yolks so brilliantly yellow that I already knew they were very fresh before a young guy in rubber boots walked in carrying a flat of eggs he had obviously just collected and handed them to one of the daughters hard at work in the kitchen.
Kath gets her omelette at the same time three ladies at the next table get theirs.
They’re so incredibly fluffy and light that one of the ladies gets up to ask the cook how she does it.
The seafood chowder, made with real cream and with big chunks of salmon and halibut, stays warm in a Crock-Pot and with every taste, Kath alternates among "fabulous," "phenomenal" and "unbelievable," before settling on "the best I’ve ever had."
Especially good among the table of baked goods are the rolls and cinnamon buns.
We had both of the cheesecakes and a slice of apple pie for dessert. The strawberry cheesecake was so delicious we bought three slices to take home.
Brunch for the three of us was $59, including tax and tip, and I never made a wrong turn, coming or going, despite listening to Kath and BJ talk all the way home about that seafood chowder.
Bill Spurr is a features writer for The Chronicle Herald.
The Sunday cold buffet awaits diners at The Avon Emporium, Summerville, Hants County. There’s also a hot buffet and dishes made to order. Don’t miss the seafood chowder. (Contributed)