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The latest buzz on restaurants, chefs, bars, food shops and food events. Sign up for the Dish newsletter for weekly updates. Send tips to thedish@torontolife.com
(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
“Anybody can do a good burger,” says Todd Savage, co-owner of Stack, uptown’s answer to Barque. “But being the pit master is a real art form.” Indeed, Savage and his high-school buddy from “about 400 years ago,” Bill Panos, originally intended to devote their new restaurant to on-trend burgers, but ended up deciding it was important to have more options, especially for a family-friendly spot.
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The walls are covered with photos of various British celebrities (Image: Gizelle Lau)
The Bristol Yard is a new British-style cafe (that’s pronounced “caf,” not “café”) which opened a couple of weeks ago halfway between Christie Pits and Fiesta Farms. The restaurant has taken over the long-dilapidated corner space at Christie and Pendrith Streets (you can still see it on Google street view), and aims to serve “working-class food for working-class people,” which means fish and chips and many varieties of meat pies.
The Bowery quietly morphed into Osteria 55 a few weeks ago
A couple of weeks ago, The Bowery, which opened last year on Colborne Street with Tawfik Shehata at the helm, was quietly transformed into Osteria 55. Uniq Lifestyle Entertainment Group is still behind the space, but they’ve brought in a new front-of-house manager and consultant, John Chetti, of the always-packed Queen Margherita Pizza. With Chetti in charge, the space has gone from a somewhat nebulous “punk-meets-farm” concept to an unequivocally Italian osteria, open for both speedy corporate lunches and dinner.
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Co-owners Rudy Boquila, the chef, and Lester Sabilano (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Despite the GTA being home to almost 200,000 Filipinos, it’s probably fair to say many residents are unfamiliar with Filipino cuisine. That’s something Lester Sabilano and Rudy Boquila hope to change with Lamesa Filipino Kitchen, their new downtown eatery. Taking over the old Rosebud space at Queen at Bathurst, the restaurant puts a contemporary spin on the classic flavours found back in the 7,107 islands. “With Lamesa, we really hope to introduce Filipino food to the mainstream,” Sabilano told us.
The man with his name on the place (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Jamie Kennedy (Gilead Café, formerly of Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar and JK Rom, etc.), describes his new venture, Windows by Jamie Kennedy, as “a taste of Niagara and a feast for the eyes.” Given his commitment to local and seasonal food, it’s fitting that dining at Kennedy’s latest restaurant will require a journey to one of the world’s natural wonders. We took a trip down to Niagara Falls to check the place out.
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The view from the Danforth (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
What, exactly, is it about Haligonian donairs that always has Maritimers waxing rhapsodic? “The trick,” says Neil Dominey, owner of The Fuzz Box, “is that there should be so much sauce that it runs down your elbows!” After being disappointed time and time again by this city’s ubiquitous shawarmas, Dominey decided to take on the problem himself with his new eatery on the Danforth—home, he says, to a surprising number of Nova Scotians.
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Brad Gubbins behind the bar, pouring a Toronto cocktail (Image: Gizelle Lau)
SpiritHouse, which opened last week, aims to bring a little cocktail cred to King West, a neighbourhood that’s often better known for the quantity rather than the quality of the booze consumed. A “spirit” bar rather than just a cocktail bar, SpiritHouse boasts a 400+ bottle selection, one of the largest in the city, including the Canadian Tag Vodka, Victoria Gin and Tromba Tequila. It’s also founded by Len Fragomeni, of the Toronto Institute of Bartending (they operate out of the same building at Portland and Adelaide), which means it’s quickly becoming the place to go for a thorough cocktail education.
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The salvaged barn wood is courtesy Urban Tree Salvage
The Commissary, a new Leslieville lunch spot, bucks the healthy hippie fare and burgers that dominate the area and opts instead for dishes like lobster bisque or shrimp flatbread pizza. When Sophie shut its doors, the Commissary’s four partners moved in and started the redesign, taking the 32-seat space from stark white and acid green to earthy warmth in russet, with exposed brick and reclaimed barn boards. Commissary chefs Andrew Bridgman and Rod Dannewald designed their menu around an unmet niche. “We asked the neighbourhood what it wanted,” says Bridgman, “and they said there’s nowhere to have lunch.”
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Kitch’s bar is made out of a repurposed bowling alley lane (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Kitch bills itself as a place for “eats and beats”—the eats coming courtesy of Bryan Jackson, noted waffle lover and owner of Starving Artist, and the beats from Jose Rodriguez, talent booker for Charles Khabouth’s Ink Entertainment. The casual restaurant/bar/lounge is meant to be the kind of place where comfort snack food is paired with great music ranging from Nas to electronic to indie (with precious little Bieber or Top 40 here, unless, say, it’s a really cool remix). And unusually for a place like this, it’s nestled in among the auto body and plumbing supply shops north of Dupont and Dufferin.
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(Images: Signe Langford)
After more than a decade in the neighbourhood, the well-loved Niagara Street Café has been reborn as Edulis. The restaurant’s Twitter bio says, “Crafted with love,” and while the whole love-as-actual-ingredient thing is surely overdone, it rings true in this case. Everything about the place, from husband-and-wife owners Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth, is an ode to some version of love or another: love of family, love of Europe and of course, love of mushrooms—the place takes its name from the Latin for porcini.
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Lilly’s Lunches owner Elizabeth Callahan packs brown bags into her custom-design basket (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Lilly’s Lunches is a new one-woman and one-bike operation run entirely by Elizabeth Callahan. After growing weary with her day job, Callahan fled her cubicle and landed on a bicycle instead. Throughout the workweek, she pedals her way around the downtown core, dropping off brown-bagged lunches to office workers too busy to head out for a bite. We decided to join her on her route for a day’s deliveries.
(Images: Caroline Aksich)
For the past 15 years, Beata Kowalczyk served up hearty Polish fare at her Roncesvalles mainstay, Lala Bistro. Earlier this spring she decided to throw her apron away, and reopen the place as Marcy. And while the old regulars are grieving over the loss of her cabbage rolls, a new generation of patrons has quickly filled their seats—due in part, no doubt, to the presence of manager and resident mixologist Vanessa Handford, formerly of Goodnight. Read the rest of this entry »
(Image: Gizelle Lau)
Opened recently on a strip of Bayview Avenue that’s best known for Satay on the Road and Hollywood Gelato, L’Avenue, a new modern French bistro, is quickly making a name for itself among locals. The face of L’Avenue is Otta Zapotocky (he co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Jenna Kang), who has worked as sommelier and manager at Nota Bene, L’Unita, Malena and Wildfire.
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(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Hawker Bar joins the likes of The Saint and Bellwoods Brewery on the strip as the new kids on the Ossington block. Run by a pack of longtime friends—Casimir Alyea, Andrew Mistry and brothers Nicholas and Frederic Laliberté, who are also behind Poutini’s—the joint offers up a first for the city: Singaporean street grub.
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The Bitches themselves, Shontelle Pinch and Bianka Matchett (Image: Dave Gillespie)
At a sneak preview event at the Boiler House in the Distillery District earlier this month, the Gourmet Bitches unveiled their new matte-black food truck. With the name printed as a mirror image in bold white print and purple neon lighting, it won’t be hard to find when it hits the streets in May. The cheekily named truck is a collaboration between Shontelle Pinch and Bianka Matchett, who decided to buck some of the bigger trends in mobile dining with healthy options that include gluten- and dairy-free menu items.
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