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Remember West Queen West before it was a zoo? The folks at Churchill, Little Portugal’s newest bar, sure do. The owners of the new place are looking to resurrect that 2006 feeling, one street north. Churchill, staffed by Parkdale expats, joins Camp 4, Red Light and Brockton General in the glut of lo-fi-vibe bars that seem to be spilling off Ossington onto Dundas West.
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Introducing: Ici Bistro, Harbord Street’s little restaurant that could
Jennifer Decorte and J.P. Challet at Ici Bistro (Image: Davida Aronovitch)
Ici Bistro is open for business. No, really.
Two years after they signed the lease on 538 Manning Avenue, J.P. Challet and Jennifer Decorte’s modern French bistro is finally serving dinner. The official grand opening isn’t until mid-November, but the place has its liquor licence and has been packed for the past week. All of its 24 seats are reserved for the next 14 days, too, thanks to the restaurant’s very long and public fight for survival. Guests have graffitied a wall with well wishes, and neighbours have even brought gifts. One local couple has booked three times in Ici’s first week of operation. “It’s the only restaurant we’ve ever worked at where everybody hugs each other,” says Decorte. “It’s like a family.”
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Introducing: Beau Lieu Bistro, Ossington’s new French detour
Western reflections: Ossington Avenue appears in the window of Beau Lieu Bistro (Image: John Michael McGrath)
These days, the buzz on the Ossington hip strip is near Dundas, but diners willing to walk south, past the hours-long lineups at Pizzeria Libretto and Foxley, will eventually come upon the street’s latest addition: Beau Lieu Bistro. Slotted in between The Ossington and Pho Tien Thanh, the six-week-old French restaurant is the child of French-born and trained Sarah Gireau and chef Lon, both formerly of Jacques Bistro du Parc in Yorkville. The pair had been working together for eight years when Lon was approached with the opportunity to open a restaurant near Ossington and Queen. He jumped at the chance.
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Introducing: Goed Eten, where we find the city’s best waffles
(Image: Sian Richards)
When Johan Maes closed his beloved Kensington Market waffle shack in 2008, his loyal customers were bereft. His reopening on Ossington this summer was, not surprisingly, met with enthusiastic embrace. Maes’s Brussels-style waffles are, quite simply, the city’s best. The sugar-free batter makes for a light (if not exactly nutritious), airy snack when left unadorned. However, with such deep square pockets, their divine destiny is as a vessel for toppings. Maes, who is himself originally from Belgium, tops them with house-made ice cream (the wild blueberry is fabulous), whipped cream, strawberries, powdered sugar and chocolate shavings. In a nod to his adopted country, he also keeps pure maple syrup on hand. If you crave a more savoury dose of decadence, head to the frituur—i.e., the Flemish fry stand—at the back for the heavenly twice-fried frites and 15 flavours of mayo.
Goed Eten
188 Ossington Ave., 416-533-3213, goedeten.ca.
Introducing: Drake BBQ, a simplified Southern meat-a-thon on Queen West
Pulled pork (left) and brisket sandwiches
Just in time for the cold weather, the Drake Hotel has opened a barbecue pop-up shop in its old Scoops and Tees space. “In Canada, barbecue is associated with summer, but in the south they do it rain or shine,” says chef Anthony Rose. “I grew up in the south—southern Ontario, anyway. When I was a kid, my mom would start the barbecue in February.”
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Introducing: Blake House, Jarvis Street’s new Canadian pub
The Blake House (Image: Jon Sufrin)
Before the Blake House was the Blake House, it was the Red Lion, a storied old-school British pub. These days, it’s more of an old-school Canadian pub: local beer, poutine, VQA wines and vintage photos of posh, turn-of-the-century Jarvis Street. Co-owner Jim Vasilakakos, who quietly opened the venue over the summer, loves the road out front. “Did you know Jarvis was the first paved street in Toronto?” he asks. It’s one of the facts he picked up during the two weeks he spent at the Toronto archives, where the self-proclaimed history buff thoroughly educated himself about the site of his new pub and sourced images to decorate it.
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Jamie Kennedy brings his signature fries to the Air Canada Centre
JK performs the fry toss (Image: Karon Liu)
Right on the heels of chef Tyler Florence bringing his grapes to the Rogers Centre, Jamie Kennedy is bringing his potatoes to the Air Canada Centre. The chef and the ACC partnered over the summer, and now Kennedy’s signature item will be served at the venue from his own fry stand. “We’re raising the bar on stadium food,” says Kennedy. “We’re contributing to food culture in a way and this is a vehicle for us to reach out to more people.”
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Introducing: Longo’s. Take a tour of the new 48,000 square-foot supermarket that’s sure to feed the downtown grocery war
Upwardly mobile at the new Longo's (Image: Karon Liu)
The latest supermarket to open in the downtown core is a sleek, 48,000 square-foot megastore by Longo’s. The new spot is part of Maple Leaf Square—the spanking new sports-themed development beside the Air Canada Centre—and should make locals rejoice as their area, better known for tourists and expressways, takes one step closer to becoming a bona fide neighbourhood.
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Ritz-Carlton announces its locally focused anchor restaurant
Puttin' up the Ritz: Toca and the hotel to which it's attached will open in January
Since news broke that the opening of the Ritz-Carlton had to be pushed back to January due to flooding, the chain has been looking to share a little good news. Well, this week, they got it. The Simcoe Street hotel announced the details of its signature restaurant this week. (Hey, at least now they have an extra month to get the place ready.)
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Ed Ho and Kevin McKenna take their locavore ethos to their new restaurant in Mississauga
Kevin McKenna shares an intimate moment with a local swine (Image: Signe Langford)
Farm-to-fork restaurateur Ed Ho—the man behind Globe and Earth—is about to extend his reach right out to the burbs. He and chef Kevin McKenna are betting that their go-local ethos will fly in Mississauga, where they’ve taken over a former Lone Star Texas Grill near Square One. The space is presently being gutted and rebuilt, but when it’s done, Ho expects to be able to seat nearly 250 in the dining area and even more on the patio and in a private room.
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Drake Hotel to open barbecue pop-up shop
(Image: Google)
Screw autumn. And long live summer barbecues.
That’s the attitude of the Drake Hotel, which is in the process of transforming its Scoops and Tees shop into the Drake BBQ. Starting October 22, slow-cooked sandwiches will be served in this space, just two doors down from the hotel.
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Introducing: Fabbrica. Take a tour of Mark McEwan’s new Italian restaurant
The chef poses in front of his new pizza oven (Images: Karon Liu)
“Would you like to try a pizza?” asks chef Mark McEwan as he stands in front of the wood-burning oven at his newest restaurant, Fabbrica, located in the suburban Shops at Don Mills. “It’ll only take 90 seconds, and we can eat it at the bar.” Never mind that he’s expecting dozens of guests for a preview dinner or that he also has to head downtown in an hour or two to do his second book signing this week; McEwan sits down and shares a salsiccia pizza (lamb sausage, caramelized fennel, mozzarella) with us like it was a lazy Sunday afternoon.
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