I have driven the route between Moncton and Charlottetown perhaps 100 times in the 8 years we’ve lived on the Island. As I’ve only taken the Murray Corner back-way a couple of times, that means I’ve driven through the traffic circle at Port Elgin about 98 times. In all those times, I have never let my curiousity let me veer out of the traffic circle in any but the usual ways — to Moncton, Sackville, or to the ferry/bridge as the case may be. Until today.

With said curiousity piqued by mention of a world of German delights in Baie Verte and beyond, Catherine, wee Oliver and I veered right at the turn off for Port Elgin on our way back from Moncton this afternoon. This is our story.

Our first stop was Esser’s European Style Bakery in Baie Verte. Esser’s is easy to find: just drive to Baie Verte, don’t take the turn to Tidnish, drive until you think you’ve gone way, way too far, and at that precise moment when you turn around to go back, you will find yourself turning into Esser’s driveway.

Esser’s isn’t exactly the picture of a modern bakery: it shares its driveway with a cattle operation, and the building that houses it has seen better days. But inside they sell a wonderment of bread, cakes, buns, biscuits and other pasteries, all German-influenced in their ingredients and presentation. We left outfitted with a half-dozen tasty desserts and a couple of loaves of bread. We will be back. Note: Esser’s is a cash-only business; stop at the Trico Credit Union in Port Elgin on your way and get some cash.

Our next stop was Winegarden Estates, a small distillery and winery that’s close by. To get there from Port Elgin, drive to Baie Verte, turn left towards Tidnish, and drive exactly 5km. Winegarden Estates’ store sells a dizzying array of wine, liquers and whisky, most made on the premises, with some additional products from the Gagetown Cider Company.

Like Esser’s, Winegarden isn’t much to look at. But their staff are friendly and helpful, you can sample everything they sell, and from out initial tasting, they make some interesting, quality products. The operational part of the distillery and winery is closed for renovations right now, but they promise that tours will be offered of the newly expanded facility in 2001. We’ll do some more drinking, and report back later on what we discover. Note: Winegarden takes cash or Visa only, not Mastercard nor debit card.

Our last stop for the day was back on the more beaten track: the new visitor centre and nature park at Cape Jourimain. We didn’t have it in us to take the full tour — they have trails out to the lighthouse and through the marsh — but we did get a sense of the place, and a chance to eat in their restaurant.

The entire Cape Jourimain development is designed to sit light on the land: the washrooms use recycling toilets and rainwater powered sinks, for example. When you see this technology in action, you wonder why we’re not using it in all new buildings. It should be the law.

The environmentally friendly theme carries through to the restaurant, where they use brightly colour china and nicely designed silverware instead of the usual disposable dishes, and even have a big dish of butter instead of the usual little garbage-creating plastic tubes (note: there’s a simple snack bar in the frontmost building; go along to the interpretive centre for the restaurant proper; ignore the signs saying you need to purchase a ticket first — you don’t). Again, you wonder why all restaurants don’t work this way.

The restaurant has a simple menu, with 4 or 5 entrees offered at any time. Both Catherine and I had the lobster stew. It was a little pricey ($9.95 for a large soup bowl), but it was worth every penny.

When we’re feeling more spry, we’ll return to drink in all that the Cape Jourimain development has to offer; in the meantime, however, I recommend it to anyone who’s in need of a little rest or snack before heading home across the bridge (speaking of which: you get some of the best views of the Confederation Bridge, period, from the restaurant).

So next time you’re rushing home from Moncton, realize that your rushing is an artifact of the old-time rush for the ferry, take your foot off the accelerator, and veer right. A world of wonders awaits.

Visitors to the website of The Guardian (Charlottetown’s daily newspaper) are now receiving a pop-up notice that says, in part:

Beginning September, you’ll notice significant changes to our web sites. We’ll become bigger and better, with Globaltv.com, tvforbc.com, chektv.com and our Canadian daily newspaper sites all merging to become part of the canada.com national network.

I fear that once The Guardian’s content gets reduced to being the “Charlottetown” click off the Big CanWest Site, these qualities will disappear. If the design of the existing CanWest Site is any indication, I don’t hold out great hopes for the future.

I just emailed the following note to Heather Reisman, Chief Executive Officer, Indigo Books & Music Inc. and Chapters Online:

Dear. Ms. Reisman,

I was a customer of yours this morning at your Chapters store in Moncton.

While in the store, I took advantage of your Internet access system and purchased 20 minutes of Internet time to allow me to check my email and keep up to date with the web while away from home.

While the system generally worked well, I was dismayed to find that when I attempted to access Doc Searls’ website (doc.weblogs.com), I was given an error message along the lines of “you are attempting to access a website with content inappropriate for a public access terminal”. I assume that this arbitrary filtering occured because today’s version of Mr. Searls site contained, in part, the sentence “No, I’m shitting on Sony.”

I have several concerns:

1. Surely a national bookstore chain should be concerned with issues of information freedom, and shouldn’t put itself in the role of arbitrary censor. Do you choose to not include books in your inventory based on the fact that they contain the word “shit” or not?

2. There was no notice of the content filtering system given to me when I paid my $2 for 20 minutes of Internet access. I paid for access to the *entire* Internet, not for some Chapters-sanitized version of it.

3. By denying your customers access to Mr. Searls website you are, at least indirectly, doing yourself a disservice, as he is one of the co-authors of the “Cluetrain Manifesto,” a popular book that you sell in your store in Moncton and in your online website (the book is currently ranked #3,988 in the Amazon.com Sales Rank).

I would ask that you please do the following:

(a) Arrange for my $2 Internet access fee to be refunded to me.

(b) Takes steps to immediately remove the arbitrary content filtering in your in-store Internet access terminals.

Otherwise, I will find it very difficult to be your customer in future.

A copy of this note to you has been posted on my website at www.reinvented.net; I would be happy to post your reply there as well.

Regards,
Peter Rukavina
Charlottetown, PEI

More power to the Tennessee community of Germantown in their fight with Apple Computer over signage.

We all have a right to determine how much business intrudes visually into our communities: look at University Avenue in Charlottetown to see what happens when we don’t take this right seriously.

I agree with what Premier Binns says about Island Tel’s proposal to increase rural rates. Don’t do it; it’s unfair and a step backwards for rural PEI.

They’ve made some subtle but important design changes on the CBC Charlottetown website which make it much more readable and useful. Gone is the ugly and confusing big brown bar in the middle of the page. The top story is now, well, at the top of the page. Updates appear to be happening more regularly. Kudos to Mitch Cormier and associates for the changes.

We’ve eaten at The Gahan House (warned: content-free website) on Sydney Street in Charlottetown (formerly Major Hoople’s Guest Home but now quite transformed) three times in the last week, and have had a good (and sometimes fantastic) meal each time.

The menu is a cut above the usual “pub fare” one finds in similar establishments. I had the Chicken Parilla today, cajun style; it was almost too spicy, but an excellent meal nonetheless (the Caesar salad lacked punch; this was the only sour note). Twice I’ve had the Garden Burger (the only place such a concoction is available in Charlottetown; you have to duck to avoid them in Vancouver) which was very well prepared and nothing like the dry hockey puck that passes for a vegetarian take on the hamburger in many restaurants. I also recommend the cranberry-pineapple juice special (not on menu; just ask) and the carrot cheesecake, which might seem odd at first, but is oddly compelling once you dig in.

Service, in traditional Murphy-brothers style, is first rate. I’d go as far as saying the service might be the best in their multi-tentacled universe, largely because our server for the first two visits provided essentially flawless service.

If you’re thinking about going out to the Merchantman or the Water Street Pub, and haven’t been to The Gahan House yet, it’s worth a stop in; you might never go anywhere else.

Robert Scoble is the Director of Marketing for UserLand Software. In I’m Not a Salesman he does about as good a sales job on me as has ever been done.

In my final year of high school, John Fowles, my Science Communications teacher, drilled into us that all good writing (and all good communication) involves knowing your audience. Know your audience, he would boom in his stentorian voice. Over and over and over.

So tonight Catherine and wee Oliver go to their first meeting of the La Leche League, a local breastfeeding support group (and an excellent international organization to boot). During the go ‘round at the start of the session, everyone is introducing themselves and their child and Catherine introduces Oliver accordingly.

“That’s not wee Oliver is it?” Catherine is asked, echoing the term of endearment I reserve for Oliver and use in public only here online.

“Why yes,” responds Catherine. And it then becomes obvious that among the members of the the audience for this website are the nursing mothers of Charlottetown and area. Or at least some of them.

If you add that to my mother and father, three brothers, my mother-in-law, an old college professor, several far-flung friends, clients in two countries, ruffians from silverorange and Kevin O’Brien (to say nothing of the people who accidently stop by while searching for places to stay in PEI or New England) I have the daunting challenge of writing for an audience that, on any given day, I have a fairly good chance of boring or offending one section of or another.

The answer to this quandry, of course, is to simply write about that which intrigues me, in a style I find comfortable. And then let the chips fall where they may.

On an average day there are about 314 of you stopping by for a read. Welcome, nursing mothers, family members and strangers all.

The wise Matthew Scott (who, when he was my brother Steve’s roommate in the last century, I used to call either Morty or Hooper — I can’t recall which), checked in with a potent observation on selfsame Steve’s website. He says, in part:

Although I could watch “The Simpsons” for three and a half hours straight every afternoon, more often than not, I simply flicked from channel to channel, always convinced that there must be something better on one of those other three hundred stations.

Morty’s (or is it Hooper’s?) sister has a website of her own which, oddly enough, has a picture of selfsame Steve playing his guitar while dressed business casual.