 |
10/31/12
After bouncing the idea around for the past seven years, Diana Sideris and Rony Goraichy have decided to expand Tabülè, their popular Yonge Street Middle Eastern restaurant, to the east end. Having secured a space at 810 Queen Street East, near Bonjour Brioche, they hope to open by February of next year.
|
 |
10/31/12
Sandy De Almeida may only have been at The Drake Hotel for around a month, but she’s already put her mark on the menu. Slinging drinks behind the Lounge bar, the west-end bartender says that in addition to her duties at the hotel, she still pours at Churchill and Reposado — though it’s only here that one can toss back a Deliverance ($14).
|
 |
10/30/12
There’s no shortage of trendy new restaurants opening in Little Italy these days, but now good old-fashioned pho is making its way to the neighborhood too. Popular Junction restaurant Pho Huong is bringing its Vietnamese cuisine to the site of the short-lived Adam’s Sushi at 598 College Street.
|
 |
10/30/12
The Grilled Cheese, Kensington Market’s go-to joint for melted cheese goodness, originally brought in the Apple Crisp sandwich ($8) as a special. When it started outselling everything else, the eatery decided to let patrons chow down on it whenever they so desired.
|
 |
10/29/12
Opened in 2001 in Toronto’s Little India neighbourhood, Udupi Palace specializes in south Indian vegetarian cuisine but also offers northern Indian fare as well as fusion dishes, incorporating Asian flavours.
|
 |
10/26/12
Friday Restaurant Recap rounds up the week’s Toronto restaurant news. In this edition: a new Italian joint for Dundas West, a mobile pizzeria, a makeover for Reds Bistro and more.
|
 |
10/26/12
Over at Bloor and Clinton in Koreatown, Japas opened in the old Camto corner lot on Wednesday. The concept: a Japanese tapas and oyster bar with plenty of Japanese beer and cocktails flowing. It’s also meant to be distinctly un-izakaya in nature (read: no yelling and no gongs) while offering a fun, casual space for people to meet and share a few bites over drinks.
|
 |
10/26/12
This is a copybook introductory white Burgundy at an affordable price. It’s straw in colour, with a bouquet of fennel, peanut and apple notes; on the palate, expect a crisp yellow apple flavour. The wine is medium-bodied with good length. A versatile food wine.
|
 |
10/25/12
Good fruit beers can go in one of two directions. The special ingredient is either buried deep in the background, faintly whistling a quiet but distinctive tune, or the flavour is unmistakable and right at the front, like the horns section of an orchestra. Spearhead's Hawaiian Pale Ale, with its gentle hint of pineapple, is a good example of the former, while this week's beer, Cannery Brewing Company’s Blackberry Porter, is definitely the latter.
|
 |
10/25/12
With enRoute’s 2012 edition of Canada’s best new restaurants list, the magazine has confirmed what Torontonians already knew: “The city’s dining scene is on fire.” Six of the 10 restaurants on the list are from Toronto, including Niagara Street’s Edulis, which snagged the number one spot.
|
 |
10/24/12
Back in May, we told you about the departure of chef Tom Brodi from TOCA at the Ritz-Carlton in Toronto. At the end of this month, TOCA will relaunch with a new chef who’s looking to add some excitement to Toronto’s dining scene.
|
 |
10/24/12
El Almacen, the Queen West café known for its authentic yerba mate and empanadas, is expanding soon with a new location in the Junction.
|
 |
10/24/12
With a somewhat clandestine location at Adelaide and Portland, SpiritHouse is the latest addition to the west end’s sundown scene. The subterranean space is the work of Len Fragomeni, known around town as the owner of the Toronto Institute of Bartending. Head bartender Brad Gubbins serves up a roster of cocktails, including a barrel-aged Sazerac that comes in a bottle ($46), but the Corpse Reviver No. 2 ($15) is our drink of choice.
|
 |
10/23/12
Fan of mash-ups? Try this on for size: a Porchetta & Co. sandwich in pizza form. Starting today and going until Thursday, both Pizzeria Libretto locations are offering a special pizza ($17) featuring the same porchetta and crackling that you’d find stuffed inside a Portuguese bun at Nick auf der Mauer’s popular Dundas West sandwich spot. The pizza also comes with rapini, truffle oil and chilies.
|
 |
10/23/12
Located right by the Distillery District’s front gates, the Brick Street Bakery has been wooing Torontonians since 2001. Known for its selection of baked treats, the homey space is filled with the scent of just-out-of-the-oven bread, which includes picks such as warm croissants and basil ‘n’ parsley loaves. Though there are now four locations around town, we still think that the original trumps the rest.
|
 |
10/22/12
Spadina and King is crowded with foot traffic at lunchtime, so it’s no surprise that a wood-burning pizza oven set up on the corner, on Fresh and Wild’s patio, draws stares.
|
 |
10/22/12
The longstanding Lick’s hamburger joint in the Beach is closing in order to make way for a six-storey condo project, but the restaurant is planning to open a new location in the area. The iconic restaurant will flip its last burger on Oct. 31, and to celebrate the long haul, Homeburgers and Nature Burgers will go on sale for 25 cents apiece (on that day and at that location only).
|
 |
10/22/12
Saturday afternoons are meant for brunch at The County General, then a stroll through Trinity Bellwoods Park — or at least past it to pick up some goodies, whether it’s a coffee stop at White Squirrel, a croissant stop (if you’re lucky) at Clafouti or over to Nadège Patisserie for fine French pastries and a colourful display of macarons fitting for the hues of fall.
|
 |
10/19/12
Friday Restaurant Recap rounds up the week’s Toronto restaurant news. In this edition: new locations for Pizzeria Libretto, ramen from the Yours Truly team, the second Hooked location and more.
|
 |
10/19/12
Chinatown’s main thoroughfare isn’t where one would normally seek out Italian cuisine, but Strada 241 is here to change that. Brothers Michael and Guy Rubino (Ame, Rain) are serving up simple and traditional fare from the south of the boot.
|
 |
10/19/12
I don’t come across Malbec from California very often, but there’s one at the LCBO made by E. & J. Gallo under the Red Rock Winery label. It’s deep ruby in colour with a smoky, truffle, barnyard nose; the fruit is ripe and sweet with jammy blackberry and blackcurrant flavours, ending with a spicy, dark-chocolate note. It’s full on the palate with supple tannins.
|
 |
10/18/12
Kristin and Dan Donovan’s Leslieville seafood shop, Hooked, has been keeping east-enders up to their ears in sustainable fish since March of last year. Tapping into Toronto’s desire for ethically-sourced products ensured the duo’s runaway success, and they’ve already embarked on the next step, opening up a “wee shop” in Kensington Market.
|
 |
10/17/12
Here we go again with the absentee chef thing. Such a crapshoot. Clearly some chefs (cooks?) can make it work. Mark McEwan. Oliver & Bonacini. McDonald’s. Timmy’s. Mario Batali in New York. But mostly it doesn’t work because with food prep, especially at the high end, the devil is in the details.
|
 |
10/17/12
Grab your bibs and let’s roll. Lobster roll, that is. The Star is reporting that Toronto Underground Market favourite Rock Lobster Food Co. has secured a location for a new restaurant on the Ossington strip. Owner Matt Dean Pettit intends to bring a variety of crustacean creations to the ’hood (think lobster poutine, lobster cappuccino and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese).
|
 |
10/17/12
Requiring a mosey down an alleyway to get in — complete with a sign that flips between “ping” and “pong” — SPiN Toronto feels like an illicit pleasure from the get-go. The subterranean social club spans two rooms, with picnic tables sharing space with ping-pong tables, while artwork from both New York-based and local graffiti artists dot the walls. Denizens include basement-dwelling ping-pong players in addition to others who are just there for kicks.
|
 |
10/16/12
When David Chang opened his new Momofuku restaurants in late September, a frenzy ensued. The media went crazy, and the lineups were so large that Chang himself tweeted out pictures of crowds waiting outside on the street.
|
 |
10/16/12
With the likes of burgers and poutine getting the gourmet treatment these days, hot dogs aren’t about to be left in the dust. Fusia Dog brought its new take on the hot dog to the entertainment district last year, and now Fancy Franks has joined the fray, having just opened on College Street, just a few steps north of Kensington Market.
|
 |
10/16/12
Toronto’s chef incubator (a.k.a. The Black Hoof) is seeing the exodus of one more righteous chef and, in turn, is welcoming new talent. According to The Black Hoof’s website, Brandon Olsen is calling it quits after running the show at the Dundas West institution for about a year and a half, and Jesse Grasso is taking the reins.
|
 |
10/16/12
The slabs of jamón serrano hanging in the window are the first clue as to Pimentón’s offerings. José Arato’s uptown space is part grocery store and part take-out joint, with a dash of cooking school on the side; the essence of Spain links everything together. Fire-engine-red and lime green walls set off rows of high-end products (think homemade strawberry jam and wedges of goat cheese), while salads and sides greet visitors from the countertop display.
|
 |
10/15/12
If you’re looking for a new spot to shuck some oysters and hang with some buddies, Hopgood’s Foodliner has you covered — come November at least. The restaurant plans to open its back room for private seafood feasts for groups of 15 people or less.
|
 |
10/15/12
Last week, chefs and co-owners Carl Heinrich and Ryan Donovan opened their long-awaited restaurant, Richmond Station. The two of them left their respective gigs at Marben earlier this year, and generated lots of buzz with Donovan’s West Side Beef Co. and Heinrich’s victorious appearance in Top Chef Canada season two.
|
 |
10/15/12
Brrrr. Light summery salads are gone and it’s one of my favourite times of the year: the season for hearty soups, spicy curries and giant bowls of noodles. Sure, there’s nothing like khao soi to hit the spot, but before Khao San Road, there was RaviSoups, the best soup in the city (without the attitude of Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi).
|
 |
10/12/12
Friday Restaurant Recap rounds up the week’s Toronto restaurant news. In this edition: gourmet hot dogs, a barbecue food truck, Japanese tapas, a brewery in the Junction and more.
|
 |
10/12/12
It took a year for Michael’s on Simcoe, a new Italian steakhouse at the corner of Adelaide and Simcoe, to be up and ready for business. But now that it’s open, owner Michael Dabic, the former general manager at Harbour Sixty Steakhouse, says his restaurant is mostly getting its business from word of mouth.
|
 |
10/12/12
The Toronto Garlic Festival is happening this weekend, but come on, what’s so great about garlic? It’s a fad. It’s only been in use for a few... thousand years. But seriously, what is it good for? Turns out, garlic does just about everything. We’ve listed 10 uses below.
|
 |
10/12/12
Chenin blanc (formerly known as steen) is South Africa’s signature white grape. Currently at the LCBO, this bargain-priced chenin is a highly versatile food wine. It’s light straw in colour and offers a minerally nose of pear with a floral top note. It’s medium-bodied, clean and dry with pear and peach flavours. A well-made wine of good value.
|
 |
10/11/12
Fifteen years ago, the sale of alcohol was prohibited in the Junction. As a sign of how much the west Toronto neighbourhood has changed since then, it now has two local, independent breweries: Junction Craft Brewing and Indie Alehouse, the latter of which opened its doors to the public for the first time last weekend.
|
 |
10/11/12
Toronto’s taco craze is showing no signs of letting up: popular Mexican restaurant Rebozos has expanded with a new location on College Street, just east of Bathurst. Previously, Rebozos was a bit of a trek for downtowners who wanted a taste of its highly-regarded tacos (Toronto Life recently deemed Rebozos’ beef tongue taco as one of the best in the city).
|
 |
10/11/12
Most whisky-themed beers pick up on the spirit’s more easy-drinking characteristics: soft spices, vanilla or a burnt sugar sweetness. The Saints from England’s St. Peter’s Brewery is a glaring exception to that rule.
|
 |
10/10/12
What happens when the offspring of ACE Bakery’s founders open a fried chicken shop? Free range chickens getting a 24-hour brining and double-frying happens. Crispier than ever before, non-greasy, plump. Impossible-to-choose-between tandoori sauce, both complex and spicy, and sweet/tart mustard sauce.
|
 |
10/10/12
Hogtown is in the throes of a throwback cocktail fever — something for which Sidecar is partially to blame. Situated on Little Italy’s main thoroughfare, this restaurant was one of pioneering forces behind Toronto’s resurgence of Prohibition-era tipples. Four years ago, when the bar opted to eschew ’90s-style beverages, people would send back their drinks, proclaiming they were too strong for their saccharine palates. Now, of course, people can’t get enough.
|
 |
10/09/12
A food truck’s greatest strength is the freedom to go where a restaurant cannot. For the Urban Smoke Fusion BBQ truck, that means a windswept parking lot on Cherry Street in Toronto’s Port Lands district. From there, the truck has established a steady business with local workers and those attending the nearby Cirque du Soleil performances. It will be there for the rest of October.
|
 |
10/09/12
Arguably the best brunch boîte east of the Don Valley, Bonjour Brioche is Riverside’s go-to spot for croissants, baguettes and scrumptious French-style eats. Owners Lori and Henri Feasson have been wooing Francophiles in their charming café for 16 years now, outfitting the space with cheerful Provençal table linens and an ever-changing chalkboard menu.
|
 |
10/05/12
Friday Restaurant Recap rounds up the week’s Toronto restaurant news. In this edition: Montreal-style bagels, cupcakes on wheels, Texas-style barbecue, a new spot for chef Grant van Gameren and more.
|
 |
10/05/12
Old Town Toronto may not be the first place one would expect to find Texas barbecue in the city, but Triple A Bar aims to switch things up a bit. Owners Racquel Youtzy and Tiz Pivetta have more than a few years of experience — and businesses — between them, and say that the evolving east end ’hood was ready for something new.
|
 |
10/05/12
Monkey Bay winery, a label of Nobilo vintners, specializes in bargain-priced, easy drinking wines. Jumping on the Pinot Grigio bandwagon, Monkey Bay has produced a 2011 wine that is more like an Alsatian Pinot Gris than the light Pinot Grigios of northern Italy. The 2011 vintage is coppery-straw in colour with a rich peachy, floral nose. It’s a mouth-filling wine with well-extracted, peach-flavoured fruit and citrus acidity.
|
 |
10/04/12
The thing with extended family is, you always know of them but you don’t always know them. At The Crazy Tomato, a new Italian restaurant that’s taken over the old Kitty Oshea Irish Alehouse at St. Clair and O’Connor, owners Michael Ciciarelli and Nunzio Mele are cousins who always knew of each other, but hadn’t had the chance to get to know each other until recently.
|
 |
10/04/12
The months of the beer calendar are marked by a rotating cycle of releases that all seem to use a seasonal ingredient. In the winter it’s high alcohol and warm spices; spring has bocks and hints of maple syrup; summer brings lighter beers, inflected with citrus. And now we’re well into the greatest beer season of all: pumpkin beer time.
|
 |
10/03/12
Kimchi has been growing in popularity in Toronto for a while now, but that’s not stopping a kimchi-themed bus from spreading its gospel here. The kimchi bus is a project from three young Korean university students who have set out on a kimchi-sharing mission, covering 38 countries in 400 days. Their next stop is at George Brown College’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts tomorrow.
|
 |
10/03/12
She’s not the only university student in Toronto with a part time job, but Savera Hashmi is probably the only one who owns and operates a food truck. Hashmi, who is in the final year of her Business and Society degree at York University, launched the Pretty Sweet cupcake truck in August with her partner, Ahsan Malik. She’s currently taking the semester off to focus on her business.
|
 |
10/03/12
Although the weather is rapidly cooling off, there are still some patio-worthy days remaining. With that in mind, the rooftop lounge at Park Hyatt Toronto is a cozy space, outfitted with tufted leather banquettes, tables nestled closely together and Joe Gomes behind the bar (he’s only been there 53 years). Out on the patio, imbibers can sip on one of his cocktails while taking in the season’s changing colours and peering out at the CN Tower.
|
 |
10/02/12
Parkdale’s tribute to Aboriginal cuisine, Keriwa Cafe, has just announced that its last a la carte dinner service will be on Oct. 6, after which the restaurant will focus on tasting menus. The restaurant will also act as a venue for private dinners and other special events. Keriwa’s first tasting menu will take place on Oct. 13, then on select evenings afterwards. The tasting menus will change monthly.
|
 |
10/02/12
Kensington Market will welcome a new bagel shop to its midst later this fall. Showcasing traditional Montreal-style bagels, Nu Bügel will be a sort of hybrid between a takeout shop and a sit down café.
|
 |
10/02/12
Tucked away at the southern end of the St. Lawrence Market, Buster’s Sea Cove has been a neighbourhood go-to for years now. With a variety of seafood dishes available — which could feature halibut, tilapia, salmon, red snapper, octopus and more — fish fiends can get the catch of the day grilled up and made into a sandwich.
|
 |
10/01/12
Maclean’s knew it would generate some controversy with its first-ever list of the top 50 restaurants in Canada, and it has indeed caused some commotion amongst critics, chefs and foodies across the country. Now, Anthony Bourdain has thrown his two cents in.
|
 |
10/01/12
Paintbox Bistro isn’t your run-of-the-mill restaurant. Situated in Regent Park — a part of the city recognized for its social housing complexes — the bistro aims to bring new life to the ’hood and act as a cornerstone of the area’s revitalization.
|
 |
10/01/12
The Chinese aren’t often lauded for their desserts. Sure, there are almond cookies, but dessert soups? An acquired taste. Recently, however, after being surprised by a friend with a pack of egg rolls from Pacific Mall, it didn’t take me long to realize that this dessert is one of my favourites, especially because of the memories it conjures up — of hours spent as a kid watching rolls being made with delight.
|
