Dinette Nationale has been crafting sweets with intention since 2010, something that started with a mission to create the perfect caramel––the kind that doesn’t stick to your teeth. We step in on a humid August day, the kind that takes over the city, enveloping everything and everyone in a wave of heat that doesn’t recede. A cruel contrast to a harsher winter, but nonetheless one that has residents and visitors alike seeking respite from the pulsing heat of these short summer months. 

On this day, apricots are being prepped with care, cut in half, and spread across a work station, like little jewels waiting their turn to be immortalized as someone’s sweet memory. As we scanned the shelves, there was much to our delight: bergamot syrup, rhubarb liquorice, sea buckthorn pâte aux fruit. It’s the kind of place that takes an ingredient and plays with it well. 

We opted for an ice cream bar, inhaled in less than a minute to prevent the devastation that comes with the trickling of cream melting down your wrist and fragments chocolate crumbling to the ground after taking a bite. Our chosen flavour was blackberry, we think. 

Dinette Nationale focuses on sourcing and using ingredients from Québec as much as possible and partnering with producers who share a similar vision of quality, craft, and knowledge. They focus on using the fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and mushrooms that grow in their home province. 

To taste these creations is to be a part of the ideation and intention behind every product, and that’s pretty special. When you open your box of assorted caramels, know that each and every one you unravel has been individually wrapped by hand, momentarily transporting you to that small workshop on the Rue Gilford. 

Want a taste? We will be offering a selection of Dinette Nationale’s fine confections at the Goods and Co. Sugar Shack for the months of November and December!