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01/31/12
Romolo Salvati and Massimo Di Lascio, two chefs whose flour-dusted fingers lovingly sculpted some of Toronto's favourite pizza at Queen Margherita Pizza, have brought a little bit of Naples to Kensington Market with Pizzeria Via Mercanti, which has taken over the space formerly occupied by the Back Alley Woodfire BBQ and Grill.
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01/31/12
In 2002, before high-quality espresso had made serious inroads into Toronto, Balzac’s Coffee Roasters opened in the Distillery District as one of the first artisanal coffee shops in the city. Four years later, a new location opened in Liberty Village, and now founder Diana Olsen is set to open two new ventures in Toronto.
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01/30/12
Last summer, we reported that Queen West’s La Palette had pulled horse from its menu after a Toronto Star article shed some light on the shadier aspects of the horse slaughter industry. Well, after months of deliberation, La Palette is bringing the controversial delicacy back.
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01/30/12
When it comes to fighting off biting cold temperatures this time of the year, a visit to Toronto’s Koreatown at Christie and Bloor is always the perfect solution. When the mercury drops to -15 degrees, just hop into one of a handful of restaurants like Owl of Minerva, Tofu Village or Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu and you’ll find hordes of hungry students, local residents and even tattooed hipsters all huddled over hot bowls of Korean dishes like pork bone soup, kimchi stew or bibimbap.
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01/27/12
For the few who don’t tune in to W Network (i.e. straight dudes), Heather White and Lori Joyce are Gemini-award-winning, Dragon’s-Den-triumphing, Canadian reality TV royalty right now. Their “docu-soap,” The Cupcake Girls, is the story of how the best friends build their B.C. cupcake franchise, Cupcakes by Heather and Lori. Put simply, the show rocks. But how good are the cupcakes? Torontonians will soon find out, because the girls are taking over a streetcar this Saturday.
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01/27/12
Toronto’s midtown received some healthy culinary injections in the last year with the likes of Cuisine of India, an institution that relocated from North York, and the critically acclaimed Falasca SPQR. Now, Leslieville’s popular Lil’ Baci has chosen the neighbourhood for its second outpost.
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01/26/12
Ask Ronen Shnaider why he got into burgers, and the answer is simple, if a little unexpected: “I got religious.” Burgers, apparently, are ideal fare for a strictly kosher restaurant. With that notion in mind, Shnaider opened Burgy’s Goldburger Burger Bar in Thornhill a few months ago.
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01/25/12
This week, we asked Chef Alex Bruveris, Maléna’s current head chef, for his “breakthrough” recipe. Only 23 years old, Bruveris has worked in a number of notable kitchens (including Auberge du Pommier and Enoteca Sociale). His passion for his craft is undeniable: the man has vegetables tattooed on his bicep. Herewith, Bruveris shares a recipe for braised rabbit and explains the significance of this particular dish.
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01/25/12
Robert Burns was born Jan. 25, 1759. His birthday is celebrated all over the world. Best known for having written “To a Mouse” and “Auld Lang Syne,” he also wrote “Address to a Haggis,” an ode to Scotland’s notorious national dish. Burns called it the “great chieftain o’ the pudding race,” but if you find it hard to think of haggis as a delicacy, think of it as sheep recycling. In honour of Burns, let’s consider the haggis, which he immortalized with a “grace as lang’s my arm.”
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01/24/12
The biggest news of the day, without question, is bound to be the announcement that a $100 hot dog is now available in Vancouver. Too bad Toronto went through this whole thing last year (get with it, Vancouver) with the now-infamous and hugely unsuccessful $100 burger. The two PR stunts are pretty much exactly the same, so why not do the obvious and compare them head-to-head?
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01/23/12
Back in November, we went to check out Fuel House to see what it was all about. It had just opened, so owners Mike Dolegowski and Mackenzie Chiu (of catering company M3 Foods) were keeping things simple — not to mention trendy — with a small menu of soups, salads and sandwiches like the pork belly banh mi ($7.50) or the pulled turkey ($7.50).
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01/20/12
If you miss the zoot suit-wearing bad boys of the Mexican-American pachuco subculture, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a fitting and delicious tribute on the Danforth, just east of Broadview. Bringing a bundle of new flavours to the city, sisters Eren, Jais and Mali Fernandez have teamed up to open Pachuco, a traditional Mexican restaurant with a contemporary spin.
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01/19/12
What could pair better with food than film? Other than wine, beer, cocktails and all the other things that food pairs amazingly with? The answer: not a whole lot. So it’s fitting that TIFF Bell Lightbox is commemorating the matchup with an upcoming subscription series entitled Food on Film, hosted by chef Jason Bangerter of Luma and O&B Canteen.
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01/19/12
No matter how mild January gets this year, Toronto’s winter weather is hardly conducive to thoughts of southern-style barbeque. For most of us, that is. But standing tall between a truck wash and a Mister Transmission at O’Connor and Sunrise, in the former Rock & Roll Heaven spot, Rally Sports Bar and Smokehouse serves up wood-smoked barbeque delights to sports-loving East Yorkers. Its grand opening is tonight.
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01/18/12
This week, we asked Donna Dooher, executive chef at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, for her “breakthrough dish.” Dooher found this particular recipe for homemade ravioli in a 1967 edition of House & Garden's New Cook Book. She was 14 years old.
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01/18/12
In the short while that chef Matthew Sullivan was at Maléna, he revitalized the menu with some ambitious cooking and some of the best ingredients Ontario has to offer. It wasn’t long before owners made him executive chef at their other restaurant, L'Unità, as well. But just a few months after unveiling his first new menu at Maléna, Sullivan has informed us that he’s no longer affiliated with either restaurant, and is currently planning on resurrecting his pop-up concept, Boxed.
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01/16/12
As of next Monday, if you want to order a small coffee at Tim Hortons, you will have to order an “extra” small. The medium coffee we once knew will become the new small. Large will officially become medium and the extra large will become large. All of this is to make way for the new extra large — a 24 oz. cup. Confused yet? We are.
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01/16/12
Here’s the bad news: Niagara Street Café has been put up for sale, and its future is uncertain. The good news is that owner Anton Potvin will be bidding the place goodbye with a bit of a flourish. He’s recruited the esteemed Steve Gonzales, a Top Chef Canada contestant and the former chef de cuisine at Origin, to temporarily take over the kitchen starting Feb. 1.
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01/16/12
After two years of licensing and permit issues, the long-awaited Ici Bistro finally opened in November 2010 to the gratitude of many. Nearly a year later, in October 2011, it received one of the most notable restaurant accolades in the country when it was named one Canada’s best new restaurants for 2011 by enRoute magazine.
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01/13/12
Times are uncertain at Hostess Inc. Earlier this week, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, which begs the question: seriously, why aren’t people eating enough Twinkies? They’re sugary sweet and they fit in the palm of your hand. It’s even a fun word to say out loud. Say it: “Twin-kie.” Didn’t that feel nice?
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01/12/12
Last Sunday at the Noor Cultural Centre, Kathleen Ko from Young Urban Farmers guided 60 people on the finer points of how to set up a veggie garden in an urban setting. The good thing is that it’s not as hard as you might expect. The bad thing is that it’s still going to require some time (and who in Toronto has any of that to spare?). Here are five things you’ll need to become a farmer in the city.
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01/11/12
An appeal from six street food vendors who are being forced to relocate due to construction projects along Front Street has been turned down. Last year, city staff raised concerns over the locations of several street vendors — specifically the ones that sold food in front of Union Station — and their impact on construction in the area. The six vendors were then told to vacate, and city council made it official yesterday by denying their appeal.
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01/11/12
What happens when two ex-Montrealers take on Queen West? A unique twist on a crêpe shop, that’s what. More specifically, a shop that’s full of sweet and savoury crêpes at affordable prices (most items are under $10), along with decadent hot chocolates, salads tossed with house-made dressings and more.
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01/10/12
Each year, Torontonians collectively brace themselves for that bleak and slushy monstrosity called winter. Although it has yet to gnash its ugly teeth, we know it’s coming, and there’s nothing like a little sippable warmth to combat the winter blues. Our favourite forms include soup, tea and of course, spirits. Lucky for us, those latter two seasonal fix-me-ups are steeping the city’s drink lists with a wide range of flavours, giving us one more reason to drag ourselves up and out this January.
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01/09/12
For over 20 years, Dutch Dreams has been open year-round, including winter. It’s a nervous period for ice cream shop owners. Co-owner Theo Aben, who recently returned from an annual ice cream convention, says it’s been business as usual at his red-bricked Vaughan Road location. In the wintertime, that means a bit of unpredictability.
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01/09/12
Opened about a month ago on King Street West, Tavolino’s concept is all about Italian-style hot gourmet sandwiches. Keeping good company with other new-ish sandwichy spots like Lou Dawgs, The One That Got Away, ZOë’s Bakery Café, Reggie’s Old Fashioned Sandwiches and Big Smoke Burger, Tavolino gives King West locals another great lunchtime option at a similar price point.
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01/06/12
If you've recently wandered by Queen and Portland in search of schnitzel and cheap shots of Jameson, it may have come as a surprise to find papered-up windows and a nameless facade where The Bohemian Gastropub once was. The good news is that the space is being transformed into Lucid Cocktail and Kitchen, fronted by Moses McIntee, one of the city's most lauded artisanal cocktailians.
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01/06/12
With a friendship that spans both years and cities, owners Tom Earl and Beth Davyduke hoped to one day open a restaurant together. When another longtime pal — chef Geoff Kitt (Swan) — hopped aboard, it was a done deal. Although Davyduke and Earl hail from the West Coast, Davyduke wished to set up camp in Hogtown, and they did that last month with The Westerly Kitchen and Bar.
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01/05/12
Call it a hot dog seller’s paradise. Find a street with four schools on it (all of which have different lunch breaks), and transform a simple Parkdale hole-in-the-wall into a steamy hot dog joint covered with retro bumper stickers from Toronto’s old It Store. Offer as many toppings as as you and your Facebook friends can think of, from pineapple to tzatziki to sweet Thai chili. Call it The Hot ‘n Dog and wait for your customers to walk in.
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01/04/12
A new shop located near Yonge and Davisville is likely to have health-conscious carnivores licking their chops. The Butcher’s Son specializes in mostly local, traditionally-raised meats, including Mennonite chickens and grass fed, hormone-free beef.
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