Signe Langford, Author at torontolife.com torontolife.com

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The Dish

Openings

January 2, 2013 | 4:37 pm

Introducing: Aprilé Bambina Cucina, a new rustic Italian restaurant on Gerrard East

Introducing: Aprilé Bambina Cucina

(Image: Signe Langford)

Last month, restaurateurs Mary McGugan, Bryan Burke and Ted Koutsogiannopoulos, owners of Hank’s, Great Burger Kitchen, Wine Bar and the still new-ish McGugan’s, opened their third spot along Gerrard Street: Aprilé Bambina Cucina, named after McGugan and Koutsogiannopoulos’s daughter April. The cozy 40-seat restaurant serves rustic Italian food, which McGugan tells us is inspired by the Italian families she grew up around in Welland. “Everyone always ate in the basement kitchen on those chrome chairs and the food just blew you away with its simplicity and quality.”

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The Dish

Restaurants

December 6, 2012 | 11:40 am

Where to find the best heritage breed turkeys in Toronto

By Signe Langford | Photography by John Cullen and Sean J. Sprague | Illustrations by Joe McKendry

know-your-bird-3-2012

(Image: John Cullen)

We’re a city obsessed with eating local, and when it comes to planning the biggest dinner of the year, we’re even more devoted. The ubiquitous Butterball, with its yellow and blue shrink wrap, used to provide a comforting barrier between us and the realization that our bird was once, in fact, a bird—with feathers, a beak and a snood (the floppy nose appendage of unknown use). Nowadays, that packaging evokes images of factory farm torture. So we’ll happily pay premium prices to know our turkey was raised in a pesticide-free pasture within a couple hundred kilometres of the city, where it munched organic feed and cavorted with other dignified turkeys. If it happens to descend from a 50-year-old Saskatchewan-born flock and come with certified ancestry papers, Yahtzee! We’ll pay even more. And it’s worth it. Heritage breeds like the Bourbon Red and the Bronze have darker meat (the Broad-Breasted Whites in grocery stores have been genetically modified for Dolly Parton–like proportions) and fuller flavour. All of which means when you’re lying on the couch in a tryptophan-induced torpor, the only thing you’ll feel guilty about is that second helping of stuffing.

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The Dish

Openings

November 20, 2012 | 1:48 pm

Introducing: Retsina, a new Greek restaurant down the street from Allan Gardens

nov12Retsina_intro

(Images: Signe Langford)

Don’t let the name put you off. Retsina—a pine resin–flavoured wine from Greece—has a pretty bad rap, thanks no doubt to the cheap stuff, which can be more like alcoholic spruce beer than fine wine. The good stuff, however, is more subtle, and perfectly suited to the hallmark flavours of Greek cuisine: lemon, oregano and garlic. And it’s the good stuff that’s on offer at Retsina, a simple new 44-seat tavern serving traditional Greek food at Gerrard and Sherbourne.

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The Dish

Openings

November 2, 2012 | 3:19 pm

Introducing: Bonne Journée, a new French bakery on Queen East with a Tunisian twist

Introducing: Bonne Journée For those visiting Bonne Journée, Tunisian ex-pat Hitchem Charfi’s new French bakery on Queen Street East, it helps to know that from 1869 to 1956, Tunisia was a French protectorate. Hence the unique—in Toronto at least—combination of French baked goods with a short menu of sandwiches concealing North African spicing and flavours (think: ham and cheese croissants with harissa mayo). Charfi grew up in Sfax, on the Tunisian coast, and came to Toronto at the age of 18. After a less than happy stint as a credit analyst for Amex—“the day I left was one of the happiest days of my life”—he headed off to France to stage for his cousins who own bakeries in Paris and learn the trade.

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The Dish

Openings

October 9, 2012 | 4:22 pm

Introducing: Strada 241, a new rustic Italian restaurant and café from the Rubino brothers

Introducing: Strada 241

(Image: Signe Langford)

For Michael and Guy Rubino, Strada 241, their brand-new restaurant and espresso bar on Spadina, is a way for them to go back to their Italian roots (“strada” is Italian for “street” or “path”). The Rubinos have spent the past decade immersed in high-end East-meets-West fusion cuisine at Ame and Rain, which Guy refers to as “high-wire-act cooking in designer restaurants.” But it seems midlife has drawn the brothers to the traditional cuisine of their hometown, Salerno. Guy, the chef, tells us, “We’ve gotten older, we’ve become a bit nostalgic. Michael got married and had a couple of kids, and I formed a band—Curtain Call. We’re cutting a record now and we just did a tour. So we are ready for more balance in our lives.”

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The Dish

Openings

September 12, 2012 | 3:51 pm

Introducing: House of Moments, a new art gallery and fusion restaurant in Leslieville

Introducing: House of Moments

(Image: House of Moments)

In May 2011, when businessman Hamid Kouchak took over a massive, 12,000-square-foot space on Carlaw Avenue—formerly Dragon Heir Design—he was thinking art gallery, reality TV show and event space. The reality show didn’t pan out, and after five months it became clear that House of Moments needed to bring in more of an audience for Kouchak’s artists and a richer revenue stream for himself. The place needed a broader appeal, so he teamed up with restaurateur Henry Kim and chef Daniel Park (lately of Tomo in Richmond Hill), and introduced a menu of Eastern fusion. Not East-West fusion, but rather Far East-meets-Middle East fusion, i.e., Japan meets Kouchak’s native Iran, which he left in 1980.

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The Dish

Openings

August 8, 2012 | 12:56 pm

Introducing: Handlebar, The Avro’s new big sister bar in Kensington Market

Introducing: Handlebar

(Image: Signe Langford)

It took two years, but Rachel Conduit and Bruce Dawson’s vision has now outgrown the confines of their first watering hole, the tiny Avro on Queen Street East. While Leslieville’s much-loved and almost always packed local—known for its Caesars and strictly birthday cake menu—will keep doing what it does best (showcasing smaller, quieter acts), the pair are excited for the possibilities at The Handlebar, their much larger new bar in Kensington Market. At 109 seats inside and 19 on the front patio, Conduit tells us they’ll be able to “support more projects, bring in bigger, louder, acts and even be a North by Northeast venue.” Indeed the long, dark, narrow room—it has at various times been Teranga African Bar and Restaurant, Southern Po’ Boys, a food shop and vacant—boasts a stage at the back and a sort of arty dive bar vibe.

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The Dish

Openings

July 31, 2012 | 4:00 pm

Introducing: Glas Wine Bar, Leslieville’s latest spot for a drink and a local, seasonal bite

Introducing: Glas Wine Bar

(Image: Signe Langford)

After two and a half years, Leslieville’s Frankly Eatery, known for its Indo-Canadian fusion brunches, threw in the towel. Replacing it: Glas, an intimate, 20-seat wine bar headed up by a chef obsessed with freshness, elegance and detail. After eight years cooking in Italy, the UK and Montreal, including at several restaurants with Michelin stars, Danny Pantano returned home to hang out his own shingle. “Leslieville is the best place in the world and the people are so supportive and friendly,” he told us. His original plan was to open a chocolate shop, but when he saw the space he thought: wine bar.

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The Dish

Openings

July 19, 2012 | 4:32 pm

Introducing: Waffle Bar, serving Liège-style treats in the Upper Beach

Introducing: The Waffle Bar

(Image: Signe Langford)

First off, Jan Vandenbroeck would like to clear up any waffle confusion that may be out there: those big, round, fancy waffles ubiquitous at brunch are not the real thing. They may call them Belgian, but that’s a bit of a catchall for any big, round, fancy waffle that doesn’t pop out of a toaster. A hair stylist-cum-waffle master, Vandenbroeck is here to set Toronto straight at Waffle Bar, his cute new shop in the Upper Beach. “When I was a kid, growing up in Flemish Londerzeel,” he told us, “waffles were a snack we ate all the time. It was our popcorn when we went to the movies.” And it’s these crunchy, not too sweet, Liège-style sugar waffles that Vandenbroeck is serving today.

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The Dish

Openings

July 3, 2012 | 3:41 pm

Introducing: Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken, Leslieville’s new house of indulgence

Introducing: Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken

Owner Devin Connell with her doughnut slingers, decked out in ’50s garb (Image: Signe Langford)

Back in May we told you about the happy convergence of two of Toronto’s favourite fried things that was about to take place in Leslieville in the form of Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken. Well, the deed is done and Leslievillians are lining up. Maybe not quite Sunday-brunch-out-the-door-onto-the-sidewalk lining up, but a near-bewildered Devin Connell (Delica Kitchen) tells us she’s been running out of doughnuts by 3 p.m. and chicken by 6—and they’re open until 7 (they’re working on this). But since her chicken isn’t a freezer-to-fryer kind of thing (it goes through a 24-hour process of brining, battering and double frying), there can be a bit of a lag in replenishing exhausted stores. Connell is truly blown away by the response. “We’ve been selling out—doing almost 300 covers a day—from the moment we opened.”

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The Dish

Restaurants

May 31, 2012 | 2:04 pm

Chicken and doughnuts, together at last at Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken

Devin Connell (Delica Kitchen) was torn between two loves: a really good, artisanal doughnut and super-crunchy fried chicken. “I knew I wanted to open a place that focused on one thing, did one thing only, and did it really well, but I couldn’t decide,” she told us. “Then, one night I woke up and thought, ‘I don’t have to choose! Why not do both?’” And so, with Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken, Connell—of the Ace Bakery Connells—along with brother Luke and chef Graham Bower (Pangaea, Globe, Delica), is bringing her idea of a very happy meal to Leslieville. “We don’t shy away from what our food is: it’s not healthy food. It’s happy food. And it’s made with wholesome ingredients.”

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The Dish

Restaurants

May 31, 2012 | 9:50 am

Food Network star Anthony Sedlak consulting on new hotel restaurant in Toronto

Sedlak at The American Cheesesteak Co. (Image: Sedlak)

Hidden away on Wynford Drive, at Eglinton and the DVP, the Toronto Don Valley Hotel and Suites is undergoing a $4-million transformation, which includes a food service overhaul courtesy of Food Network Canada star Anthony Sedlak, of The Main. Allied Hotel Properties, which bought the property in 1998, has joined forces with Atira Hotels of Chicago to re-brand the 353-room hotel as “the city’s first urban resort.”

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The Dish

Openings

May 25, 2012 | 2:56 pm

Introducing: The East Ender, Leslieville’s new spot for “stepped-up” comfort food

Introducing: The East Ender

Chef and co-owner Greg Argent (still in his civies) readies the bar for a busy Friday night service (Image: Signe Langford)

The landlord of 1212 Queen Street East wasn’t the only one to lose out when the owners of Tomi-Kro packed up and left; the neighbourhood also felt the void. But with the arrival of The East Ender in the space, the healing has begun—after all, what can’t a pork belly slider make right? (That’s the hope, at least.) Chef and co-owner, Greg Argent (Rain, Cru, Forte Bistro), with co-owner Hieu Nguyen (Forte Bistro, Cru) have moved into the 55-seat space, and, says Argent, the team has “done a lot of cleaning, but didn’t change too much.”

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The Dish

Deathwatch

May 10, 2012 | 11:38 am

Prince Edward County cheesemaker Fifth Town suspends operations

Fifth Town’s retail shop (Image: Sutha Kamal)

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company, the much-loved artisanal Prince Edward County cheese company, has wound down its operations—for now at least. Founder Petra Kassun-Mutch made the announcement on Facebook:

“Over the past two years, I watched the colour slowly drain out of something that was special [and] innovative and [that] pushed the envelope on several important environmental and social fronts–and something I felt was possible because of all the things others had taught me along the way. Now [there’s] nothing left to drain. The doors have closed on FT. My gratitude to all the staff, present and former, and the community who participated in making it happen over the past four years, and a special thanks to those who tried to tough it out in hopes of a better next phase. Even with doors closed, and whether you loved it or were of the ‘Told you so’ crowd, we together created something positive that will, in spite of its physical closing, endure for years to come.”

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The Dish

Deathwatch

May 9, 2012 | 10:12 am

Brad Long to shutter Veritas; Betty’s owners to move in

Brad Long at last year’s Toronto Taste (Image: Renée Suen)

After almost five years, chef Brad Long is quietly handing over Veritas, his “local fare” restaurant on King Street East, to the owners of neighbouring bar Betty’s. Noting the lack of drama in the restaurant’s closing, Long tells us, “It’s not a very sexy story, sorry. But my landlord and partner asked me to sell so they can do something else, and they’ve always been great to me, so I said, ‘Sure, no problem.’ ” Long was quick to add, “It’s not like I don’t have enough to do.” By which he means, of course, his bustling Café Belong at the Evergreen Brick Works. “I’ll definitely be concentrating on the café—it’s going crazy, and as far as I’m concerned, it still needs my full attention.” But it seems one business is not enough for Long: “There are certainly other projects going on but I don’t think any will be ready for quite a while.”

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