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Black carrots are the latest craze, Madonna hates cheese, Prohibition feud heats up

Oprah dined at Sotto Sotto while in Toronto for TIFF (Photo by Karon Liu)

• Feuding continues at Queen Street East bar Prohibiton. Ex-manager Joey McGuirk published a letter from his lawyer on Prohibition’s old Web site this summer, which detailed how he came up with the concept of the bar and demanded compensation after McGuirk was fired. Some of his cutting-edge ideas include serving “high-end pub fare,” focusing on customer service, offering more than 15 kinds of beer and being “fun and sexy.” We hope he patented those, because they’re restaurant gold. [BlogTO]

• When Madonna told David Letterman that she’s never had a slice of New York pizza, the host got her a slice with olives but no cheese. Madonna reports that she’s “not a cheese person.” (A body like that doesn’t happen by eating cheese.) We’re just happy she’s no longer a fake-British-accent person. [Grub Street]

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The Dish

Read All About It

August 25, 2009 | 9:12 am

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Frank Bruni loves Toronto’s Asian food, Loblaws trumpets local produce, the Food Network is recession-proof

• The retired critic Frank Bruni told the Globe and Mail that his complicated history with food actually had an effect on the language he used in his reviews. The former sleep eater, “faster” and childhood bulimic says he specifically avoided the words “guilty pleasure” and “sinful.” The writer also spread a little butter on our muffin, saying he used to trek up to T.O. for Asian food when he lived in Detroit. [Globe and Mail]

• American specialty channel the Food Network is celebrating a 20 per cent rise in ratings this July over last. Real estate shows have tanked since the bubble burst, while food shows have become more popular because they “take away the pain,” says TV analyst Shari Anne Brill. The Food Network’s audience was growing long before the recent uptick, with a total increase of 55 per cent since 2004. [Bloomberg]

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The Dish

Read All About It

August 8, 2009 | 10:53 am

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Julia Child revisited, dining with dogs, a new breakfast chain for Ontario

Forget the doggie bag: some Toronto restaurants allow pooches to eat right at the table (Photo by rmatei)

• Going out for a bite can be a problem if one’s puppy wants to come too. Writer Ivy Knight suggests that there are a few dog-friendly places to eat in town. Buddha Dog on Roncesvalles offers free all-natural hot dogs to their canine customers. The Williams Coffee Pub on Queen’s Quay will actually let your dog share a meal with you at (or beneath?) the table. [Toronto Star]

• To mark this weekend’s release of Julie and Julia, Michael Rowe revisits his 1997 interview with Julia Child, which happened back when he was writing for Fab, a Toronto’s bi-weekly for the gay community. Child thought he was writing for Romantic Food (no such thing) and that was probably a good thing considering her homophobic past. Tidbits include her revelation that she sees chocolate and marijuana as similarly sensual, her distaste for low-cal food and her belief that Martha Stewart’s critics were “probably jealous of her because she’s so good-looking and capable.” [Huffington Post]

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Urban Decoder

August 1, 2009 | 11:37 am

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A fancy store recently charged me five cents for a paper shopping bag. Isn’t the new fee for plastic grocery bags only?

You’re half right. And you could be entitled to a refund. Under the city’s hotly debated bag bylaw, retailers of all kinds—not just grocers—are obliged to charge at least five cents for each plastic bag. Rare exceptions include bags for dry cleaning, bacteria-busting bags for meat or poultry and plastic bags at the pharmacy counter (because disguising one’s Viagra prescription is a God-given right). The rules for paper bags are more complicated. In most cases, store owners can technically charge whatever they want for a paper bag. They could charge you $20, though presumably you’d have the sense to tell them where to stick said pricey sack. The only exception under the new bag bylaw states that if a store can’t provide a five-cent plastic bag, paper bags or boxes must be free. To determine if your store committed a punishable offence, we’d have to know if there was a plastic alternative. Chances are the clerk who took your nickel was simply making a rookie mistake, but if the “fancy store” was really desperate enough to make an illegal five-cent cash grab, the economy will almost certainly exact your revenge in the near future.

• Question from Tara Roberts, Summerhill

The Dish

Pantry Raid

July 13, 2009 | 4:21 pm

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Supermarket heap: Gourmet grocers colonize the city

Grab and go: Prepared foods and high-end food shops are taking over downtown (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)

Grab and go: high-end groceries and prepared foods (like these at Market Longo) are suddenly everywhere (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)

There has been a sudden influx of gourmet grocers and grab-and-go eateries in Toronto. Many have been—or will be—created by the city’s elite restaurateurs and chefs in an effort to attract foodies who want to slash dining budgets without resorting to KD. Earlier this week, we reported that Oliver and Bonacini will offer a take-away service in the Bell Lightbox and that suburban staple Longo’s recently expanded its downtown holdings with a second Market Longo near Bay and Dundas. Sobeys opened another Urban Fresh store amid the condo forest surrounding Fort York, and top chef Mark McEwan is planning a downtown version of his eponymous grocery store at the Shops at Don Mills.

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The Dish

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July 8, 2009 | 8:19 am

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Fruit follies at Pusateri’s, a hidden culinary haven, the dangers of baby food

Grapes of wrath: A dispute over lousy fruit kept one woman from Pusateri's forever (Photo by LD Cross)

Grapes of wrath: a dispute over lousy fruit sparked a one-woman boycott of Pusateri’s (Photo by LD Cross)

• After the harrowing experience of watching her mother try to get a refund for rotten grapes at Pusateri’s, the National Post’s Meghan Telpner got to wondering why grocery stores won’t let customers return damaged produce. [National Post]

• Who knew that in the middle of economically devastated Michigan there lies a near-mythical land of milk and honey just waiting to be discovered? The resort town of Traverse City has a rising “gastronomic subculture,” as celeb chef Mario Batali puts it, including a wealth of new restaurants, farms and a diversity of produce second only to California. Road trip, anyone? [Canadian Press]

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The Dish

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July 4, 2009 | 10:25 am

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Free chow mein frenzy, local food under threat and health inspectors walk the line

Overload: The municipal workers' strike is effecting more than just garbage collection (Photo by Danielle Scott)

Overload: the municipal workers’ strike is affecting more than just garbage collection (Photo by Danielle Scott)

• As restaurateurs deal with permit headaches and piling up garbage, we hope they’re not too distracted to keep their kitchens clean. With health inspectors walking the picket line, city hall has been forced to cancel the dozens of inspections it conducts each day. During the strike, managers will check restaurants only if it receives a complaint. [Globe and Mail]

• More evidence that the recession is bad: by 10 a.m. on Canada Day, more than 800 people waited three hours in line at the Mandarin at Yonge and Eglinton for free Chinese food—a full two hours before the restaurant opened. Owner James Chiu offered free lunch to all Canadians at his 21 Mandarin locations as a thank you to his patrons. Let’s hope he decides to thank us for the free publicity. [Toronto Sun]

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The Dish

Opening

June 26, 2009 | 4:22 pm

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Go Longo: The 905 grocer opens a second downtown location

Be prepared: The meals on sale at Market Longo (Photo by Davida Aronovich)

It’s rare that the suburbs trump downtown on the food front, but for years the 905 has had one thing over the 416: a surplus of Longo’s supermarkets. Most core dwellers are not familiar with the grocery chain (before this week, there was only one downtown), but if owner Roseanne Longo has her way, that’s all about to change. A new 7,000-square-foot Market by Longo’s opened yesterday smack dab in the middle of downtown, just west of Yonge-Dundas Square, on Elizabeth Street. The store has all of the chain’s signature touches—pretty baked goods, an extensive deli, fresh fish, prepared foods, and a policy to sell only produce that’s been hand-picked within 20 hours—all packed into a scaled-down urban format to feed those who can’t make it to Oakville (or Brookfield Place).

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

June 19, 2009 | 9:04 am

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First look inside Mark McEwan’s gourmet grocery store

Large and in charge: Mark McEwan oversees the preparations for the opening of his new grocery store (Photo by Karon Liu)

Chef Mark McEwan (North 44°, Bymark) gave us an exclusive tour of his eponymous grocery store at the Shops at Don Mills, just as the shelves were being stocked and excited employees were scanning products into the store database. The 20,000-square-foot space is predominantly occupied by counters serving charcuterie, baked goods, seafood and cheese, as well as shelves of house-made (there’s a large kitchen upstairs) sauces, pickled vegetables, soups and prepared meals made from McEwan’s restaurant recipes. There will also be a counter selling chocolates stocked by the Belgian chocolatier Galler, which McEwan discovered while vacationing in Florida a year and a half ago. The store will also be selling the chef’s new line of kitchenware.

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The Dish

Opening

June 15, 2009 | 12:25 pm

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Mark McEwan’s opens his grocery store this week (no, seriously)—and plans a second downtown location

Northern star: Mark McEwan will open his gourmet mega-store at The Shops at Don Mills this Thursday

After months of anticipation, Shops at Don Mills will finally get its gourmet grocer this Thursday, says Mark McEwan. We caught up with The Food Network star over the weekend as he was assembling seared tuna at Toronto Taste 2009 under the gaze of a camera crew. McEwan was supposed to open this Wednesday but computer problems lead to a 24-hour delay. Of course, the store was originally slated to open last January, so what’s one more day?

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The Dish

Read All About It

May 26, 2009 | 7:56 am

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Cookies’ drug-like qualities, reusable bag study has holes, the “most secretive” organization in Canada

Addict or victim? A new book suggests that certain fattening foods activate the brain, not the appetite (Photo by Janet Calcaterra)

Addict or victim? A new book suggests that certain fatty foods affect the brain, not the appetite (Photo by Janet Calcaterra)

• The End of Overeating, a new book by former FDA commissioner David Kessler, claims that foods containing combinations of fat, sugar and salt can act like addictive drugs—they “hijack” the brain, making certain people craving more. [CTV]

• The Vancouver Sun delves deeper into research that suggests reusable shopping bags encourage bacterial growth. That study, sponsored by the Environment and Plastics Industry Council, didn’t find any reusable bags with harmful levels of bacteria—just the potential for it. [Vancouver Sun]

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The Dish

Deathwatch

May 25, 2009 | 12:47 pm

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More recession-struck boîtes go belly up

Restos and the recession: the shuttering continues (Photo by The Truth about Colin)

Although the stock exchange is out of meltdown mode, restaurants are still suffering the aftershocks of recession. We’ve already eulogized Cru, Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner, Perigee and Cluck Grunt and Low. Unfortunately, the culling continues. Here, we round up another bunch of dearly departed.

• Minimarket, the hyphen-inducing Asian-fusion, tapas-style resto-bar on College, closed its doors at the end of April. The Supermarket mothership on Augusta promises to provide such Minimarket favourites as the tuna tataki.

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The Dish

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May 22, 2009 | 7:58 am

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Poisonous grocery bags, debunking orange juice myths, KFC’s latest quagmire

In the bag: Reusable sacks might carry more than groceries (Photo by Umeboshi Panda)

• They’re good for the environment, but reusable grocery bags might not be so great for personal health. Researchers A study funded by Environment and Plastics Industry Council have determined that the popular sacks can carry traces of bacteria, yeast and mould, which can cause food poisoning, among other ailments. [National Post]

• Is it possible we’re starting our day on the wrong foot? Processed orange juice may not quite as wholesome as its reputation suggests. According to one researcher, it is packed with chemicals and artificial colours and flavours. [Toronto Star]

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The Dish

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May 11, 2009 | 9:42 am

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Fast-food freebie failures, slithery surprises, and the feds attack U.S. food-labelling law

Vast concern: Wal-Mart takes up space (Photo by James Moore)

• Wal-Mart is spending $115 million to build a 400,000-square-foot grocery distribution centre near Calgary; it will be one of the largest refrigerated buildings in the country. We would prefer to see the space used as an indoor rink, frankly. [CP]

• A man eating at a TGI Friday’s in upstate New York found a severed snake head in his broccoli, making it the third most unappetizing dish on the restaurant’s menu. [AP]

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