Rachel's Restaurant

Family Day unexpectedly came up bright and sunny here on the Bruce. The Farm Manager suggested we take a tour up the penninsula to celebrate the holiday and the weather. We took the back road that runs from Wiarton through Colpoy's Bay and up to Lion's Head. Before the Welland Canal opened the upper great lakes to the sea lamprey, Wiarton used to be a serious commercial fishing hub. They used to ship fish out of here by the boxcar, entire train-loads of them. Today there are essentially two industries around Wiarton and all the way up the Bruce; tourism and rock quarries. Tourism is more a summer thing, and it was pretty quiet. The only place open in Lion's Head was Rachel's Restaurant. We'd been in the joint long before it was Rachel's. That was where we ran into that digital family I dubbed the "Twattleys" in the blog they inspired. Ma & Pa stroll in with their spawn. Everybody has at least one device, several have two going on simultaneously. All eyeballs were glued to screens even after their food arrived. Never did they speak to one another. Rachel's got a different vibe going on. There can't be more than eight tables in the place, but they were turning over pretty steady. Even though this tourist town goes quiet in winter, things were downright busy at Rachel's. There was three gray-haired gals at the next table chowing down on the Monday liver-and-onion special. Next to them was a table of what looked to be locals. Behind us was a mother and her youngish son. Nobody in the place was fixated on a "device." Near as I could tell, it was just Rachel and her partner in the house. Rachel worked the kitchen and buddy did everything else, but things ran smooth. Once I saw they had gluten-free buns available for their burgers I knew what I was having. That's one of the things I miss most about being gluten free. At some level I envy them. They're way too busy to worry about scary headlines on the national news. And they put out decent food. We'll be back!