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By now, Torontonians are well-seasoned winterliciousers—and at Winterlicious 2011, we will be deftly dodging the wilted arugula and heading straight for the belly of the beast (preferably pork). Looking through the newly published list of restaurants and menus, there is plenty to be pleased about this January. Our popular “Best of Winterlicious” piece is coming out next week, but we thought we’d get a jump on things and take a look at how this year’s roster compares with last year’s ’Licous lists.
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Weekly Lunch Pick: the $6 chicken curry burrito at the Drake Café
The good and the grape: Drake Café's chicken curry burrito (Image: Catherine Hayday)
The café at the Drake Hotel is showing a bit of mercy to busy office workers who don’t have time for a sit-down lunch. Its new (and aptly titled) Grab and Go menu features one-hand-required “type and eat” sandwiches that break from shrink-wrapped, cardboard-laced cubicle fare. The chicken curry version is fresh and filling. It comes with moist meat and just the right amount of spice, but its most impressive features are fruit and nuts: grapes, apples and walnuts. Available when the café opens at 8 a.m., the sandwich can be procured mid-commute. The grapes and walnuts ensure that it’s is still juicy and crunchy at midday.
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Toronto’s Top Teas: a mini-guide to the city’s 12 most beautiful, fragrant and tasty infusions
Photograph by Daniel Neuhaus; prop styling by Sarah Magwood; food styling by Tanya Santos;
Slamming back an espresso may get the caffeine coursing, but tea—the new coffee, judging by the sheer number of dedicated shops opening all over the city—is a drink for all senses. Our mini-guide to Toronto’s most beautiful, fragrant and tasty infusions
Where to eat lunch this week: Aunties and Uncles
This urban oasis near U of T nails the ’50s nostalgia and the chicken sandwich
Where to eat lunch this week: Delux
Ossington’s French-Cuban fixture has started serving lunch—and there’s plenty to celebrate
Cubano sandwich at Delux (Images: Catherine Hayday)
The place: Now chugging toward its third year, Delux was among the first to set up kitchen on Ossington’s restaurant row. Though the dinner menu is described as “rustic French,” the midday card is distinctly, deliciously Cuban.
The crowd: Three quarters of the tables are occupied by stylish people who have the sort of jobs that accommodate regular leisurely west-end lunches. (No, we don’t know what they do, either.)
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Just Opened: Oliver and Bonacini Café Grill. We take a peek inside the empire’s new downtown outpost
(All images: Catherine Hayday)
Calling dibs on a bit of real estate at Yonge and Front is a savvy move. The restaurants of Michael Bonacini and Peter Oliver keep popping up here like rabbits. (Succulent braised rabbits.) Within a five-minute walk are Canoe, Biff’s, Jump and now the latest incarnation of Oliver and Bonacini Café Grill. This is the land of the expense account, overflowing with suits in search of posh versions of comfort foods that don’t skimp on the cheese and cream—like, say, O&B’s pancetta and mushroom pizzetta ($16) and macaroni and cheese with Balderson cheddar ($15). Chef Michael Bonacini, however, sees the area as more than just a financial district: “Clearly, we love the lower Yonge and Bay Street area. It’s got a great mix of business, residential, sports and theatre, and visitors. It’s a heartbeat.”
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Summerlicious 2010: the restaurants have been announced, so let’s pick them apart
The view from Toula: be a tourist in your own city (Image: Ian Muttoo)
First things first: there’s not much change under the Summerlicious sun. All of the old favourites are here (including Canoe and Bymark, which always sell out first). Seven Numbers, which by Winter/Summerlicious rules is allowed only one location, has swapped out its Danforth location for its Eglinton one. Winterlicious participant Conviction is out for the summer edition as the second season of Conviction Kitchen films in Vancouver. The new owners of Crush Wine Bar are apparently not feeling the ’licious love—nor is Moroco. And while The Citizen’s digs are alive and kicking under new ownership, its vaunted replacement, Ruby Watchco, is opting out.
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Where to eat lunch this week: Pizzeria Libretto
In the evening, diners will wait for hours to eat at this Ossington pizza shop. At lunch, however, the food is just as spectacular but comes cheaper and faster
The place: Though the narrow front space opens into a surprisingly large wood-clad interior, lineups to (and out) the door are guaranteed most evenings. At lunch, however, Toronto’s oft-hyped “only certified Vera Pizza Napoletana” comes without the sound and fury.
The crowd: Full but not overflowing, Libretto is populated by young foodies on midday dates, family birthdays and wine-and-dining Bay Streeters hoping their clients think food acumen implies business savvy.
The deal: The daily prix fixe lunch ($15) is composed of three courses. On this weekday afternoon, options include beet caprese, folded pizza (“piadora”) and a vanilla affogato. We round the meal off with the day’s blood orange Campari aperitif.
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Where to eat lunch this week: Chuck and Company
Liberty Village may be late to the party when it comes to the fancy burger trend, but good things come to those who wait
Lamb and portobello burgers (Images: Catherine Hayday)
Just Opened: El Almacen brings authentic yerba mate to Queen Street West
A slice of Argentina on Queen West (Photo by Catherine Hayday)
Along the still-evolving stretch of West Queen West between Dovercourt and Ossington, Silvio and Estela Rodriguez have quietly opened El Almacen—“the general store”—a café specializing in the South American infusion yerba mate. Made from an evergreen holly of the same name, the drink has a distinctly earthy, barn-ish flavour. Natural food lovers are likely familiar with prepackaged options, but this is Torontonians’ first chance to have yerba in context: served in a cured gourd, drunk through a bombilla (a filter-tipped metal straw), and passed between friends over a lazy few hours of good conversation.
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Where to eat lunch this week
We visit Miga, a 905 favourite that has recently opened in the Annex, bringing its authentic take on Korean barbeque and DIY grilling.
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Winterlicious 2010: the list of restaurants is out
(Photo by John Hritz)
It’s that time of year again, when sniping begins over the dozens of menus featuring new (and often unexciting) ways to prepare house salad, chicken and a trio of sorbet. That’s right: the Winterlicious list is out, and it’s 150 restaurants strong.
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Just Opened: Cloud Espresso Bar brings Bonjour Brioche’s former chef to Queen West
Head in the Cloud: West Queen West's newest café is a paean to clean lines and creative energy (Photo by Catherine Hayday)
For all the fawning over Richard Florida, Toronto’s “creative class” still finds itself stuck in the abstract. Even those managing to live cubicle-free don’t feel especially futuristic and glamorous when they’re competing for the last seat at Starbucks. The concept of a creative class comes up in the first minute of our chat with Peter Coish, owner of the spanking new Cloud Free Agent Espresso Bar, where he is putting bricks and mortar—and Wi-Fi and coffee and snacks—around Florida’s vision of a mobile workforce of international collaborators.
Just Opened: Liberty Noodle
Souped up: the underground dining room at Liberty Noodle (Photo by Catherine Hayday)
Making people feel welcome seems to come naturally for Arshad Merali. At Liberty Noodle, the new venture from the long-time partner at Blowfish, the evidence is everywhere. Free Wi-Fi, for example, indicates that he understands (and welcomes, which is even rarer) Toronto’s outlet-obsessed laptop hordes. Soon, the restaurant will have an on-line order system for takeout. There is even an elevator running the short distance from the entrance to the industrial-chic dining room below. “If I did a business cost analysis, the elevator probably loses us money. But this is about doing the right thing,” Merali says.
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Just Opened: Burger Bar
Wholly cow: Owner of the Rice Bar turned his vegan outfit into a celebration of beef (Photo by Catherine Hayday)
Brock Shepherd used to run one of Toronto’s more vegan-friendly eateries, the Rice Bar, at the north end of Augusta Street in Kensington Market. That all changed a couple of weeks ago, when he decided to push the rice aside and fill his menu with its culinary opposite. Welcome to the Burger Bar.
Like many Kensington business owners, Shepherd always notices a decline in foot traffic when the weather turns cold, so October seemed like the prime time to change things up. He had been toying with the idea of making burgers for a while, initially planning to keep the Rice Bar as is and open a small takeout burger place elsewhere in Kensington. In the end, though, he decided it made more sense to do it the other way around. In eight quick days, he’d changed his restaurant, and a new burger spot was born.
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