Tim D.
Yelp
Disclosure up front: my cousin is chef here.
I grew up around Parrsboro. Eating out was always pretty simple here, with seafood and chips, burgers, fried chicken, submarine sandwiches, that sort of thing. It wasn't fancy.
That's changed a bit in recent years as tastes have globalised and tourists have demanded a bigger range of cuisine. Some trendy places have come and gone. BlackRock has been here about a year I think, and it deserves to last. It's fantastic.
It's a clean, modern, space, not overdone, feeling both elegant but not fussy.
The meal I had was terrific, and included lots of local choices: homemade bread with browned butter and pepper, pan-friend scallops in maple syrup on a crostini, and chunks of blackened haddock piled high on spicy quinoa salad. Every bite was very flavourful, every delicate bit of fish cooked just right. Mmmm.
And they had a mix of local and global wines. I matched up a Jost Tidal Bay white with the bread to start, a spicy Jost Four Skins red blend to match the scallops, and a dry Gaspereau Black Dogs Riesling to cut through the savoury haddock.
Staff are lovely. It feels small-town and friendly, but has enough of the professional edge to the service and presentation that it really makes it feel like a special place to eat.
I hope BlackRock does really well.