Restaurants

The Best Thing I Ate All Week: Grilled Carrots at Crowbar

Vegging out at the Fraserhood cocktail bar.

By Stacey McLachlan / January 4, 2018

Vegging out at the Fraserhood cocktail bar.

Even though my husband was 20 minutes late to meet me due to a very boring series of communication errors, I was in a pretty good mood soaking in the cozy weeknight rhythms of Fraserhood’s Crowbar. I had myself a cozy perch across from the bar under the warm lights, a Vivian Ward cocktail in hand (gin and rosewater and sparkling wine, yes please) and was happily people-watching as locals filtered in an out for either a drink or to use the Bitcoin machine tucked away in the back hall. (Why is there a Bitcoin machine in the back of a hip cocktail bar? An excellent question that I do not have the answer to.)But the night was only to improve from there, because once my dining companion had arrived and the dinner menu had been cracked, we were treated to something special: a plate of carrots.Stay with me. Even though I’m a longtime vegetarian, I certainly understand that asking someone to get excited about this workhorse vegetable is a stretch. But when a tiny vintage dish, piled with tender carrots appeared that had been roasted ’til charred and served up in an artful splatter of black garlic bagna cauda, I fell hard. I almost wish Max hadn’t shown up at all so I didn’t have to share and I could’ve licked the plate clean while all the Bitcoiners were distracted. You guys can have your crytocurrency riches: I’ll have my carrots and eat ’em, too.