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With Sausage Partners, Kyle Deming plans to contribute yet another chef-run fine food shop to the Leslieville strip

The Sausage Partners: Lorraine, Lilly and Kyle Deming (Image: Signe Langford)

First there was the Leslieville Cheese Market, then the Foodist Market, then Hooked, and now Sausage Partners. Leslieville is rapidly becoming the east end’s go-to ’hood for gourmet food shopping, and with many of these places being run by pro chefs, it’s easy to see why. This new meat shop will open in June in the former Inspired Cook space, with Kyle Deming (head chef at Starfish and Ceili Cottage) and his wife Lorraine at the helm. “We’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time,” explains Lorraine, “but we really got the push about two years ago when we made sausages for Patrick [McMurray]’s 40th birthday. Everyone was asking, ‘Where can we buy these?’ So we just kept thinking about it and it feels like the right time now.”

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

February 8, 2011 | 4:56 pm

27 Comments

McDonald’s to give away free buttermilk biscuit sandwiches tomorrow and Thursday

If you’ve still got the stomach to handle fast food after our last post, then this one’s for you. On February 9 and 10, participating McDonald’s restaurants will be giving away free buttermilk biscuit “sandwiches” during breakfast hours. The offer is limited to one sandwich per customer with a choice of sausage, egg and cheese; bacon, egg and cheese; or sausage only.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

January 25, 2011 | 12:30 pm

15 Comments

Sloppy, drippy, salty, meaty, fruity, earthy and cheesy: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on M:brgr’s $100 burger

The $100 brgr and its associated finery (Image: Colin Griffin, M:brgr)

I ate two Kobe beef patties for lunch yesterday, plus a couple slices of bacon, a wedge of foie gras, an ounce of gloopy brie, a slick of fig jam, a stack of really fabulous grilled pear slices, four asparagus spears, piave del vecchio cheese, garlic-roasted ham (effing delish), porcini mushrooms (I’m thinking they weren’t porcini, but that’s what the menu said), three white bread buns, an olive, and a side each of black truffle slices and honey truffle aïoli. All this cost me $100, plus tax and tip, and the burger—yes, it was a burger—was so tall that it took several tries and a near-miss nasal-labial injury to get an honest bite of the thing into my mouth.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

January 13, 2011 | 9:12 am

1 Comment

Good Stuff Cheap: 11 selections for a kick-ass and low-cost charcuterie plate

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The Dish

Read All About It

October 7, 2010 | 2:56 pm

17 Comments

Mark those calendars: KFC’s Double Down coming to Canada in 11 days

Colonel sends his latest creation to invade Canada on October 18 (Image: Mike Saechang)

Few sandwiches have received as much attention as the Double Down, KFC’s grease-fest that features bacon and cheese squeezed between two pieces of boneless fried chicken. Morbidly curious Torontonians interested in trying it, however, were disappointed to learn that their local Colonels were not selling the thing. Well, that’s all about to change. The Double Down will be available in Canada from October 18 to November 14.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

September 23, 2010 | 3:37 pm

1 Comment

Food memes: Sad Keanu edition

At TIFF this year, we were perplexed as to why some photographers were so hell-bent on getting a photo of Keanu Reeves smiling. That is, until they told us about a meme that has apparently been going on for a while. Sad Keanu started a few months ago when a paparazzi photo of the Toronto actor appeared on-line, showing him eating a sandwich alone on a park bench. Internet users then took the image of Keanu and Photoshopped him into various settings, such as an M.C. Escher sketch, a scene from Inception and on the Starship Enterprise. It was a fun food-celeb meme that joined previous on-line edible sensations bacon (in all its forms) and thisiswhyyourefat.com.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

August 23, 2010 | 1:39 pm

15 Comments

Feasting at the Ex: nine foods that stand out (for various hilarious reasons) at the Canadian National Exhibition

The Food Building beckons (Image: Ian Muttoo)

Since the kickoff of the 132nd edition of the Ex, deep-fried butter has dominated CNE-related headlines. There’s no doubt that it’s worth trying (we thought it tasted like a doughnut), but we felt there were other artery-clogging delights that were being overshadowed. We found eight other foods that equally piqued our interest, either because they’re the last thing we’d expect to see at the midway or because of their curious ability to make us feel full just by looking at them.

Here they are, with a quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating »

The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

August 16, 2010 | 8:12 am

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Weekly Lunch Pick: Marben’s Monday brunch

The revamped Wellington West hot spot nails that perfect brunch ratio of sweet to savoury—even on Monday

The traditional breakfast at an untraditional time

The place: Marben’s recently unveiled renovation—undulating ceiling slats, exposed-filament light bulbs, reclaimed wooden shelves, jarred preserves—is worth a peek, but it’s summer, and this is Toronto. We immediately request seating on the sunny front patio, where unmatched chairs, a green wall and a rustic communal table echo the interior’s cottage-chic design.

The crowd: King West’s polo-shirted bourgeoisie is in full force. Nearby are a clutch of hip, mature businesswomen and a pair of chatty designers with five cell phones on their table. In the corner sits a Dragons’ Den judge with two-tone hair and sunglasses that fool nobody.

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

August 3, 2010 | 8:21 am

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Where to eat lunch this week: Origin

Take a culinary world tour during lunch. Point of departure: Claudio Aprile’s latest restaurant

Wokked and fried calamari with caramelized chili-peanut sauce

The place: Claudio Aprile’s three-month-old hot spot is just around the corner from his first establishment, Colborne Lane, but in terms of approach and price, the two restaurants are worlds apart. Origin’s small-plates menu spans the globe, taking inspiration from Asia, Europe and South America. An industrial chic aesthetic with a touch of whimsy dominates the interior (check out the elaborate monster toy light fixture above one table), but the sizable patio offers a bright, panoramic view of King and Church as the clock tower at St. James Cathedral counts down what’s left of the lunch hour.

The crowd: Amped-up financial talk swirls around the tables as Bay Streeters decompress, but that all stops once the food arrives—it’s that good.

The deal: Sure, there’s a combo (beef burger, Spanish fries, cream soda float, $29), but we recommend rounding up a large number of co-workers and sharing as many of the small dishes as possible.

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The Dish

Neighbourhoods

July 29, 2010 | 5:00 am

43 Comments

The Dundas West Guide: our 21 favourite places between Ossington and Lansdowne

The strip of Dundas West between Ossington and Lansdowne has not been immune to the wild gentrification going on directly south of it. New restaurants, stores and bars have been cropping up for the past couple of years (Red Canoe, a swank Canadiana shop, opened two weeks ago), but there is a hesitation in the ’hood to turn Little Portugal and Brockton Village into the next Ossington. Incoming business owners make a point of blending in with the long-standing family-owned bakeries, soccer bars and pho stops. Even in new establishments, the decor has a thrift shop feel, and the prices cater to locals rather than destination diners. From east to west, here are our 21 favourite Dundas West spots for cheap eats, good music and authentic Portuguese cuisine. By Karon Liu. Photos by Jenna Marie Wakani.

The Dish

Opening

July 19, 2010 | 5:00 pm

17 Comments

Introducing: Around the Corner, the west end’s new gluten-free café and breakfast spot

Breakfast is served at Around the Corner (Image: Signe Langford)

New Toronto—that little pocket of post-war bungalows at Islington and Lakeshore—is teetering on the brink of gentrification. Just off the tired, time-worn main strip, new residents are tearing down the dinky houses to build dream homes by the water. Stepping in to feed these folks is Mark Ali, the enterprising foodie-locavore who has owned and operated The Village Butcher for the past three years. At his new café, Around the Corner, Ali shifts his devotion to all things fresh and local to the world of gluten-free eating.

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

July 12, 2010 | 8:18 am

3 Comments

Where to eat lunch this week: Aunties and Uncles

This urban oasis near U of T nails the ’50s nostalgia and the chicken sandwich

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The Dish

Opening

July 7, 2010 | 4:09 pm

2 Comments

Just Opened: Marben trades in the onyx for oh-so-popular reclaimed wood

Carl Heinrich with a companion in the newly redesigned Marben (All images: Karon Liu)

Splendido did it, then Centro, then Brassaii, and now Marben. Sure, they’ve all been renovated, but more specifically, they’ve all received make-unders.

Back in March, Marben auctioned off bits and pieces of its former self, including the famous glowing onyx bar, in order to make way for understated pieces, vintage fixtures and reclaimed wood. General manager Sarah Evans says the Wellington West restaurant’s overhaul was meant to lighten up the place and make it known for its food rather than its scene (Brassaii cited similar urges). Still, with the restaurant open until 2 a.m. every day and Bavette—a separate downstairs party space—set to open at the end of the month, Marben isn’t retiring from the revelry. “The city needs a rowdy restaurant,” says Evans.

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The Dish

Food Porn

June 14, 2010 | 1:02 pm

14 Comments

A photographic tour of one of Toronto’s best brunch menus

A mere six months after opening, the brunch at the Hoof Café has become the city’s most coveted (witness the lineups snaking out the door). Co-owner Grant van Gameren and chef Geoff Hopgood combine the Hoof’s snout-to-tail philosophy with breakfast standards, creating a menu that is both playful and indulgent. Beautiful and inventive cocktails by co-owner and house mixologist Jen Agg round out meals that are satisfying to the eye as they are to the palate.

Here, our side show tour of the west end’s hottest brunch menu »

The Goods

From the Print Edition

May 6, 2010 | 1:03 pm

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High-Maintenance Man: the secrets of sophisticated post-oughties men who embrace their inner femininity

The advent of the mid-’90s metrosexual made it OK for a dude to wear a pink V-neck and treat himself to bimonthly lowlights, but that’s about as far as mainstream hetero Toronto would stretch its definition of masculinity. Until now. Men’s fashion designers are seeking sartorial inspiration in the female closet, and man-pampering beauty brands are encouraging even the straightest-edge guys to make like RuPaul and primp. Toronto now has a niche industry to support the new fad. Call us sissy sympathizers, but we think it’s a refreshingly femmy antidote to the bearded, burly look of last year. Here, a survey of the city’s gender-bending cosmeticopoeia.

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