LUNENBURG: Postcard perfect brunch

Growing up, whenever someone mentioned the Maritimes, I pictured in my head colourful wooden buildings along a coastline. I’m sure that was because of postcards I had seen as a kid. Kind of like how you think of the Eiffel Tower for Paris or the pyramids for Egypt.

Turns out my iconic image is Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, its waterfront photographed a thousand times over. For that perfect shot, you have to drive to the golf course, park illegally along the narrow driveway and shoot back at the UNESCO World Heritage site with a telephoto lens. Or buy a postcard.

While I’d like to say this part of the trip was to fulfill some longtime dream, I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to eat at Fleur de Sel for no other reason than it came up time and again when I googled must-try places in Halifax - even though Lunenburg is an hour’s drive away.

Fleur de Sel is in a bright yellow wooden house near the water. (Though I suppose almost everything in Lunenburg is in a wooden house near the water.) It’s elegant and definitely not stuffy, with butter yellow walls and crisp white linens.

We only had time to stop in midday and luckily, the weekend brunch here is fabulous. Even though the menu was short, we still had a hard time narrowing down our choices.

The full breakfast ($9) sounded good - two eggs, grilled tomato, baked beans, potatoes, and two of smoked bacon, sausage or blood pudding - but so did the pan-fried whole sardines ($11) with fresh tomatoes, garlic and capers.

Jason and I both finally settled on the lobster benedict ($13). Large chunks of lobster lay under a sinfully smooth hollandaise sauce with pea shoots as garnish. The house potatoes were a nice surprise with hints of garlic and parsley. And even someone as averse to fruit as me couldn’t resist the refreshing slices of watermelon, kiwi and grapes.

I think Nora and Tom had the bacon and spinach benedicts ($11) which were just as good.

As with any respectable brunch, the coffee was strong, hot and plentiful. We were excited to be given sugar cubes instead of loose sugar, as we discussed our mutual appreciation of tidy symmetry.

Sugar cubes aside, the service at Fleur de Sel is superb and with a brunch this good, I can only imagine how wonderful dinner would be.

Fleur de Sel, 53 Montague St., Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, (902) 640-2121 or 1-877-723-SALT. Click here for more info.