Enchanted Night Market – December 2019

I live in a country environment, located between two cities….. Say now that would make a great tale !

But I digress…………the city to the East of me is Belleville   and this is the first year they had an Enchanted Night Market. 

For the evening, they closed off most of the downtown to traffic and almost all of the stores were open. The hours were 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.  

There were lots of food booths set up;  Chilango’s(Mexican) BeaverTails, 116 Bistro BBQ, Up in Smoke Pizza and more.  You could also go to Paulo’s or L’Auberge.   L’Auberge had music playing and there were carriage rides out front.  They also served hot chocolate and pastries.

We wanted to eat at Paulo’s but they were booked right up which was disappointing so we ate at Bangkok Thai restaurant, also downtown.  The food was good but the service was very slow.  Actually the young lady taking orders was good but she could not keep up.   Once you ordered, your food came fast.  They need more staff I think.

They had two fire pits set up with chairs around them.  A few more fire pits would have been appreciated !   A nice place to stop and warm up.  Get your food from a booth and sit outside in the winter and enjoy.

There were a couple of street performers out on the street (obviously!) performing at various times.   Kobbler Jay was very entertaining and I couldn’t even look when he was on these benches up on a roller.  I was sure he was going down! What balance that man has. 

Mighty Mike was the other performer but we somehow missed him and we were there from 6 p.m.until 9 p.m. when it ended.

At the south end of the street, there was a stage set up for the headliner.  He and his band are an Elton John tribute show.  They played for at least 1 1/2 hours and they were terrific.  Poor guys must have been cold playing their piano, guitars and drums.  It was only -5 Celsius that evening.  But  It wasn’t raining or snowing so if you dressed for it, it was great.  Except for the poor band, they were cold.  But what a fantastic show, you would have thought you were watching and listening to Elton John.  Great music.

 Kate’s Kitchen had some really cute items, and we bought a few Christmas and birthday presents there.  We actually went through a number of stores and they do have some nice stores downtown Belleville.  SHOP LOCAL !  

They have a very cool Men’s Store downtown called  Park Provisioners  and it’s a barbershop & haberdashery and so much more.  The store focuses on men’s character wear, including hats, jackets, boots, accessories and hygiene products.  They had some original and very cool items.  As we were leaving this store, there was a guy set up and selling cigar box guitars and they were really unique.     

The only downside of the night was by the time Clint and I got to the Beavertails truck, they were sold out. ☹️ 

If you aren’t Canadian, and I do have some “out of country” readers,  you are probably wondering what the heck is a BeaverTail?  Well to start with, no beavers are involved.  It is a pasty in the SHAPE of a beavertail.  Pretty clever eh?   They are hand-stretched whole-wheat pastries and are crispy and chewy at the same time.   You can choose from a lot of different flavour combinations but we always get original which is cinnamon and sugar only.  They deep fry the tails and dip them in your choice of flavourings and then there you go !  They are so good, one of my favourites.

All in all, it was a great evening and hopefully the feedback was good so that they do it again next year.  It was a fun time.  Thanks Downtown Belleville !