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A minor victory for anti–junk food forces came last week as the creepy despot of the beef kingdom, Burger King, served its last meal from the Hospital for Sick Children’s food court. Some doctors at Sick Kids had been agitating to get Burger King shut down through a Facebook group suffering from severe friend anemia (seriously, 258 members?), but the process has apparently been underway for some time: Sick Kids had decided to auction off BK’s slot, and has managed the process so that something a bit healthier would win the competition.
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Sick Kids dumps Burger King from food court, but Pizza Pizza and Subway remain
Introducing: Guu Sakabar, the new Annex location of Vancouver’s wildly popular Izakaya chain
Guu Sakabar’s open kitchen (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Despite rumours last week that the opening of Guu Sakabar (a.k.a. Guu 2) would be delayed due to the lack of a liquor licence, we’re happy to report that Toronto’s second Guu location opened this weekend. (Sakabar was originally set to open a couple weeks back, but was delayed due to a broken water tank). After almost a year of renovations, owner James Hyun-Soo Kim and Sakabar manager Natsuhiko Sugimoto, an eight-year veteran of Guu in Vancouver, are both eager to begin serving the Annex clientele.
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Guu’s Bloor Street location to open next week
Outside the Bloor Street location of Guu last night
UPDATE: Eye Weekly is reporting that the launch has been delayed until next week due to a problem with the restaurant’s water tank.
Pending the good graces of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the hotly anticipated Bloor Street location of Guu may be opening as soon as this Friday. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the opening ever since we caught wind of rumblings about a potential Bloor and Spadina venture back in the summer. (Owner James Kim told us last July that the new edition of the notoriously popular izakaya-style restaurant would inhabit a former Burger King location.) Earlier today, we got a hold of Masaru Ogasawara, the chef at the Church Street location, who confirmed that Guu Number Two should be open by Friday, pending the arrival of a liquor licence (expected sometime today). Friday’s only two days away, which means the lineups will probably start about now.
Second location of ever-packed Guu to open soon
The always-packed Church Street location (Image: snowpea&bokchoi)
For some time now, we’ve been crossing our fingers that a second iteration of the absurdly popular Guu would make its way to the Annex. Finally, we’ve got some solid news. James Kim, general manager of the Church Street restaurant, confirmed for us that a new Guu will indeed be taking over the former Burger King at Bloor and Bathurst. Ever-vigilant Chowhounders recently speculated that the new location would open later this month, but Kim says construction has been slower than expected. A more realistic opening date would be late February or early March. He also dished a little on what customers can expect: a bigger space (albeit without a patio), a different menu (with “some more interesting fish dishes”) and a traditional Tatami room with low tables, mats and no shoes. We’d like to think the new location might help out with the restaurant’s legendary queues, but who are we kidding?
Guu looking to take over the Annex’s defunct Burger King
The King is dead: this Annex property may be the next Guu (Image: Google)
Torontonians have been salivating over the possibility of a new location of Guu, rumoured to be located in the Annex. Well, word got out via the Compendium Daily’s Twitter feed last week that the second iteration will likely be at 559 Bloor Street West, former home of a Burger King. A quick call to Guu owner James Kim confirms it. Well, sort of: “It’s coming, but we’re still working on the paperwork for the lease and going over things with the head office. For it to be 100 per cent confirmed, it’ll take some time,” he said, to be on the safe side.
• Guu’d news? The jam-packed izakaya may be opening second location in Toronto [Toronto Life]
Tim Hortons exempt from Kandahar fast-food ban
The double-double is no trouble (Image: Richard Hsu)
In a clamp down on fun at the Kandahar air field, a number of fast food joints that supposedly distract soldiers—Burger King, Pizza Hut and Subway, among others—are being shut down on Saturday. But, puzzlingly, soldiers will still be able to get their Tim Hortons fix.
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Cora Pizza reopens, Joanne Kates picks her top restaurants, the fooderati’s top Twitterers
Ratted out: Cora Pizza reopens after health inspectors discovered rats on the premises (Photo by The Pizza Review)
• U of T students, rejoice: Cora Pizza reopened its doors last week. The restaurant, a long-standing refuge of drunken university students, was closed due to unsanitary conditions (including, apparently, several dead rats and rat feces on the premises). With a history like this, we’re sure the customers will come flocking back. [CBC]
• Joanne Kates counts down Toronto’s top new restaurants of 2009, with fairly predictable results. Among her favourites are Buca, Black Hoof, the revamped Splendido, Osteria Ciceri e Tria and Mildred’s Temple Kitchen. The one wild card is Ba Shu Ren Jia, a Szechuan spot with a four-figure Steeles Avenue address. [Globe and Mail] Read the rest of this entry »
A seven-patty burger, DIY mushroom farming, grain- versus grass-fed beef
A whopping Whopper: 791 grams, 12.7 centimetres, 2120 calories, ¥1450 ($17.25)
• When it comes to weird fast-food promotions, no one beats the Japanese. This time around, Burger King has teamed up with Microsoft, offering a gimmicky version of the Whopper to promote the new Windows 7 operating system. The burger has seven patties and looks like it presents enough logistical problems (How does it stay together? Will we need one of these?) that diners may think it’s promoting Microsoft Vista. [CNET]
• Canadian gardeners are broadening their gardening horizons, branching out into the realm of fungi. A seller of mushroom-growing equipment from B.C. tells the Globe that his sales to hobbyists have doubled over the past year. Some are having an easier time of it than others: one Winnipegger likens the mushroom-growing process to the set-it-and-forget-it mentality of investing in mutual funds, while another ended up with nothing but a mouldy bag of hay. [Globe and Mail]
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America’s best coffee, unilingual DineSafe rules, World Pasta Day
San Francisco's Blue Bottle Coffee Company comes recommended by GQ (Photo by Roshan Vyas)
• In its November issue, GQ travels the States to pick America’s best coffee shops. Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco scores high marks for its siphon coffee (it should—the machine costs $20,000), along with famed L.A. and Chicago coffee house Intelligentsia. Bizarrely, the article ends by negating everything it has already stated, telling readers to simply “shut up and drink it.” [GQ]
• In the wake of the Ruby Restaurant closure, BlogTO questions why the guidelines for the city of Toronto’s DineSafe program are offered only in English. The garbage disposal calendar comes in various languages, as does the city’s official newsletter. Even the TTC offers 70 languages on its switchboard. What gives, DineSafe? [BlogTO]
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One person’s junk food is another’s treasure
Before and after: a McNuggets meal from McDonald's is transformed into a "McNifique" McConfit (Photo by Erik R. Trinidad of Fancyfastfood.com. ©2009 Trinimation)
More and more, we’re feeling that the Internet holds the solution to every problem known to man—well, every inconsequential problem. The latest we’ve stumbled across is Fancyfastfood.com, a photo-recipe blog that reveals how to convert fast food into haute cuisine. Each entry provides step-by-step instructions for systematically taking apart some nasty fast-food staple—a Big Mac, Whopper, Tim Hortons’ Canadian maple doughnuts—and rearranging it to resemble a gourmet-quality dish.
The recipes take a little legwork. One concoction involves grinding down the breading of a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich into a fine powder, then mixing it with the accompanying chocolate milkshake and simmering it all down with some ketchup packets to form a mole sauce—a perfect drizzle for that now-naked chicken patty. Top it off with some organic cilantro (preferably locally grown) for that extra touch of irony.
101 summer salad recipes, Japanese screaming contest, drugs in restaurant kitchens
Extraordinary tossers: The New York Times offers 101 different salads (Photo by Jeff Kubina)
• Allegedly, it’s summer in Toronto, and that means the time is ripe for light, fun recipes. First up, 101 simple salads courtesy of the New York Times: vegan salads, green salads, seafood salads, melon salads and even a gourmet hot dog salad—the perfect combination of two quintessentially summer foods. [New York Times]
• Speaking of summer food, the Globe is profiling a fresh, deconstructed B.L.T. for the warm months. Montreal chef Normand Laprise offers his step-by-step guide through the preparation of this bizarre rendition of a diner classic. [Globe and Mail]
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