(Image: Emma McIntyre)
There are things you don’t expect in a cheap, casual Little Italy restaurant with a mediocre wine list. You don’t expect to find grits like these, for instance: melting, creamy, aggressively, exquisitely corny grits that the chef has mail-ordered in from South Carolina, because that’s where the best grits on the planet come from. They’re stirred through with pimento cheese that unfurls like a warm southern front on the tender stretch at the back of your throat.
There’s a broth around the grits, clear as glass but evil-deep and smoky from ham hocks, and there are shrimp, which are sweet, of course, but more than that. These are Gulf shrimp, mild and clean-tasting, whereas shrimp at other restaurants almost always taste like mud. The whole dish is sharp, focused, super-seasoned but not salty, a burst to the mainline. I have to shush my giddy tablemate. He’s dropping F-mother bombs because the food is so good.
Another knockout: a firm, meaty hunk of grouper with andouille sausage that the chef has made himself and then smoked over hickory. The sausage is the glowering, porky bass note in an étouffée that combines Sea Island red peas, chopped prawns and tomatoes and tastes like a lifetime over a coal stove in the South. There’s a sauce on the plate that pulls it all together.
“Do you know what’s in the green stuff?” I ask our waiter.
He’s young, and though he seems fine at his job, he keeps calling us “dude.” I’m expecting him to sputter, to run to the kitchen, to never return.
“It’s a blend of New Zealand spinach, parsley root and chive, and then they put in chervil and purslane,” he says. We fist bump.
“Are you a cook?” I ask.
“Nah, I’ve just been around food a lot, dude.”
Everybody at Acadia has, and it shows. It’s one of the most relentlessly original, ambitious and technically bang-on kitchens in the city—a brilliant new entrant to Toronto’s restaurant scene. What makes it all the more impressive is that Matt Blondin, the 28-year-old chef, and Scott Selland, the 27-year-old manager, who co-owns Acadia with his wife, Lindsay Selland, have never run their own place before. They’re doing things that most of their older, better-known peers couldn’t dream of pulling off.
Blondin made his name at Colborne Lane, chef Claudio Aprile’s stylish, molecular gastronomy (as it was then called)–inflected restaurant downtown. He started there in 2007 and was put in charge of the kitchen within a year and a half. Blondin was a rare young chef who could read and understand cutting-edge cooking texts and apply their lessons to original new dishes, then execute them beautifully night after night. But Blondin and Aprile had a stormy relationship. Blondin often challenged his boss with showy, overly complicated creations. Aprile was increasingly distracted with planning for Origin, his second restaurant. It was a frustrating situation for both. Blondin left Colborne in May of 2010.
Selland became Colborne Lane’s general manager in 2009, after working at Susur and Madeline’s. About a year ago he started planning for his own place. As he looked to other great food cities—Portland, New York and Chicago—he saw that the restaurants he admired weren’t doing fine dining. He wanted to open an accessible but accomplished restaurant. And, most importantly, he wanted a place that would be markedly different from everything else in town. He started thinking about the ingredients and flavour profiles of the East Coast Acadian diaspora—about sorghum, sarsaparilla root, andouille sausage and collards, étouffées, chow-chows and boudin balls—and how most of them rarely appeared on Toronto menus. He was also interested in Lowcountry cooking—the Caribbean- and African-influenced cuisine of Georgia and South Carolina that has much in common with Acadian food. Selland called Blondin, who was working at a restaurant in Whistler, B.C., hoping he could recommend a decent chef or two. Blondin, like Selland, had no connection to either cuisine—he’d never even eaten in the South. But he was intrigued. By early February, he was back in the city and ready to go.
Reviews marked with this symbol allow one person to dine well for $30 or less, including tax and tip; they are not star rated.
Wow! I mean, holy frig, this sounds like the perfect restaurant, right? What does it take to earn a fourth or even a fifth star?
September 22, 2011 at 1:44 pm | by MattLoved the food and the waitstaff was informed and charming.
Too bad the place is SO noisy you can’t converse with your companion, and you have to shout to place your order….
September 22, 2011 at 9:48 pm | by MARILYN LIGHTSTONEFantastic meal and warm service. I just wish the room was cozier and less loud. No doubt renovation $$ was a factor, so hopefully as they continue to thrive, they’ll find the funds to scrap those tile floors and install some hardwood.
September 22, 2011 at 10:52 pm | by danielleThat’s three-and-a-half stars, Matt—somewhere between excellent and extraordinary, and pretty rare company in the city. For four stars you want to start seeing a nicer (not fancy; just nicer) room, a good wine list, and every single dish working very well or better.
September 23, 2011 at 9:44 am | by Chris Nuttall-SmithIs that Corey Mintz center frame, in the blue t-shirt?
September 23, 2011 at 10:24 am | by ralph malphWould suggest that they get there voicemail and website up and running. Called to make a reservation, and couldn’t leave a message, wasn’t sure it was open on a Monday, and because I couldn’t leave a message, or check their website, went elsewhere.
September 23, 2011 at 5:41 pm | by LynnNot sure if it was a one-off. But food was really really salty. Not heavy flavour but sodium salty.
September 27, 2011 at 8:39 am | by CarrieService could be better. We waited quite a bit for our food to come and no one came to explain or apologize for it taking long. Also, there was a draft where we were seated and food got cold pretty quick. Cant complain about the food though. The grits was my highlight, and ribs were a bit dry.
September 28, 2011 at 2:02 am | by ChristinaI too was throwing out a few F bomb words and high fives over the food here. Sophisticated, original, tongue tantalizing genius. It was, however, all served in one of the loudest rooms I’ve ever eaten in. A shame really. My dinner mates could’nt even here each other across small tables. Hope to see a little effort in the decore and floor coverings to pull it all together.
September 28, 2011 at 10:03 am | by scottI am presently in Europe, reading True Grits online. Could you not be kind and mention somewhere in the article where the restaurant is located? Clinton Street could be Kensington in London.
September 29, 2011 at 12:32 pm | by Heidi BrostromAs you’re reading the review online, just Google Clinton St in Toronto, and you will find it in the western heart of the city. If you google “Little Italy” in Toronto, you will also find the entire area. And if you don’t know where Little Italy is, then you need to revisit Toronto.
September 29, 2011 at 1:16 pm | by JaccaThe food was great and I loved the casual atmosphere. Not many places in the city offer food of that caliber in a casual setting. I appreciated being able to enjoy “comfort” food in my comfortable jeans.
October 13, 2011 at 11:59 am | by VDo not understand what all the hype is about Acadia. Was so excited to try, and perhaps I went on an ‘off’ night…Of the 6 in our group, no one could fathom why getting such glowing reviews. Service terrible, food was fine but nothing to write home about. And for the price, I’d rather make my own (better) cornbread! Restaurant was cold and VERY loud.
October 17, 2011 at 4:13 pm | by lauraOne of the better meals I’ve had in recent years. Loved the menu, the execution was bang on & near perfection, great attentive sharp eyed staff (didn’t go 15 secs without someone offering me water if I was low) and great ambience. Perhaps some carpets will help reduce the noise level, it was quite loud for a quiet sunday evening. Overall oustanding, can’t wait to go again and again.
Would also like to see some more local wines…….
October 31, 2011 at 2:54 pm | by StephkaI found the service extremely slow and pretentious. The food was mediocre. I’ll try it again just to see if it was perhaps just growing pains. But there is no excuse for bad service especially in Toronto where the competition is fierce. A little effort goes a long way.
February 23, 2012 at 11:47 am | by Cats