Halifax's sleek Queen's Marque development woos visitors
With the Atlantic Ocean at high tide behind him, Fred Dardenne is down on his hands and knees so that we don't have to be.
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A half-hour's drive southwest of Halifax, the veteran forager is rooting for tasty wild food, kneeling on the grassy fields of Prospect Bay and amid the rocky crevices beside the rolling waves.
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Those of us taking part in Dardenne's foraging tour are blind to all the deliciousness growing around us. But Dardenne, a Belgian-born lover of the land who moved to Nova Scotia 18 years ago and immediately started his business, sees all. His eagle eyes spot sheep sorrel and wild cranberries, caribou moss, sea asparagus and sea truffle. Soon, he's handing out samples that are as tasty as they are novel.
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'It's a little garden,' Dardenne says, of the patch of land that he knows so well, close to where he lives.That mid-May outing with Dardenne was one of several tasty highlights during our visit to Halifax. Our trip focused on the new and transformative Queen's Marque District, a $200-million development along the Halifax waterfront that's been opening in phases since late 2021. The complex is flush with high-end accommodation, appealing restaurants, tempting shops and attractive public spaces that nod to Haligonian culture and history.At Queen's Marque, they know Dardenne too. His just-found wares bolster dishes at several of its restaurants and above all at Mystic, a fine-dining destination that opened in the fall of 2024 but has already been celebrated as the 71st best restaurant in the country, according to the latest Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list.
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Before this spring, it had been more than a dozen years since I'd visited Halifax on a family vacation. Returning this year, I didn't recognize the striking waterfront that Queen's Marque had helped revitalize, or the crowded boardwalk adjacent to the district that is lined with more restaurants, bars, craft shops, bike rental shops, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and more.
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Between the boardwalk and Queen's Marque, Halifax has a new hub for tourism, in addition to its long-standing attractions, museums and festivals. Nova Scotia's capital should appeal to vacationing Canadians seeking to visit more of their own country, especially with direct flights that connect Halifax to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, in addition to other Canadian Maritime cities.My three days in Halifax were focused on the culinary appeal of Queen's Marque, the luxurious accommodations at Muir, the district's luxurious boutique hotel that opened in December 2021, and the pleasures of two day trips including the outing with Dardenne.
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