This year, like usual, the area east of the DVP hasn’t done too well in Winterlicious. Here, our four picks on the Danforth.
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Winterlicious 2012: Toronto Life’s picks east of the DVP
Eight no-fuss options for a Thanksgiving meal
(Image: turtlemom4bacon)
While the moms (and dads) of Toronto can cook a fine turkey, plenty of chefs have also plumbed the bird’s mysterious cavities. For revelers with a discerning palate (or those too lazy busy to cook their own), we’ve assembled eight great ways to have someone do the Thanksgiving work for you.
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Introducing: Hardys, the second southern barbecue joint to grace St. Clair West
Inside the front dining room area of Hardys (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Back in May, we reported on an upcoming barbecue joint, Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie (its name a riff on Toronto’s pig-farming past) that was setting up shop just a few blocks west of barbecue stalwart The Stockyards. On Friday, the restaurant had its grand opening and we stopped in to check it out.
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We called the 10 most clicked Summerlicious restaurants to scope out their experience—and availability
Toronto restaurants are firmly in the grip of Summerlicious, which continues to this Sunday, so we decided to find out how the annual prix-fixe fete has treated them. The consensus? It’s been a wild week-and-a-half. “It’s definitely crazier than normal,” the folks at Brassaii told us. “Crazy busy,” echoed the people at Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill, who also had some sage advice for those spurned by packed houses and peculiarly empty tables: “If you’re unsure [of availabilities], call in or swing past, because there are always no-shows” (ah, the infamous Summerlicious no-shows). With less than a week left before the summer food fest wraps up, we got in touch with the 10 restaurants whose menus got the most hits from our list of the 63 best bets to find out whether and when tables are still available.
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11 best bets for Summerlicious 2011: our chief critic Chris Nuttall-Smith makes his picks
The imported Neapolitan pizza oven at Fabbrica (Image: Karon Liu)
Now in its ninth season, the city-run ’Licious phenomenon (there are both summer and winter incarnations, in case you’ve been living under a pizza stone all this time) shows no signs of tiring, even if every year it seems to enrage more and more curmudgeonly downtown diners who don’t much like sharing their favorite restaurants with the plebes. Summerlicious succeeds precisely because it makes inaccessible restaurants accessible, even if it’s only for two weeks each July. The big list (there are 150 participating restaurants this year) will never include the hottest, newest, most interesting restaurants in the city—those places don’t typically need the help. It typically does include more than its share of dogs. But there are plenty of places in between: proven, well-run, inviting rooms with committed kitchens. We’ve picked a few of the best.
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Summerlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s top picks east of the DVP
Although Summerlicious is more generous to diners in the west, here are five of Toronto Life’s east-of-the-DVP favourites. Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto Taste 2011: We get the latest news from top chefs and restaurateurs from Woodlot, Buca, Nota Bene, O&B and many more
Rob Gentile (Buca), David Lee (Nota Bene), Andrea Nicholson (Great Cooks on Eight), Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), Teo Paul (Union)
Two thousand of Toronto’s food lovers and makers gathered at the ROM on Sunday for the 21st edition of Toronto Taste. The annual fundraiser—which raises money for Second Harvest—saw more than 60 restaurants and 30 beverage purveyors offering their best to the guests. Burgers and tacos might have been the plats du jour, but new restaurant openings seemed to be the hottest item on the plates of many chefs and restaurateurs we spoke to. Here’s what we heard from Buca’s Rob Gentile, Woodlot’s David Haman, Scarpetta’s Scott Conant, Splendido’s Victor Barry, Top Chef Canada contestants Dustin Gallagher and Andrea Nicholson and many more.
Introducing: Earth Bloor West, Ed Ho’s massive new bistro and lounge
Earth’s owner Ed Ho at the bar (Image: Jag Gundu)
Earlier this year we reported on the closure of My Place, the massive Bloor West Village pub that lasted only a year. Many restaurant owners would find it daunting to take over an 18,000-square-foot space, regardless of location, but Ed Ho (Globe Bistro, Earth Rosedale) saw it as an opportunity to service an area of town that has long been considered a culinary dead zone. His solution: a neighbourhood bistro serving local and seasonal fare paired with a lounge and private event space.
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Ed Ho of Globe and Earth tells us how he’s making My Place into his place
Ed Ho (Image: Renée Suen)
After My Place opened, closed and reopened in the space of a couple of years, we finally heard the last nail being hammered into its coffin a few weeks ago. Ed Ho, owner of Globe Bistro and Earth, has confirmed he’s taking over the 18,000-square-foot space and will be using all four floors for his growing restaurant empire: a main floor dining room that fits a hundred, an accompanying bar area that can comfortably seat another 50 to 60, a private dining space in the upper mezzanine (the rooftop patio’s partial kitchen will turn out grilled plates) and a 350-capacity basement. Including bar and patio standing room, that’s space for about 735 people. “Clearly, I’ve lost my mind,” Ho told us.
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The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants
(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.
Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).
Ed Ho pulls out of plans to open an Earth 2 restaurant in Mississauga
The 'Sauga continues: Mississauga will have to live without a Ho-McKenna restaurant—for now (Image: Seekdes, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
After many months of demolition and construction, and many dollars spent, restaurateur Ed Ho (of Globe Bistro and Earth) is walking away from his ambitious Earth 2 project in Mississauga. For now, Ho isn’t saying much, lest the lawyers become involved, but it seems he and his financiers could not see eye to eye, disagreeing on the direction of the project, and other deal-breaking details. “I can’t compromise to make a new partner happy,” Ho explained. “And I am not in this for the money. I left Bay Street for the love of this.”
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We ask the top chefs at Toronto Taste what’s in store at George, Splendido, Scaramouche and the rest of the city’s hot restaurants
This past Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of Toronto Taste, the annual event that unites Toronto’s food lovers and food makers for a day of innovative cooking, tasking and fundraising for Second Harvest. 60 of Toronto’s top chefs—including Jason Bangerter, Donna Dooher, Chris McDonald, Mark McEwan, Anthony Walsh and Anne Yarymowich—doled out top-notch cuisine to an estimated 1,600 guests at the ROM. We caught up with the chefs and asked them what’s in store for them and their restaurants this summer.
The Danforth Guide: our 21 favourite spots along the east end’s main avenue
The east end’s main thoroughfare has long been known for two things: Greek food and the Taste of the Danforth. Over the past many years, though, homebuyers drawn to the subway line have slowly turned the long strip of two-storey brick buildings into a bustling neighbourhood that has attracted a rich selection of fine shops, independent coffee houses, Thai joints and haute cuisine restaurants. The Danforth has reached a wonderful maturity that we think should be celebrated. Here are 21 of the best reasons to cross the viaduct.
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Best New Restaurants 2010
This time last year, the future looked awfully grim. We braced for restaurant closures and recessionary menus, but 2009 was surprising. Though we lost some good places (Perigee, Truffles, Alice’s and Gamelle, in particular), and mac-and-cheese quickly wore out its welcome, it was an exciting time to dine out. Anxious restaurateurs dropped corkage fees and slashed wine markups, while chefs cooked up imaginative prix fixe menus. It suited our mood as well as our wallets: these days, Torontonians want informality. We’re still hungry for local produce and nose-to-tail dining, chefs are once again finding inspiration in Italy and Japan, and the city is finally beginning to develop a serious cocktail culture. Most encouraging of all is the number of new restaurants opening. Here, the best of the vintage.
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