Read the rest of this entry »
Ever since Toronto’s first iteration of Dishcrawl sold out well in advance, we’ve been sure there’d be more let’s-all-eat-out-together events hitting the city. Enter The Social Feed, a Vancouver-based organizer of family-style dinner parties, which launches in Toronto tomorrow night with a meal at Czehoski that’s, yes, already sold out.
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to czehoski
Winterlicious 2012: Toronto Life’s picks west of Bathurst
The Winterlicious restaurants west of Bathurst are a mixed bag, from authentic Mexican at Frida to hipster institutions like The Drake. Here, our nine best bets for the west end.
Read the rest of this entry »
Introducing: Hammersmith’s, Riverdale’s newest spot for scones and other breakfast favourites
Inside Riverdale’s newest brunch spot (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Hammersmith’s, the brainchild of boyfriend-girlfriend duo Brittany Peglar and Colin Reed, is a new brunch spot in brunch-laden Riverdale, housed in a space previously occupied by a diner for 50-odd years. The couple does both sweet (Peglar) and savoury (Reed), keeping the focus on breakfast. They’ve already managed to draw a loyal clientele, with regulars popping in just after 9 a.m. for either a quick coffee or a full-on brekkie.
Read the rest of this entry »
Introducing: Mavrik Wine Bar, a laid-back Queen West hangout run by two escapees from the corporate world
Mavrik Wine Bar’s cozy room with an open kitchen in the back (Image: Davida Aronovitch)
Mavrik Wine Bar, a cozy new place replacing the Korean spot San, quietly opened a couple weeks ago one door east of Queen West staple Czehoski. Following the lead of DeKefir, Prairie Girl Bakery and these guys, co-owners Joanne Park and Elizabeth Choi have done what so many cubicle-slaves only dream of. The childhood pals left high-paid corporate jobs to open their ideal hangout spot: a homey wine bar—hold the pretension. “We left our cares behind,” says Elizabeth, a former Wall Street trader whose love of wine was inspired by hip New York hubs like Terroir and Blue Ribbon.
Read the rest of this entry »
Modern comforts: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Woodlot and Ici Bistro
Two neighbourhood restaurants serve up light-handed renditions of our rib-sticking favourites
(Image: Vanessa Heins)
The comfort food revolution has brought us much to be thankful for, including cheaper, more casual restaurants, and the glories of deep-fried mac-and-cheese, but it hasn’t exactly delivered a surge of culinary innovation. Spurred on by a sputtering economy, the comfort trend spawned a wave of barbecue joints, gourmet burger shops, neighbourhood pubs and by-the-book bistros, and it introduced childhood-evoking staples like cookies and milk to scores of restaurant menus where the “licorice root, three ways” used to be. It offered certainty when everything else around us seemed ready to collapse, not only for diners but for restaurateurs, too.
Comfort eating, like love and psychotherapy, is driven by equal measures of longing (for simpler times) and industrial-grade denial (s’mores are less fattening when they’re made with single-estate chocolate from São Tomé), powerful motivators both. So most chefs have been happy to feed our cravings without letting their own high-minded notions get in the way. Read the rest of this entry »
Fisherman’s Friends: Chris Nuttall-Smith reviews Maléna and The Atlantic
The season’s most anticipated openings are two seafood-centric spots
Maléna at Av and Dav (Image: Ryan Szulc)
Toronto is a raw bar town. We’re over-served by excellent oyster houses, and we probably consume more sushi per capita than any city east of Vancouver. But cooked fish is a problem here; we’ve never had a standout seafood spot. This spring, Nathan Isberg, of Czehoski and Coca fame, opened what early adopters described as a nose-to-tail disciple’s take on the life aquatic on Dundas West. And in Yorkville, a neighbourhood that’s desperate for a few more decent places to eat, front-of-house kings David Minicucci and Sam Kalogiros launched Maléna, a flashy fish spot. It looked like Toronto might finally turn into a seafood town. Read the rest of this entry »
Get outside: Toronto’s 10 best patios
The patio season started early this year, which simply means there’s more time to hit the city’s best al fresco dining and drinking destinations. Here, 10 of our favourites »
Just Opened: Knife, a Queen West shop devoted to the world’s best kitchen blades
Cutting edge: knives on display at Knife (Image: Jason Soo)
Tucked into a diminutive second-storey space at Queen West and Tecumseth, Knife feels like an art gallery: high-end Japanese blades are laid out on blood-red felt backdrops and showcased in white display cases. As the name suggests, this shop is devoted to the one truly indispensable kitchen tool: the knife.
Read the rest of this entry »
Name that Saloon: West Queen West gets a new bar by the Harbord Room boys
Tail end: Still with its old sign, the space at 1168 Queen Street West gets a reno (Photo by Name our bar and drink for free)
In a powerhouse collaboration to rival The Saint’s roster, the Harbord Room’s owner (David Mitton, also of Czehoski), chef (Cory Vitiello) and designer (Brad Denton, of Petit Castor) are teaming up with West-coast hospitality import Jeff Salvian (Kicking Horse Resort) to open a bar on Queen. Though their spot—1168 Queen Street West—is sandwiched between two buzzing hipster hives (the Drake and the Gladstone), the yet-to-be named tavern will aim to replicate the laid-back feel of its former incarnation, The Cock and Tail. Says Mitton: “It’s going to be a nice little dirty dive bar.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Elementary students declare The Drake best restaurant on Queen West
A Parkdale Puma, Femisha, presents an award onstage at The Gladstone (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)
The intrepid Parkdale Pumas—public schoolers turned restaurant critics for the performance art project Eat the Street—have delivered their final verdict on 12 of Queen Street’s trendiest spots. The two-month dinner series was curated by Mammalian Diving Reflex and culminated at the awards ceremony at The Gladstone on Monday. Honours were given out in such amusingly guileless (if unorthodox) categories as “nicest waitress on Queen Street West,” “best-smelling washroom” and “best magnetic letters.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Kid critics are on to something at Oddfellows
Pumas vs. Oddfellows: Eat the Street munches down Queen West (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)
Saturday night at Oddfellows looked like a feast scene out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Kids from the nearby Parkdale Public School—Pumas, as they’re known—invaded the über-hip restaurant as part of the ongoing performance art–dinner series called Eat the Street. There was more root beer than red wine, the decibel level was in the stratosphere, and there was a refreshing dearth of inhibition. The kid critics are rating Queen West’s hottest restaurants as part of a project by the art group Mammalian Diving Reflex (they’ve already hit The Drake and Czehoski, among others), which has given the teen squad notepads and one simple instruction: show no mercy. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Toronto’s top chefs will be serving comfort food well into summer
Expect to see comfort food on Toronto menus year-round (Photo by Sifu Renka)
Comfort food staples usually disappear from menus around this time of year, but the city’s top toques are finding reason to serve the rich, wintry fare as temperatures rise. We spoke to three to find out what’s up. Read the rest of this entry »
Loss of appetite: It’s a double whammy for restaurants as their Bay Street backers go broke
The centre of the universe: Bay Street goes gastronomical (Photo by Jim U)
There’s no question that investing in a restaurant is a high-risk venture. That said, many of the city’s swankiest downtown dining rooms are partially owned by investment-savvy Bay Streeters—those who should be the first to spot a bum deal. Czehoski, Centro, Six Steps and the aptly named Bottom Line are just a few of the dining establishments fed by Bay Street assets. It is no coincidence, then, that Toronto’s golden age of culinary evolution matched up with a golden age of culinary investment. In the boom times, an underperforming investment (even if it was a restaurant) was compensated by market gains. But when the TSX started to slide last year, restaurants got a double whammy: not only were expense accounts drying up, but so was investment capital. Suits who diversified into the restaurant industry suffered, too, prompting us to ask, why keep investing in restaurants? Read the rest of this entry »
Tip of the Isberg: Coca’s fate is in the hands of its one-time chef
Nathan Isberg ponders his future (Photo by Renée Suen)
When we asked whether Coca’s surprise shutdown signalled closure or reincarnation, we didn’t know that its management was wondering exactly the same thing. The now-shuttered restaurant will either reopen as an entirely new enterprise, or not at all. But there is some good news. If the spot has gone downhill since losing its signature chef, Nathan Isberg, it might make hipsters swoon again: estranged from Coca since an unceremonious split from investors back in November, Isberg was surprised to get a call asking him to come back and shape an entirely new venture in the same space. Burned by bad politics and immersed in new endeavours, though, the young chef now faces a dilemma. His choice may decide the project’s ruin or renewal.
What’s become of Coca?
The interior of Coca (Photo by Riley)
Last night, we noticed that the windows of the trendy tapas bar Coca had been papered over. Though it was open on Friday, its phone now rings into eternity and its Web site is off-line. But devotees should remain calm. Though we can’t confirm, a tip from former affiliate restaurant Czehoski tells us that Coca is not a recession sob story. (The two spots were formerly associated by ownership under Brad Denton and the shared culinary custody of chef Nathan Isberg.) A Czehoski insider claims that Coca is slated for a major overhaul that will include a large-scale renovation and a name change. Sometimes referred to as Czehoski West, the restaurant may be seeking to assert a new—and distinct—identity. With buzz building, we’re wondering just what the lockdown means. Is this the unceremonious end of the strip’s beloved Coca cabana, or is it just a reinvention? Stay tuned. For further developments, check out our latest dispatch.
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS