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The cheese burger at Le Gouter restaurant in Albert Beach is the star of the show. (PHOTO BY KATHRYNE GRISIM)

I will deliver the bad news first: Le Gouter is only open for a few more summer days until the September Long Weekend when it will close until the May long weekend in 2013. The good news is that every season that they start anew, they expand their offerings to include more and more delectable light meals and snacks.

As you may deduce by the restaurant’s name, Le Gouter (pronounced goo-tay) is a French establishment at Albert Beach. In fact, most beaches that line the east and west shores of Lake Winnipeg have similar associations. The community where we have our little place is German, as is easily deduced by the family names that identify the cottages.

We have been vacationing for a couple of weeks and enjoy cooking and assembling many family members for a post-tennis brunch or barbeque supper on the deck. Then again, there is a relaxed pleasure when the two of us can make a date on our own for lunch as well as some shopping (freshly picked corn and some end-of-season flip flops).

I often select Reuben sandwiches for lunch, not just because I enjoy the taste but because I rarely make them in my home (I never remember to keep stocked up on sauerkraut) and because I believe that a well made Reuben is a very telling manner to assess the abilities of the kitchen. This one had the authentic Russian dressing, whereas many kitchens utilize thousand island and plenty of both corned beef and sauerkraut. My preference is when the sandwich has been watched on the grill for enough time for the cheese to melt through the other ingredients and fuse them all together. On this day, the Swiss cheese was not quite melted enough for my tastes.

But no matter, for the small order of poutine that we shared was loaded with melted cheese curds. When we ordered, we were asked if we had a preference for mozzarella or authentic curds. We simultaneously requested the latter. After all, authentic poutine was invented by French Canadians and squeaky curds are what make them such a treat. In this case the hand-cut, never frozen fries and the brown gravy were equally top notch.

The star of the show was the cheese burger that my husband ordered. The hand formed burgers are crowned with tomato, pickle, lettuce, red onion, mustard and ketchup as well of plenty of melted cheddar cheese. The old school taste is succulent and perfect, in our minds.

This summer has been glorious, as has been the visits, to our favourite beach establishments.

Kathryne Grisim’s foodmusings.ca blog was named best local blog in Uptown Magazine’s Best of Winnipeg readers’ poll