Cora 73 Wilson Street West
Our third official breakfast Tour Stop for the month of February was a trip to Cora. We were happy to be back in Ancaster and for me in particular, I had never been to Cora but had heard a lot about it. I met up with Avi and Jenny, while feeling a little residual Valentine’s Day festivity, so I sported my heart tee, which ended up blending in well with the bright, colourful walls of the restaurant. We also got to present Jenny with her official Tour button, and we happily sported those, which also went along with the Valentine’s motif. Since it was the day after Valentine’s Day, I’m taking a cue from Leslie Knope and declaring it Galentine’s Day (to be fair, if you caught my Parks & Recreation reference, Galentine’s Day refers to the day before Valentine’s, but I’m still going with it. As Leslie states, it’s a day to celebrate with the girls.)
Cora was established in Montreal in 1987, and with breakfast as the specialty (although they do serve lunch dishes as well), the little diner has since expanded to include over 120 locations across Canada. Cora herself remains the friendly face of the brand and is pictured on the menu and website, even appearing in a few videos to teach some of her famous recipes.
As I said, Cora’s is bright, sunny, and colourful. A little smiley-faced sun is their logo and this image is all over the walls and menus. The walls are also painted with giant drawings of some of their classic breakfast creations. I kept looking around the room and noting how cute everything was.
Now, what I should have done was continue with my personal Parks & Rec theme and gone with waffles, as Leslie Knope would. Instead, I was drawn to the fanciful-sounding Raspberry 4 Lucie, a crepe dish, and ordered that. I’m still not sure why, because I’m always a pancake and waffle kind of girl, even French toast, before crepes. This dish was a bit too raspberry-infused and rich for me, so I would opt for something else next time. But if you love raspberries, these crepes filled with them, cream cheese, raspberry coulis, honey, and English cream may just be for you. Avi ended up ordering the same (and we did that without even consulting our choices beforehand, as we usually do – yet another example of how we’re totally on the same wavelength lately!) and Jenny went with some French toast topped with a mountain of fruit. And that was no exaggeration on the part of the menu; it really was a fruit mountain! Bananas, strawberries, kiwi, melon, grapes, oh my! But Jenny was up for the challenge and conquered that mountain.
Combined with some orange and grapefruit juice between us, it all ended up being a bit more expensive than I would have liked in a breakfast, but to be sure, they were some fanciful creations, indeed! To reference Parks & Rec some more, “Treat Yo Self!” And that we did.
– Kristin
