Brassaii | torontolife.com

Posts Tagged ‘Brassaii’

Opening

Buy a piece of Marben: the Wellington hot spot is closing for renos and auctioning off its furniture

Everything must go, even the famous bar (Image: Say Yeah!)

Looks like the city’s restaurants are doing some major spring cleaning, with Brassaii, Centro and now Marben undergoing renovations. The dimly lit Wellington resto-lounge is closing for a month starting this Sunday, but it’s not going out without a bang. Tomorrow night, Marben will be hosting a farewell party with a $45 “greatest hits menu” from which diners can order the famous duck tacos one last time (chef Craig Alley will be retooling the menu for the reopening).

Read the rest of this entry »

| 1 Comment » March 18, 2010 | 12:15 pm | Karon Liu

Opening

Brassaii’s relaunch comes with new design, new menus and new chef

The new dining room at Brassaii

This week marked the long-awaited reopening of King West institution Brassaii, and judging from the extensive menu redesign, the place is looking like more of an upscale dining spot than a Friday-night hangout for the mini-dress set.

The new one-page menus were designed by chef Bruce Woods, who left his five-year stint at Centro last year to join Brassaii, and seem to ensure that diners never need to leave the property: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert and late-night snacks are all covered. Expect breakfast and brunch staples, as well as sandwiches and burgers for lunch. As for dinner, it’s continental fare with hints of Asian influence: miso cod ($29), spaghettini with kobe beef meatballs ($20), chicken with a panko crust ($25).

Read the rest of this entry »

| 1 Comment » March 12, 2010 | 1:36 pm | Karon Liu

Opening

Just opened: Buca

Rob Gentile hangs with his meats (Photo by Karon Liu)

The brains behind Brassaii, Jacobs and Co. and soon-to-be-opened The Saint are adding yet another restaurant to their empire, this one tucked away in the alley beside Cheval on the ritzy King Street strip. The week-old Buca is serving Italian fare by executive chef Rob Gentile, a former sous-chef at One, Bymark and North 44°.

Read the rest of this entry »

| 2 Comments » October 9, 2009 | 12:47 pm | Karon Liu

Restauran-TO

Follow the Tweeter: More Toronto chefs, bars and restaurants hop on the Twitter wagon

The mighty T: Increasingly, Twitter is everywhere (including Toronto kitchens)

More T?: Twitter gains popularity among T.O. foodies

Chefs and restaurateurs across the city are heading into the Twitterverse in a big way. Since our last roundup of Toronto foodie feeds, the popularity of the on-line service has exploded, with Grant van Gameren, Anthony Walsh, Dufflet Rosenberg and many more joining the fray. We find ourselves addicted to the culinary dispatches from these local epicureans (unlike most inane tweets that detail what’s for dinner). Here, our latest guide to who’s tweeting what.

Read the rest of this entry »

| 1 Comment » July 3, 2009 | 1:57 pm | Karon Liu

Bottoms Up

Toronto’s most authentic mojitos

Genuine article: The mojitos at Bodeguita del Medio, Havana (Photo by Rosino)

Genuine article: The mojitos at La Bodeguita del Medio, Havana (Photo by Rosino)

Torontonians are willing to slap the label “mojito” on just about any rum-based beverage containing mint. Cubans tell a different story, though. Making an authentic mojito requires properly muddling the lime juice, sugar and mint leaves to blend the flavours before adding aged rum, ice and soda water. That’s how they do it at La Bodeguita del Medio, where Ernest Hemingway frequently drowned his sorrows. Using their recipe as our guide, we set out to learn how some of Toronto’s tastiest mojitos measure up in terms of authenticity.

Read the rest of this entry »

| 8 Comments » June 12, 2009 | 2:15 pm | Josh Dehaas

The Downturn

RIP, recession-struck restaurants

Gone but not forgotten (Photo by Jasoon)

The market may be slowly rebounding, but restaurants are still going belly-up. Diners who live by the “eat, drink and be merry” mantra—whether that means drowning sorrows in a pint of beer or a piece of chocolate truffle cake—can’t fill enough tables to keep some of the city’s eateries from shuttering. Here, a farewell to the few that fared well but have fallen.

Read the rest of this entry »

| Leave a Comment » April 1, 2009 | 7:03 am | Davida Aronovitch

Bottoms Up

Go west: The Saint brings some King Street style to the Ossington strip

Saintly partners: Giancarlo Spataro and Adam Graham

For the past two years, trendspotters’ eyes have been fixed on the Ossington Avenue strip. And now the ’hood is getting a fresh infusion of talent from the downtown core. The boys behind King West bistro Brassaii are opening The Saint, a new gastro-pub at 227 Ossington, in mid-April. The forecast feel? Swank style meets community comfort—that is, if the community embraces it.

Read the rest of this entry »

| 20 Comments » March 17, 2009 | 9:21 am | Davida Aronovitch

The Downturn

Recessionary gratuities: Is 2009 the year of lousy tips?

Thanks for the tip (Photo by Wade from Oklahoma)

What to tip at recession time? This is the latest question in the never-ending gratuity debate; and since the market went south, it appears to be striking a nerve in Toronto and elsewhere. The New York Times‘ etiquette authority, Frank Bruni, wrote about it on his blog recently, sparking chatter about servers getting stiffed during hard times. Apparently diners are not just ordering less food, but they are then dialling down the percentage of their cheques left for gratuity. The recession effect—Bruni calls it a “double whammy”—is being felt closer to home, too. Toronto servers have been reporting paltry pourboire during the downturn. “Before the crisis, money was getting thrown around, but now people are more careful,” says France Salmon, who has been serving for over 10 years at celeb sanctuary Bistro 990. It seems even stars can be guilty of skimpy tipping (we’re looking at you, Madonna). With everyone else getting their bonuses trimmed and salaries frozen, is it all right to be less generous with the gratuity?

Read the rest of this entry »

| 23 Comments » March 11, 2009 | 1:20 pm | Davida Aronovitch