Adrian and Shannon Beaty have whipped their passion for people and food into a thriving business in which they have blended a successful restaurant with a catering business, and draw a clientele from all over the Lower Mainland.
At the heart of their achievement is not only the locals who love their culinary creations, but the farmers who provide the produce.
Their restaurant is at 26730 56 Ave. in Gloucester Estates, just east of the 264 Street/Highway 1 interchange. The restaurant takes its name from the address, while Seasonal Experience, the catering arm, was the name of the couple’s restaurant in Sundel Square, in Langley City. They opened that seven years ago, moving to their current address 30 months ago.
Putting together the two elements of their business the Beatys have created another success story: Gumboot dinners.
Held every month or so, gumboot dinners are a presentation of local food and the diners are the producers themselves, and members of the public who book a place at the table.
The November gumboot dinner showcased Aldergrove-based Glorious Organics, Glen Valley Organic Farms, Agassiz Farm House Cheese and Gelderman Farms of Abbotsford.
Fourteen diners, including six Seasonal producers/suppliers, gathered around one large table.
“We’re eating family style,” Shannon Beaty, the restaurant and catering manager, announces as she passes out the first plates of appetizers.
On one, a selection of Agassiz Farm House cheese with red onion marmalade and Fort Wine cranberry compote. On another, pulled Gelderman Farms pork sliders with maple barbeque sauce and Glen Valley cabbage and apple slaw, and on a third, fresh Dungeness crab cakes with Agassiz Farm House brie, caper-tarragon aioli and pea tips.
On this night, house baked biscuits made with rendered pork fat, bacon, and sweet red onions teased the palate before the arrival of dishes of Glorious Organics greens with Agassiz Farm House Castle blue cheese, In Season Farms hazelnuts, and aged sherry vinaigrette, braised Glen Valley Farms red cabbage with junipers and balsamic, and Glen Valley root vegetable gratin with Agassiz Farm House Alpine Gold cheese and fresh thyme.
Passed along next were plates of roasted Simple Roots farms potatoes, roasted Gelderman Farms pork loin with Haida Gwaii chanterelles and sage jus, and house cured and smoked ham made from Gelderman Farms pork.
Washing down the delectable, earthy gems were glasses of Mount Lehman Viognier Reserve 2010.
Seasonal 56 is an extraordinary place to dine, its menu never mundane and always appealing to diners who love to let their palates explore new tastes and textures. Therefore, diners can be forgiven when they pause before sampling food such as garlic scapes.
These, served at the November Gumboot, are the immature stalks of the garlic plant, appearing just after the first leaves. These morsels came from Glorious Organics.
It’s no surprise that dessert is the finest finale to any meal at Seasonal 56, and Shannon Beaty encouraged the 14 to sample both.
No one could resist the gingerbread and Glen Valley sugar pie pumpkin trifle, topped with mint leaves from Glorious Organics, nor the Agassiz Farm House fromage fraise cheesecake with Glorious Organics Belle de Boskoop apple, presented with a ribbon of caramel and sprinkled with the delicate petals of calendula, marigold and batchelor button.
Gumboot dinners, says Shannon, is a way to say thank-you to the producers, and offer diners the chance to broaden their dining experience.
Visit Seasonal 56 at www.seasonal56.ca or call 604-625-5601.