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The top five spots to break bread, dent the expense account and sign a deal while you’re at it
Grant van Gameren at the Black Hoof, the Dundas West charcuterie bar he co-founded (Image: Renée Suen from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
Six weeks or so after leaving the Black Hoof behind him, Grant van Gameren has found a new home. Alongside Brockton General’s Guy Rawlings, the charcuterie pioneer has moved on to Lucien, replacing chef Scot Woods, who left recently. “During his tenure here, Scot proved to be an extremely talented and creative chef and we wish him the very best in his future endeavours,” owner Simon Bower told us. “But I have decided the restaurant is going in a new direction.”
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Outside John Dawson and Todd Vestby’s new Cabbagetown Italian restaurant (Image: Renée Suen)
During the first week of operations for F’Amelia, a new Cabbagetown Italian restaurant owned by locals John Dawson (formerly of Table 17) and Todd Vestby, the house served over a 100 covers a night—without any press. With the restaurant’s grand opening slated for next week, we stopped by for a look at what has the neighbourhood abuzz.
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(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Le Kensington Bistro, the second eatery from the owners of Harbord Street’s Loire (one of 2009’s best new restaurants), recently opened in the space that used to house La Palette, the market’s original French bistro (La Palette decamped to Queen Street last year). Owners Sylvain Brissonnet—who spent a decade as the sommelier of Langdon Hall—and Jean-Charles Dupoire—who put in hours at both The Savoy and The Berkeley in London—purchased the spot at the start of the year but were bogged down with lengthy renovations. Brissonnet tells us the pair “really wanted to do something very French” and are keeping the focus on their homeland’s cuisine.
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Apparently this city has not yet had its fill of barbecue joints. Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie, will open to the public in mid June, assuming the premises of an old Indian takeout joint at St. Clair West and Oakwood—just a few blocks away from the area’s current reigning smokehouse, The Stockyards.
(Image: Renée Suen)
After just over a year of bone marrow doughnut holes and lineups out the door, Toronto’s most unabashedly carnivorous brunch spot, the Hoof Café, will be closing up shop on February 28. As co-owners Grant van Gameren and Jen Agg explain to Corey Mintz (on a guest post on van Gameren’s blog), the space will be reborn in April as the more upscale Black Hoof and Company.
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The recession might be over. The dollar is flying high. But we’re still feeling conflicted about money. Spend conspicuously and you’re either a heroic economy booster or a reckless squanderer. Admit it: your lingering frugality is fighting your inner lust for stuff. The solution? Think like Rob Ford (just the tightwad part) but live it up like a robber baron. Our annual guide to the city’s best bargains offers 200 ways to do it.
Ceno's venison comes with bones, blueberries
To set up a new Italian restaurant in the epicentre of Yorkville’s Mini Italy—that short stretch of Avenue where L’Unita, Sotto Sotto, Maléna and Spuntini pretty much join hands—is quite a gambit. And it’s a good thing for Ceno, which opened up here last month, because despite pervasive trappings of Italian-ness, this is not exactly an Italian restaurant. It’s close, though: nearly all the staff hail from the motherland (maitre d’ Juri Giannelli uses his mother’s maiden name to prove his authenticity), its moniker is Latin for “to dine” and service is based on the old-world tradition of schooled waiters.
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We prefer to pass the holiday season by eating our way through it and forcing loved ones to do the same. So we’ve come up with 13 inventive edible gifts (and not a mini-muffin basket in sight).
See our foodie gift guide now >>
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Gordon Ramsay poses for a photo with Black Hoof staffers last night (Image: Grant van Gameren)
If you’ve ever wondered just how devoted the Black Hoof is to its no-reservations policy, consider this: when chef-owner Grant van Gameren was tipped off that Gordon Ramsay was on his way over, van Gameren didn’t guarantee a table. Lucky for Ramsay, there was one available. “We let him order off the menu,” van Gameren tells us. “We didn’t do anything super-special for him. We like to treat everyone the same.”
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In our new series, Crisper Chronicles, we ask the city’s top food personalities to let us into their most intimate alimentary enclave: the home refrigerator. This week, chef Marc Thuet and his wife, front-of-house master Biana Zorich—both back in Toronto after shooting a new season of Conviction Kitchen in Vancouver—talk about the treasures (and trash) that lurk in their icebox.
The interior of Bar Salumi. Volano meat slicer located near bottom left (Images: Jon Sufrin)
Inside Queen West’s new Bar Salumi—under hanging Berkshire prosciutto, garlands of hot peppers and a wild boar’s head—sits the Ferrari of all meat slicers: a Volano. In the hands of the right operator, the apparatus is supposed to make a perfect slice every time. Michael Sangregorio and Fabio Bondi, Bar Salumi’s owners, are hoping to become such operators. “It’s the most expensive thing in the entire bar,” says Sangregorio, who likens it to a Swiss watch. Bondi admits they’re trying to figure out how to use it to its full potential.
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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.
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