Eating and Drinking our Way through Nova Scotia: Lunenburg’s Mariner King Hotel

Lunenburg waterfront

“Comb your whiskers, Toulouse!” Nina announced, barging in through the door of our apartment in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. “We’re eating out!”

I glanced up from the newspaper and glimpsed her flushed beaming face. I decided that she’d either been drinking without me or had encountered something—or someone—interesting. I concluded the latter (she just wouldn’t do the former!), plus she was clutching her camera with triumphant glee. She vindicated me with her explanation: “I’ve discovered some cool stuff and the neatest place to eat!”

We’d recently moved to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a charming fishing town and an ENESCO designated World Heritage site. Settled by mostly German farmers in the mid 1700s, Lunenburg is home to the schooner Bluenose II and known for its vernacular architecture. Its dominant hillside setting has remained largely unchanged since

Heritage house with "Lunenburg Bump"

 the 1700s.  A friend of mine described Lunenburg as a “small San Francisco”. While this is a good description, it doesn’t accurately portray the town’s character: its European-style maritime charm; its steep lanes and historic buildings; its cozy cafés where salty characters in woolen hats mingle with world-known avant-garde artists and discuss projects in London, Toronto and New York; and its small eclectic shops with names like The Laughing Whale, Adam & Knickle, EmOcean, Large Marge’s Diner, Jenny Jib, The Tin Fish, The Scuttlebutt, The Black Duck, and Windbag Company.  

After some meticulous grooming, I let Nina put me in her backpack and we left the apartment in search of adventure. We were being joined by two artist friends and had time before meeting them for our supper reservation, so Nina showed me some of Lunenburg, where she’d been taking photographs.

parlor in the Mariner King Hotel

Many of Lunenburg’s two-story British classical Georgian houses were remodeled in eclectic Victorian Gothic or Italianate styles, with mansard roofs that featured what’s called a “Lunenburg Bump” (usually an overhang or front piece above the central doorway) and flanked by two attractive dormers (see pictures below). What struck

me also was that these elegant homes were painted in bold but tasteful colors. I saw bright red, green, salmon, pink, lavender and, of course, light yellow (worthy of a whole post) forming a cheerful and tasteful tapestry of color.

The Mariner King Historic Inn with its elegant restaurant, the King’s Plate, was no exception.  It was built in a Georgian style by Dr. Charles Bolman in 1830 to mark the coronation of King William IV of England, the “Mariner King”, and the first British Royal to come to Nova Scotia.

Toulouse gets on top of a Sagittarius vodka

 Six years later the Zwicker family bought it and “Victorianized” it along with the famous Lunenburg “bump” over the entrance. The Reiblings bought the hotel in 2007 and remodeled it as a boutique hotel decorated with tasteful eclectic furnishings and art obtained from all over the world.   

Nina had earlier met Susan Reibling, the owner, who had shown Nina the historic hotel. While there, Nina was offered excellent coffee, which was enough to convince her of their class and fine dining. She uses coffee as a barometer for good cuisine. Not a bad idea… :-3

We met our friends in front of the Inn and still had some time before supper so we lounged in the front parlor

Toulouse waits for his turn with the morel soup

 where our hostess, Joanna, recommended that Nina order a “Sagittarius”. The Sagittarius is a cocktail of limejuice, dill, cracked pepper, muddled, with a shot of vodka, shaken over ice, strained over ice and topped with tonic. Nina offered me a few sips and I thought it superb. Before I knew it, she was fishing me out of the drink! I’m not sure how I got there, but I was feeling no pain.  :-3

“Doesn’t take much,” Nina’s artist friend Teresa quipped, raising her brow at my aromatic wet fur as Nina pulled me out of the drink. “He doesn’t have much body weight.”

We were called into supper, which consisted of creamy mushroom soup with morels (It was exquisite and rivaled the mushroom cream soup we had in Brio, Detroit, a while

ago). Nina and I shared an entré of Beef Tenderloin Stroganoff with pearl onions and mushrooms. That was

Toulouse gets first dibs on the main course

 followed by a Bavarian Cream, drizzled with caramel sauce.

While Nina and I fought for the last spoon of desert, Konrad Haumering, the chef from Meunster Germany, joined us. Luckily, Nina decided to behave and removed her spoon from my face. Recognizing me, Konrad invited me to the back for a private tour of the kitchen facility, where I met his assistants and other members of the hotel staff.

I think Nina was miffed that she didn’t get the tour, but then she’s not

Chef Konrad and Toulouse discuss recipes

the cool travel cat… :-3

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