After years of rumours that the 30-year-old restaurant would be moving, Scaramouche has let it be known that it’s staying put. After a long and contentious battle, restaurant owners and landlords agreed to extend the lease at 1 Benvenuto Place for six more years. “Friends and clients have been asking us where Scaramouche will move, so I’m pleased to finally report that we’re staying where we are,” says executive chef Keith Froggett.
The latest restaurant buzz, including what’s opening, what’s closing, and where to eat, drink and be seen
Weekly Lunch Pick
Where to eat lunch this week: Holts Café
With bread flown in from Paris, this Yorkville institution creates authentic French tartines that are worth the $15 price tag
(Images: Renée Suen)
Locavoracious
Three things we learned about locavore road trips from the Globe
Highway hell for locavores (Image: Grant Hutchins)
Canada’s highways can be hell for road-tripping locavores—all those thousands of kilometres of pavement, with nary a locally grown, non-processed food in sight. Luckily, the Globe has served up a few solutions. Three useful tips, after the jump.
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Pantry Raid
“Tapping” jokes inevitable as city allows environmentalists to make syrup from inner-city maples
We'd tap that (Image: Jon Dawson)
The city has officially backed down from its stance on tapping inner-city trees for sap. A few weeks ago, we reported that the powers that be were turning down requests from environmentalists wishing to extract the gooey goodness from maple trees in local parks. Beth McEwen, the city’s forest and natural environment manager, even warned that people would have to pay a fine if they damaged a tree. But now, Laura Reinsborough’s Not Far From the Tree initiative has been given the green light, and several trees have already been tapped. The sap will be boiled over the weekend and served at a tasting event in Dufferin Grove Park on Sunday from 1 p.m to 4 p.m.
It’s hard not to applaud this sort of thing. After all, if the couches at city hall can bear witness to the joys of tapping, why can’t the average Torontonian?
Opening
Brassaii’s relaunch comes with new design, new menus and new chef
The new dining room at Brassaii
This week marked the long-awaited reopening of King West institution Brassaii, and judging from the extensive menu redesign, the place is looking like more of an upscale dining spot than a Friday-night hangout for the mini-dress set.
The new one-page menus were designed by chef Bruce Woods, who left his five-year stint at Centro last year to join Brassaii, and seem to ensure that diners never need to leave the property: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert and late-night snacks are all covered. Expect breakfast and brunch staples, as well as sandwiches and burgers for lunch. As for dinner, it’s continental fare with hints of Asian influence: miso cod ($29), spaghettini with kobe beef meatballs ($20), chicken with a panko crust ($25).
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Caffeine High
BNN legitimizes McDonald’s–Tim Hortons coffee war in excruciatingly long taste test
James, Taylor sniff out the goodness (Image: BNN)
We knew the country’s post-Olympic patriotism would settle down, but not like this. The Business News Network spent nearly 20 minutes analyzing every last drop of the McDonald’s–Tim Hortons coffee war, and, long story short, they believe McDonald’s coffee tastes better than Timmies’.
Rumours & Rumblings
12 food trends we observed at the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices show
All the rage: finger foods (Photo: Renée Suen)
To follow up the Canadian Chef Survey of food trends, we decided to attend the annual conference of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) to see if the proof was in the pudding. Turns out, it was in the verrines (see photo). Our 12 key trend observations, after the jump.
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In Print
Best New Restaurants: Toronto Life’s much-anticipated April issue is on newsstands
Toronto Life is proud to announce that James Chatto’s annual list of the city’s 10 best new restaurants is now on newsstands (his five honourable mentions can be viewed here).
The restaurants are ranked as part of “Where to Eat Now,” our 12-page food feature that also notes the trends we love, the trends we hate and the ones with which we have a love-hate relationship.
Newsstand buyers should be pleased to know that the April issue also comes with our guide to dining out in the GTA, complete with 350 star-rated reviews of Toronto Life–recommended restaurants.
Bon appétit!
Pantry Raid
New York considering banning salt in restaurant kitchens—no, really
(Image: TheGiantVermin)
Big Brother is watching, and his name is Felix Ortiz. The New York lawmaker has introduced a bill that would forbid chefs from adding salt to their dishes in an effort to reduce consumers’ sodium intake. Instead, diners would add their own salt at the table. “In this way, consumers have more control over the amount of sodium they intake and are given the option to exercise healthier diets and healthier lifestyles,” Ortiz told Nation’s Restaurant News.
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DIY Gourmet
The OSAP diet forces students to give up Starbucks tea
As part of a protest against the province’s student aid program, five Ontario undergraduate students are entering the annals of martyrdom by budgeting just $7.50 a day for food—apparently this is what the Ontario Student Assistance Plan (OSAP) allows them. The students will be stringently frugal for three weeks in the name of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance’s Food for Thought campaign, intended to highlight the fact that OSAP doesn’t provide enough income for students. “OSAP assumes students should live below the poverty line, and that’s not good,” one student told the Star.
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