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Toronto Life - The Dish

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

Rumours & Rumblings

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March 5, 2012 | 4:44 pm

Anthony Rose is leaving the Drake

Rose at 2009’s Picnic at the Brick Works (Image: Renée Suen)

The man responsible for turning the Drake Hotel’s restaurant into a canteen for the city’s young, hip and beautiful is leaving after six years, the Grid reports. Anthony Rose, perhaps best known for his chic interpretations of traditional comfort food, told the weekly that “It’s just time to move on.” But fear not, because Rose hopes to eventually open his own place in the west end. As for the cooking, he says, “I’ll be doing what I’ve always done, but probably in just a bit of a different fashion.” In other words, more meals that taste like a warm hug—from someone draped in buffalo plaid and sporting a deliciously ironic mustache. Read the entire story [The Grid] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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February 27, 2012 | 2:38 pm
Queen and Beaver team to open The Oxley, a new pub in Yorkville 

Over the past few years, the Queen and Beaver has gained a loyal following as one of the few honest-to-goodness, non-generic English pubs in town. Owner Jamieson Kerr and chef Andrew Carter have enjoyed their success so much that they’re opening a new restaurant in Yorkville, called The Oxley, making good on a hint Kerr first dropped to us in 2010. The Grid visited the space last week amid some pretty serious renovations. Carter wouldn’t give the paper any details on the menu, but did say it would look a little different from the Q&B. “There are people in Yorkville who dine out every night and expect a certain style and level of quality, though they’re not necessarily eating chateaubriand every night,” said Carter. In other words, Yorkville folks will want their food to say “traditional pub fare,” but also, “no, not that kind.” Read the entire story [The Grid] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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February 23, 2012 | 5:27 pm
Nick Liu to throw a pair of preview dinners for his new Asian brasserie, GwaiLo 

Back in January, we reported that Nick Liu had left Niagara Street Café and was planning to open some manner of Asian brasserie later this year. As it turns out, his many fans will get a chance to taste his creative takes on Asian dishes long before that—Liu is holding a pair of preview dinners next month for GwaiLo, his as-yet location-less restaurant according to Swallow Food (a new website founded by Ivy Knight of 86’D fame and pastry chef Kristina Groeger that launched at a party at the Drake on Monday—check it out). The dinners—which will take place on March 6 and 13—are a collaboration between Liu and drink-slinger Christina Kuypers of The Black Hoof, Splendido and the Drake Hotel (follow the GwaiLo Twitter feed for more details). Oh, and the name? It’s a Cantonese term that roughly translates as “foreign devil,” which is something that Liu, a Chinese-Canadian who doesn’t speak Chinese, is used to being called. Read the entire story [Swallow Food] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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February 14, 2012 | 4:58 pm

We engage in a little armchair speculation about who’s behind Chef Grant Soto

Who is the real “Chef Grant Soto”? The rumors started almost as soon as the oft-offensive and always entertaining Twitter account debuted on January 9. Despite the fact that there’s little hard evidence to go on (he told Amy Pataki that he’s “been around in the industry,” whatever that might mean), we thought we’d engage in some afternoon baseless speculation, selecting five possible culprits from Toronto’s chefs and foodies-about-town.

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Rumours & Rumblings

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February 13, 2012 | 2:27 pm

Chef Grant Soto is having a grand old time skewering Toronto foodies—but who is he?

Soto’s Twitter profile pic

Here’s what we do know about “Chef Grant Soto”: he claims he’s bitten Mark McEwan on the shoulder, he says he’s got Paula Deen’s face tattooed on his thigh and, allegedly, he’s had Dan Akroyd call him upset over calling his premium spirit “Crystal Tits Vodka.” What we don’t know is who Soto actually is, because his name is a pseudonym, and all of this (admittedly questionable) information is coming from the Twitter feed that he’s using to poke fun at the Toronto restaurant scene. If you haven’t had the, um, pleasure of following him these last few weeks, he spends a lot of time targeting pretentious chefs and food celebrities, offering now and then some surprisingly sharp media criticism (he called out the way that articles about Yours Truly shamelessly fawned over the chef’s time at New York’s Per Se, about which, well, guilty as charged). There’s plenty of raunchy stuff as well, like talk of sexual favours at Susur Lee’s upcoming restaurant, and a particularly friendly hostess. The Star’s Amy Pataki recently heard from Soto, but she didn’t manage to scrounge up much. He wants to remain anonymous; he’s “been around in the industry”; the Twitter feed isn’t part of some weird marketing campaign; he has a website on the way. And in a Q&A over on Food Junkie Chronicles, the potty mouth has some choice words about, among other things, female food bloggers of Asian descent. If the City Raccoon saga is anything to go by, things will get rather less interesting once he’s inevitably outed. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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February 13, 2012 | 12:21 pm

Top Chef Canada’s Carl Heinrich leaves Marben for “new project”

(Image: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)

In time-honoured Top Chef Canada tradition, chefs have already started leaving their pre-competition gigs—and this time, it’s starting before the first episode even airs. Carl Heinrich, the wunderkind chef of Marben, has just announced via Twitter that he’s leaving to start a “new project” with Ryan Donovan, his butcher and partner in crime at the Wellington Street restaurant. There aren’t many details yet on the new project—Donovan tweeted, somewhat cryptically, that the location was “#parkdale,  #junction,  #little portugal”—but this is sure to set off the usual, mostly unfounded speculation about whether Heinrich will be walking away with the $100,000 grand prize—which, we’ll admit, is half the fun of watching the show.

Rumours & Rumblings

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January 31, 2012 | 3:48 pm

Nota Bene team to open new restaurant at Queen and Church

Waiting for Nota Bene

Waiting for Nota Bene (Image: PJMixer from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)

Yesterday evening, Shinan Govani broke the news that the team behind Nota Bene—Yannick Bigourdan, Franco Prevedello and chef David Lee—was getting set to open up shop due east from their fine dining mainstay at Queen and University. Rumours of a Nota Bene “clone,” however, turn out to be a little exaggerated. Instead, Bigourdan told The Dish, the unnamed restaurant will have a somewhat different concept, something that’s now being ironed out between the partners. They’ll have some time: the new place, which will be located in a currently empty 7,000-square-foot space at 111 Queen Street East, right near George and B Espresso, isn’t scheduled to open until early next year. It’s also located right beneath the Toronto Life offices—which means we’ll be watching developments closely.

Rumours & Rumblings

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January 17, 2012 | 11:24 am

Start burnishing your cred: notoriously exclusive Soho House coming to Toronto in the next couple of years

Come 2014, these could be your new friends (Image: Grey Goose Soho House)

At last year’s film festival, the Grey Goose Soho House hosted the TIFF party to end all TIFF parties—you know, the one that was officially in honour of David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, but also managed to bring in everyone from Bono and members of the Arcade Fire to Anna Faris, Ewan McGregor and George Clooney (to choose rather arbitrarily from a long list of a-listers). Now it looks like the international chain of members-only luxury clubs will be opening up a permanent home in Toronto sometime in the next two years. According to a story from the New York Times’ Dealbook blog, the so-called “Billionaire Party Boy” (and private equity magnate) Ronald Burkle recently purchased a majority stake in the London-based Soho House Group for a reported £250 million. Some of that cash infusion will go toward further expansion, with Mumbai, Chicago and Istanbul listed alongside our fair burg. If this turns out to be true, 2014 should be a blowout year for TIFF parties. Read the entire story [Dealbook] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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January 6, 2012 | 11:30 am

Bar star Moses McIntee to open Lucid Cocktail and Kitchen this month

A McIntee creation: Ame’s Hot and Sour, a bourbon and plum-liqueur creation with nori, sriracha, wasabi, egg white, citrus, cilantro leaves, maple syrup and simple syrup, rimmed with powdered miso, lime-infused sugar and seaweed and topped with tobiko, nori and salmon roe (Image: Matthew Hague)

Toronto cocktail lovers take note—word on the street is one of the city’s most inventive mixologists, Moses McIntee, is back on the scene after a brief reprieve. McIntee has done stints at many of Toronto’s top restaurants, including Nota Bene, Ame, The Spoke Club and most recently Toca at the Ritz-Carlton, where he was lead bartender (James Chatto wrote about his creations at Ame back in 2010). His many fans will be happy to hear he’s finally opening his own place: Lucid Cocktail and Kitchen, which is set to open on Queen West on January 20. And it’s not just drinks on offer: the plan is to serve food alongside McIntee’s concoctions until 2 a.m. every night they’re open. Oh, and don’t worry—this Lucid bears no relation the now-defunct John Street vodka-and-Red-Bull mainstay of the same name.

Rumours & Rumblings

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January 5, 2012 | 5:30 pm
Attention Momofanboys: Momofuku interviewing for manager positions this weekend 

Since the appetite for Momofuku news is pretty much insatiable, we thought we’d dangle this little bit of information: David Chang, the globe-trotting chef at the helm of the burgeoning chain, just tweeted that the Momofuku crew would be in town this weekend to interview for front- and back-of-house managers. Drooling (or currently disgruntled) restaurant workers across the city can apply for the positions on the restaurant group’s website.

Rumours & Rumblings

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December 20, 2011 | 10:20 am

Mystery pop-up restaurant to take over former Ackee Tree spot in January

Do you wanna get it? (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Walking down Spadina past the old home of Ackee Tree the other day, mourning the jerk chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries of yore, we spotted this cryptic sign. The building, 170 Spadina Avenue, was recently bought out by a condo developer, but the shop will apparently be the site of a very temporary pop-up taking place in January 2012. Their Twitter account drops precious few hints, although apparently there’s already a new graffiti-inspired façade. We’ll be watching for more clues.

Rumours & Rumblings

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December 8, 2011 | 2:58 pm
Loblaws: worth switching Kensington Market around for? 

After years at 297 College St., the monks of the Zen Buddhist Temple are decamping to quieter (and presumably more meditation-friendly) digs at St. Clair and Bathurst. As The Grid reports, their old building has wound up in the hands of Tribute Communities, which has plans of its own for the site. Assuming the city gives the thumbs-up, Tribute is hoping to construct a 15-storey condo tower with about 20,000 square feet of retail space at the base. Rumour has it that Loblaws is negotiating for the spot. The company remains tight-lipped, but a new location did open in another Tribute property at Queen and Portland just last week (like the new Maple Leaf Gardens location, it has a cheese wall). Local businesses, which would find it difficult to compete with the grocery giant’s prices, selection and hours, are predictably anxious. “I don’t want to see a Loblaws there,” Yvonne Bambrick, coordinator of the Kensington Market BIA, told The Grid. “I think that is extremely bad news for the neighbourhood. I don’t even want to see it being discussed.” It could be argued that independent grocers don’t deserve special protection in a free market, but really—unless it’s going to have four cheese walls and a cheese ceiling, the city probably doesn’t need another Loblaws downtown. Read the entire story [The Grid] »

Rumours & Rumblings

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November 9, 2011 | 10:44 am

Mario Batali predicts a Toronto location of Eataly within the next 10 years


In a recent interview with The Daily Meal, Mario Batali reignited simmering hopes that Eataly, the chain of grocery mega-emporia whose New York launch last year was rapturously received, would eventually make its way to Toronto. When asked about expansion plans, he told Ali Rosen:

Well there’ll probably be five in the next 10 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Toronto and Mexico City opened pretty much in any order of those four.

Let’s hope Toronto is at the top of that order.

Rumours & Rumblings

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October 18, 2011 | 3:13 pm

Is it goodnight for Goodnight? A looming condo development at 431 Richmond suggests yes

Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm at Goodnight Gansevoort, the TIFF collaboration between the bar and the boutique hotel group (Image: David Lee)

Our ears on the street tell us that come spring, it may be time to say goodbye to everyone’s favourite semi-exclusive, reservations-only, back-alley nouveau speakeasy (and TIFF hotspot), Goodnight. The lot at 431 Richmond Street West has apparently been purchased by Menkes, the property powerhouse behind the Four Seasons Private Residences, the Lumiere Condos at College and Bay and 365 Church at Church and Carlton, to name a few. The location will be home to Fabrik, whose rather postmodern ad copy includes the memorable line, “Fashion industrial design heart throbbing city pulse eat my veins of passion and lust.”

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Rumours & Rumblings

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October 7, 2011 | 5:21 pm

Thompson Hotel takes control of its lobby bar from Scarpetta, allegedly fires entire wait staff

(Image: picturenarrative from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)

Wednesday we reported that The Counter at the Thompson Hotel has changed its name to the Thompson Diner, with no changes to the staff or atmosphere. Since then, we’ve heard reports that the Thompson Lobby Bar has actually fired its entire staff and, according to one of our commenters, embraced loud music and bright lights. One source tells us that the hotel fired all seven employees, one by one, on September 20, a week before assuming direct control of the bar (previously it was managed by Scarpetta, the celeb chef Scott Conant’s New York export). According to the source, the terminations came along with a confidentiality clause: the staff could either sign and receive two weeks’ severance, or take one week’s severance and work out the rest of the week. Their jobs were then apparently offered to employees from the Thompson Rooftop Lounge. The Thompson Hotel could not be reached for comment.

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