Jane's Restaurant and Pizza

Jane's Restaurant and Pizza

Little Bras d'Or, Cape Breton

July's Outing was only attended by three of us, as most of the UAG was busy with Family From Away, and of the three, only one person had been there before. One of the mysteries of Jane's Restaurant was always where is it?  I can tell you now - turn right at the Lick-a-Chick, then take the next right at the stop sign and then look for the little white house on the left hand side that has cars parked hell wise and crooked in the front, to the side, and across the street. Yes, unfortunate are the neighbours of Jane's. In fact, while we were waiting for our dinner, one of the patrons was asked to move his car out of the neighbour's driveway.

You can see Jane's in the photo above, so let me tell you what I think happened to Jane. Someone said to Jane, Jane you make a good pizza. I think you would be darn smart to move the piano and couch to Mah's house, set up a few tables (7 will do), add an air conditioner and put a sign out that you're a restaurant. Jane didn't give it much thought; she ran with the idea. I know it wasn't planned because we watched the people at the tables across from us move to our side of the room as soon as there was a spare table...it was like musical chairs with the loser having to sit under the air conditioner.  And this is not a large room, folks; we are all sitting in the parlour together.

So, you have Jane and a few helpers and they expand the menu. Jane apparently is the only one who can handle the cash, take the restaurant orders, serve the food, and take pizza orders at the take-out counter, so luckily, there is a door between the take-out counter and the room with the tables because Jane flies. Most of the orders were take-out and there was a steady line of patrons waiting for their pizzas; these people realized that the only way to eat at Jane's was to eat at home.  We were seated, we placed our order and then we waited. We waited for quite some time, as did the others who did not order the Special. The people who ordered the Special ate immediately.

Then, because of a mix-up with our order (no comment), our appetizer and our entrees all arrived at the same time, with apologies.

Basket with Deep Fried Vegetables and Other Stuff

Since there were only three of us, we had decided to split a basket of mixed appetizers. Unfortunately, this large basket arrived with our meal, so it was a delicate balance of trying to decide what to eat first, what to eat there, and what to take home. Jane has found the secret to good batter. So here we have zucchini, mushrooms, chicken wings, onion rings, mozza sticks, (with waffle fries), all coated in Jane's secret thick batter and served with a package of ranch dressing, a small bowl of sour cream, and a very interesting and spicy tomato sauce.


We ordered two different selections from the menu for our main meal:

Meat Pie Deluxe

Here you can see the Meat Pie, well, it is there under the fries.  Jane has also discovered the secret to good fries - these are dark, crunchy, home cut and thick.  Please notice the dish of homemade thick turkey gravy to the side.  The pie is what I call a "dry" meat pie, in that the meat is loose in the crust and this one had peas and carrots added. The meat was spiced ground beef.

That crust looks wonderful, doesn't it?

Yes, but unfortunately, it doesn't taste as good as it looks.

Pizza Flip

And the other two ladies ordered the Pizza Flip, which is really the old Ponzo.  Remember those?  And it was as tasty as I remember the old Ponzos - this is the flavour I am sure that started Jane on the road to becoming a restaurant owner.

It is as good as it looks, but I will add that it is quite large.  So be prepared to spend some time, some loving time, cutting and chewing and savouring a folded and baked pizza.




As you may realize by now, we are quite fussy about our tea when we go out for dinner.  And Jane scored very highly with us on her tea service:

Non-drip silver tea pots with large tea mugs

We always save room for dessert, although I knew that this evening I wasn't going to be having baklava. We were offered three types of pie and we chose two of them:  the coconut cream pie and the apple pie. Unfortunately, Jane's is known for her butterscotch pie, as we learned in the line-up to pay at the take-out counter on our way out.

Coconut Cream Pie

Doesn't this look lovely? 

Well, as was the case of the meat pie pastry, it doesn't taste as good as it looks. Perhaps it is the humidity we are suffering through or perhaps the people in the kitchen were too busy with pizza orders to watch the oven, but this pie suffered the same fate as the meat pie. The crust was over-cooked and tough.

Painful to read that, isn't it?  Pastry abuse.

Apple Pie

Again, this pie looks wonderful, doesn't it? 

And the flavour was lovely, with just the right amount of cinnamon, the apples were tender, but my heavens, the Pastry Chef was not in his Happy Place when he baked these pies.

As well, because the room was small and people were watching us take pictures, I can't show you the underside of this slice of pie.

It's burnt.  Breaks your heart, doesn't it?

And there you have the story of our visit with Jane. Jane's has been in business for many, many years; the people I talked to in the line-up (we had lots of time to chat), stop in every Friday for french fries and gravy. Ironically, although it took more than half an hour for our meal to travel the ten feet from the kitchen, we did not linger over our meal. The drive home was fun, however, - we enjoyed the view along the harbour, we shopped at the mall, and we discussed where to buy the best pizza in CBRM. There most likely will not be a return trip to Jane's Restaurant and Pizza.

And where can you buy the best pizza in CBRM?  Well, that's a story for another day.