Cumin Kitchen and Drink
Cumin Kitchen and Drink
Tasty Local Eats in New Minas
BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
While there’s no shortage of quality culinary experiences in the Annapolis Valley, there are bound to be some black holes in such a large area. In and around New Minas, a central, commercial-heavy town in the middle of the region, there had been, until a couple of years ago, a not-very-promising number of dining options for those looking to support local agriculture. And while corporate chains still have a significant presence in the area, now, there’s Cumin Kitchen.
“We really wanted to do a casual day-time restaurant that was focused around community-based agriculture and suppliers,” says chef Jason Lynch of opening Cumin Kitchen. “New Minas is fast food alley.” He and Cumin’s co-owner, his wife Beatrice Stutz, opened Cumin Kitchen in April of 2021 after staring down the big market gap in that area for years. The pair also owns and operates the award-winning winery restaurant Le Caveau at the stunning Domaine de Grand Pré. Living, owning businesses, and raising a family in the Annapolis Valley, you get to know what’s around, what’s missing, and what’s needed.
“We took all those suppliers that we work with at Le Caveau and basically started with them in this more approachable price-point model,” says Lynch. The menu offers an all-day breakfast section plus a diverse mix of lunch and dinner items. Everything from a chia pudding bowl with house-made granola to big “meal salads,” stacked deli meat sandwiches and fresh pasta made in-house. All the baked goods, bread and buns originate there. And there’s dessert, too. Lynch says the menu changes every couple of months based on what’s available from suppliers, but most of the best-selling dishes tend to stick around. There are ample gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options.
“We also felt there was a real lack in the market of good quality, homemade take-home meals,” says Lynch. Cumin opened during the pandemic, and only a couple of weeks before a provincial lockdown for in-person dining, so the take-home focus worked out well at the time. Along with providing food to-go from what would have been the dine-in menu, Cumin developed an offering of frozen take-and-bake style meals like chili and cornbread, cabbage rolls, soups, baked beans, and a bake-your-own focaccia dough. According to Lynch, these frozen items and takeout meals still comprise about 20% of their business. House-made bagels and English muffins are also available in the freezer, which is next to a small pantry section where you can find Lynch’s line of condiments, salts, hot sauces and the like, alongside house-made granolas, high-end teas, and Cumin signature blend coffee beans from Nova Coffee.
Once opened back up for regular service following the last lockdown, Cumin quickly adjusted its hours to the wants and needs of the local community. “We open early in the morning. It’s got more of that café vibe [during that time] for the business community,” says Lynch. Cumin opens at 7:30 a.m. on the weekdays to catch the crowd going to work who are looking for espresso, drip coffee, fresh-baked pastries, a breakfast sandwich, or more. It opens at 10 a.m. on the weekends and closes every night at 7 p.m. After first trying for an extended evening service, they cut back hours “because a lot of it, again, was the business community or young families that were just doing things and eating early and going home,” says Lynch.
Cumin is located on the ground floor of a professional service building and gets a lot of support from those working in the area, the nearby hospital, and around the Valley. It’s the perfect stop for anyone cruising through the region on the Harvest Highway (it’s very close to the turnoff) or driving through the central artery of the Valley, Highway 1—which, funny enough, is called Commercial Street while you are in the New Minas portion.
I dip in on my way from Bridgetown to Halifax, a welcome rest stop, looking for breakfast and coffee. There’s lots of parking, and once inside, we grab a seat for table service in the simple, clean and stylish dining area. I sip on a latte and anxiously await the cured trout sandwich and the green eggs and ham dish. House-cured trout piled high on a house-baked English muffin slathered with chili-lime cream cheese, pickled red onion and celery, long ribbons of pickled carrots, and butter leaf lettuce. It’s an excellent option for fans of salty cured fish (which is very much me) and comes accompanied by a few crunchy bites of dressed sprouts, greens and apple slices. The cured trout is delicious and balanced well by the cream cheese and acidic pickled veg assortment; the freshly-baked English muffin is superb. It’s not often you eat a homemade English muffin at breakfast.
Self-serving, I asked my dining partner to get the green eggs and ham since it was my number-two choice—a house-baked sesame seed bagel sandwich filled with fried egg, rosemary ham, kale pesto aioli and sprouts. It comes with the same adorable salad on the side. It’s savoury and delicious with a rich aioli, salty ham, and perfectly medium egg yolk. I would order either of these dishes again. With the breakfast items ranging from $4 for a simple toasted bagel to the trout sammy at $13, I can see why Cumin is a regular stop for most people on their way to work. Plus—it can be hard to find healthy options at breakfast.
Jason Lynch, Beatrice Stutz, Amy Steeves, Kyla Dunn
The baked goods are fresh daily—muffins, scones, cookies and energy balls. A Wednesday-only feature, carrot cake cookies, which have gained a following, keeps things interesting. I just so happen to be there on a Wednesday morning, but since it’s a little early in the day for dessert, I go home with a carrot cake cookie. What a great idea—two round cookie-portioned pieces of carrot cake with cream cheese icing sandwiched in the middle. It’s a perfect treat later that day, a sweet, decadent, nutty dessert, and a personal favourite.
Now that I have a reason to stop and eat in New Minas, I’ll make the trip back. Cumin Kitchen is at 21 Roy Avenue in New Minas. You can’t miss it.
