By Ed Staskus

   Some places are in the middle of nowhere. Other places are around the corner. The Bistro Le Chat Bleu is both in the middle of nowhere and around the corner. It is somewhere special. Locals in Baie Verte eat there. Others come down Route 16 from Sackville. Some drive from Nova Scotia, the province southeast of New Brunswick. Many call the place the Blue Cat.

   “Fabulous food at the Blue Cat,” said Robert Thomas, front man of the New Brunswick roots band Robert Thomas and the Sessionmen. “Gisele has created an oasis off the beaten path not to be missed.” The band is on the road more often than not. They know where to get a home-cooked kind of meal when they are away from home.

   “We pay homage to a classic bistro tradition,” said Gisele Landry. She is the owner and operator of the Blue Cat. She turns the lights on every morning. “We devote themselves to providing flavorful food in a cozy setting, using ingredients that, where possible, are sourced here. We buy from local farmers and friends including Bancroft Farm, Wysmykal Farm, and Portage Pork. We love growing our own food, too.” There is a garden outside the back door.

   The back door and garden are on the banks of a creek, some wetlands, and the Northumberland Straight, the body of water that separates New Brunswick from Prince Edward Island. The nearby Baie Verte Nature Preserve helps support eel-grass beds, tidal creeks, and salt marshes. Migratory birds have come and gone from the timeless past.

   The building that houses the eatery is nearly two hundred years old. It was built in the 1830s in a post and beam style. “It was built as a small church while a larger church was being built,” Gisele said. “When the larger church was finished the smaller church was moved across the street and became a store. The back of that church became the front of the store.”

   Robert Goodwin bought the building in 1880 and renamed it Goodwin’s General Store. The town of Baie Verte was flourishing. There were several blacksmith shops, a hotel, and a train station. The general store was in business for generations. It became a community hub. Robert Goodwin’s grandson took up the task of providing necessities, from buttons to dry goods to farming implements, after World War Two.

   In the 1980s another family acquired the building and made it into a variety store. When they went out of business a second family worked it as an antique shop, but quit after a few years. “They complained that when November rolled around it was too cold inside the building,” Gisele said. “They abandoned it.”

   Gisele’s background is in contemporary dance and the arts. “But sometimes life tosses you an opportunity. I discovered this tiny village with it’s beautiful coastal landscape and its big old general store which I thought I could turn into a bistro. I like to say I created the place I was looking for but couldn’t find.”

   She began trying to buy the building in the early 2000s. “By then it belonged to Mike Spence, who was the great grandson of the original owner. He was reluctant to sell because it had finally come back into his family. It took him two years to decide.” It eventually took meeting Mike’s mother. Gisele and her partner were invited to dinner. “She must have approved of us because before long Mike decided to sell.” By then it was 2006.

   “My partner and I were both foodies but he had more experience. He had gotten through university by working in restaurants and had gotten to be a very good cook. The only cooking I had really done was on a 50-foot sailboat when I was working in eco-tourism in British Columbia.” She had moved from her hometown of Moncton, New Brunswick to the west coast in the 1980s. “I stayed for nearly 20 years but came back after a relationship I had there broke up and I was wanting to spend more time with my family, especially my folks.”

   She and her partner started renovations in 2007. “It was freezing cold,” she said. “There was no insulation in the walls. The wiring was ancient.” They stripped the interior. “We exposed the beams and repurposed as much as we could.” They insulated the building and rewired everything. “There was no running water. We had to do plumbing, do a septic system, and dig a well.” They did most of the work themselves, nights and weekends and summers. Gisele had summers off, being a schoolteacher, although it meant no time off.

   She had bought a house in Shediac, a 25 minute drive from Baie Verte, and was teaching French and French culture in an elementary school. When she finally had running water, indoor plumbing, and insulation, she sold her house and moved to Baie Verte.“ The renovations began to move more quickly then,” she said. “We lived in a small room in the back. We had a table, chairs, and a bed.” She has since moved upstairs where she maintains a bigger and more habitable loft apartment.

   In the end, renovating the general store took nearly nine years. “Plenty of people said we were crazy. They said you’re in the middle of nowhere, it will never work. When we finally opened I didn’t know what would happen, but it was the community and the cottagers who surround us who made it happen. The first day many folks showed up. I was serving, my partner was in the kitchen, and we had one helper. At the end of the evening a young man,  a high school student, said he wanted to help. He came back with a resume. It was everybody around here who made it take off. Within a year we had ten full-time and part-time employees.”

   The Blue Cat opened on June 21, 2015. “Ça été un coup de coeur” Gisele said. In other words, “Creating this place was a labor of love.” It was Father’s Day. “My dad always supported me but he passed away six months before we opened. I didn’t consciously open on Father’s Day, but maybe subconsciously it was meaningful for me.”

   The bill of fare at the Blue Cat is eclectic. “We’ve got Greek items, Tuscan items, and Canadian items. We stress fresh, made in house, organic and local as much as possible. I love to travel and experience new flavors, but if I can’t I travel I go to cookbooks. I experiment with recipes, make them my own. I’m curious and like investigating other cultures.”

   Early in the 2025 season she offered up Espagut de Marisco, brought back from Madeira, an archipelago west of Morocco. “After a long hike while we were there, a group of us found a simple place to tuck in for a bite to eat,” Gisele said. “A large cooking pot was placed on the table. Lifting the lid, we were met with the wonderful aroma of seafood. Clams and fish of all sorts in a delicious broth with pasta. It was heaven!”

   A mid-summer 2025 addition to the chalk board behind the counter, which is the only menu, was a karaage crunch bowl. It is a Japanese dish, chicken marinated with soy sauce, ginger, and mirin, then coated in starch, and finally deep-fried until golden brown and crispy. “I didn’t know what it was until we made it.” She didn’t know until she did. “That kind of thing satisfies my curiosity and creativity.”

   The creativity goes hand in hand with intention. Creativity is facing a blank page and taking a leap of faith. Intention is the first step in getting it done. The chalk board menu behind the front counter with its diverse offerings is the proof of the pudding.

   “The Blue Cat is definitely a place to stay away from, that is, if you don’t appreciate gracious service with a smile, a charming and airy atmosphere, and delicious food,” said Carolyn Stampeen, a photographer from Nova Scotia. “And I do mean delicious food. They have a limited menu that changes frequently, but they manage to have options for meat and fish eaters as well as vegetarians. The food is unique and freshly prepared. The first bite of my fish cakes made it instantly apparent they really do make their own food and I appreciate that they don’t rely on salt and fat to make their food taste good.”

   There are some dishes at the Blue Cat that have been on the menu since day one. One of them is the French Onion Soup. “I tried taking it off once, but I got so much feedback that it went back rather quickly,” Gisele said. “What’s comfortable for me is having a portion of the menu that stays and another portion that can change from year to year. I throw in occasional rotating  features. We try to balance staying power with new culinary experiences.”

   There is a Francis-Barnett motorcycle standing on its kickstand between the kitchen and the front counter. It is a lightweight bike nicknamed Fanny-B by enthusiasts. It was manufactured in England from 1919 to 1966. it was popular for its innovative design, two-stroke engine, and speediness.

   “A pal’s father on the west coast had one,” Gisele said. “My former partner loved motorcycles.  When he spotted one for sale in Montreal, he picked it up. We put it in the front window for a while. It attracted a lot of attention. Our thinking was to attract men. Women sometimes say they can’t get their husbands to come to the bistro because their husbands say there’s nothing for them to eat. They want their meat and potatoes. When they saw the motorcycle they became a little more willing to come in and give us a try.”

   Gisele planned on restoring the motorcycle and riding it on the back roads. “But I haven’t had the time. The  bistro takes most of my time and energy. I never say never, though. It’s light enough and small enough for me, so maybe it will happen.”

   Across the street from the Blue Cat is a cairn. A weatherbeaten Monuments Board of Canada bronze tablet is set into the front of it. The tablet is engraved in English and French. “Prehistoric Indian Portage. This route from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Bay of Fundy was the chief means of communication between Quebec, Isle Royale and Chicnecto. The portage connected the Baie Verte and Missaquash rivers.”

   There aren’t any Indians in canoes hunting game and trading up and down the riverways and coast anymore. But if there were and they happened to be riding motorcycles instead of paddling canoes, the Blue Cat would be a good place for them to stop for lunch. They wouldn’t be able to read the chalkboard menu, wouldn’t have any idea what coffee is, but the fresh local fare, like wild mushroom ravioli and salmon fish cakes, would be right up their alley.

Photograph by Vanessa Staskus.

Ed Staskus posts monthly on 147 Stanley Street at http://www.147stanleystreet.com, Made in Cleveland at http://www.clevelandohiodaybook.com, Down East at http://www.redroadpei.com, and Lithuanian Journal at http://www.lithuanianjournal.com. To get the site’s monthly feature in your in-box click on “Follow.”

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