Stadtländer argues that the quarry would result in the loss of prime Ontario farmland and would threaten local wildlife and the integrity of much of Ontario’s freshwater resources, since the proposed land is below the water table. “It’s some of the best farmland in Ontario, and it’s only 100 kilometres away from Toronto,” he told The Grid. “We are really only at the dawn of local food right now. The human population is growing and we really have to secure places where we can grow food.” Perhaps the best comment we’ve heard in reaction to the event comes from David Waters, an Orangeville real estate agent and Foodstock volunteer, who told the Toronto Star: “You can’t eat gravel.” Event details and tickets available here.

The list of contributing chefs is a staggering tour of southern Ontario locavorism:

Toronto:

Paul Böehmer and Milana Lise from Böhmer
Teo Paul from Union
Adam Colquhoun and Robert Bechard from Oyster Boy
JP Challet from Ici Bistro
Lola Kirk from Ruby Watcho
Jeffery Cladio from Scarpetta
Chris Brown from The Stop Community Food Centre
Jamie Kennedy from Jamie Kennedy Kitchens
Aaron Bear Robe from Keriwa Café
Fabio Boni and Michael Sangregorio from Local Kitchen and Wine Bar and Bar Salumi
Luis Valenzuela from Torito Tapas Bar
Victor Barry from Splendido and The County General
Albert Ponzo from Le Select Bistro
Hiro Yoshida from Hiro Sushi
Anthony Walsh from Bannok and Oliver and Bonacini Restaurants
Carole Ferrari from Locale Café
Carl Heinrich and Ryan Donovan from Marben
Michael Sacco from Chocosol Chocolate Traders
David Kokai from Loïc Gourmet
Anthony Rose from The Drake Hotel
Derek Bendig and Colen Quinn from Pangaea
Zane Caplansky from Caplansky’s
Evelyne Gharbirian from Hearty Catering
Rodney Bowers from Hey Meatball
Matty Matheson from Parts and Labour
Derek Zavislake from Merchants of Green Coffee
Keith Froggett from Scaramouche
Lorenzo Loseto from George Restaurant
Rob Gentile from Buca Restaurant
Patrick McMurray from Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill, Ceili Cottage
Joshna Maharaj
Steffan Howard from Palais Royale and Casa Loma
Kevin McKenna from Globe Bistro, Earth Rosedale and Earth Bloor West
Phillip Heilborn from Earth Bloor West
Trish Donnelly from Chef Donnelly Catering
Brad Long and Sarah Kuntz from Belong Café
John Higgins and Oliver Li from George Brown College
Daisuke Izatsu from Kaiseki Sakura
Christopher Palik from L-Eat Catering and Paese Ristorante
Daniel Muia from Mogette Bistro
Joe Levesque from the International Centre
Graham Pratt and Christine Fancy from The Gabardine
Giacomo Pasquini from Vertical
Aubrey Demers
Bertrand Alépée from The Tempered Chef
Fawzi Kotb from Veloute Bistro and Catering
Nick Laliberte from Poutini’s House of Poutine
Dawn Woodward and Edmund Rek from Evelyn’s Crackers
Jacob Sharkey Pearce from Two Brothers Inc.
Linda Burnside and Kevin Walters from Alternative Grounds
Alexandra Feswick from Brockton General
Diane Cartwright from Whole World Trade Ltd.
Jeff Brown and Jennifer Rashleigh from Delight
Lesia Kohut from LPK’s Culinary Groove
Anton Potvin and Nick Liu from Niagara Street Café
Johan Maes from Goed Eten

Durham:

Michael Schmidt and Chef Carey McLellan from Glencolton Farms

Mississauga:

Erica Trabulsi from The Culinary Art School of Ontario

Shelburne:

Rob Uffen from Rob Uffen’s Trout House

Rosemont:

Ross Midgley and Beth Hunt from The Globe Restaurant

Owen Sound:

Robin Pradhan from Rocky Raccoon Café

Creemore:

Michel Masselin from Chez Michel
Dave Nesbitt from Creemore Coffee Company
Don Akehurst from Sovereign Restaurant

Collingwood:

Gareth Carter from Men with Knives
Leona Nyman and Andrea Greyerbiehl from Azzurra
Jeremy Korten from Oliver and Bonacini Café Grill and Blue Mountain Restaurant
Mark and Christine Kraus from Espresso Post
Scott Chalmers and Andrew Barber from Simplicity Bistro
Christophe and Wispy Boivin from Tremont Café
Joelle Rogers from Tesoro Restaurant
Mike Duffin from One99 Broadway
Roger Genoe from Ravenna Country Market

Singhampton:

Martina Gómez and Jörg Neth from Haisai
Michael and Nobuyo Stadtländer from Eigensinn Farm

Orangeville:

Jason Reiner from The Mono Cliff’s Inn
Alex Johnston from Hockley Valley Resort

Flesherton:

Shawn Adler from The Flying Chestnut

Burlington:

Tobias Pohl-Weary from Red Canoe Bistro

Guelph:

Carin Balint from Garden of Vegan

Niagara:

Paul Harber from Ravine Vineyard
Janice Suarez
Ryan Crawford from The Stone Road Grille

Stratford:

Ruth Klahsen from Monforte Diary

Parry Sound:

Philip Patrick from The Ridge at Manitou

Barrie:

Matthew Flett from Georgian College
Randy Feltis from Oscars
David Keenan from At the Five
Daniel Hong and Anna Kim from Furasato Restaurant
Ceasar Guinto from Cravings Fine Food Market and Catering

Thornbury:

Shaun Edmonsteon and Jennifer Vipond from Bruce Wine Bar

Waterford:

Tracey Winkworth from The Belworth House

Aurora:

Jason D’Anna from Magna Golf Club

Ottawa:

Rob Fraser from Fraser Café

Saskatchewan:

Moe Mathieu

Nova Scotia:

Stefan Czapalay from Culinary Design Solutions

• Fully Stocked [Now Magazine]
• Foodstock fights mega-quarry with mega-feast [The Grid]
• In the forest with Michael Stadtlander [Toronto Star]

Enoteca Sociale’s octopus and fava beans

The 25 most delicious dishes Chris Nuttall-Smith tasted this year, ranging  from lowbrow comforts (potato puffballs) to high-minded masterpieces (tea-smoked duck)*

See the list »

*Availability of dishes varies according to season and changing menus

(Images: All photographs by Ryan Szulc)

Hot Buttered Rum
The perfect après-ski (or après–afternoon of shopping): Sailor Jerry spiced rum and compound butter (cinnamon, clove, brown sugar, lemon zest and butter) steeped in hot water. $12. Sidecar, 577 College St., 416-536-7000.

My Darling Clementine
House-made gingerbread syrup lends a subtle molasses flavour to this mimosa-esque mix of prosecco, Grand Marnier and fresh-squeezed clementine juice. $14. Ruby Watchco, 730 Queen St. E., 416-465-0100.

Winter Jacket Fellow
A soothing mash-up of two traditional cold-weather treats—mulled wine and hot apple cider—ups the ante with a dose of Zubrówka bison grass vodka. $9. Brockton General, 1321 Dundas St. W., 647-342-6104.

S’mores Hot Chocolate
Nutty Frangelico and Navan fortify a serving of Soma’s sinful malted milk hot chocolate. Topped with a melty house-made marshmallow and a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs, it’s tastier (and tidier) than its campfire namesake. $10. Luma, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 330 King St. W., 647-288-4715.

So Martini
Caffeine fiends can get their fix with a potent combination of vanilla vodka, Baileys, Chambord and a kick of espresso. $11. Table 17, 782 Queen St. E., 416-519-1851.

Parkdale Bake
A maple, baked butternut squash and sage syrup forms the savoury centrepiece of this gentlemanly blend of Maker’s Mark and sweet
vermouth. A crisped sage leaf adds an earthy embellishment. $10. Local Kitchen, 1710 Queen St. W., 416-534-6700.

Blitzen
A bracing mix of muddled lime, lemon-ginger syrup, Johnnie Walker Red Label and prosecco is garnished with cranberries, a rosemary sprig and powdered sugar for a pretty twist on the whiskey sour. $12. Grace, 503 College St., 416-944-8884.

Spanish Flip
Forgo the calorie-dense cream of eggnog, and indulge in a frothy concoction of Pedro Ximénez sherry, egg yolk, spice syrup (cinnamon, allspice, clove), lemon juice and nutmeg. $11. The Drake, 1150 Queen St. W., 416-531-5042.

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

A new sushi king on Bloor, carb-loading in Markham and Parkdale’s chicest snack spot

Sushi Couture
456 Bloor St. W., 416-538-8618

Ken Zhang has been a sushi star going on a decade now, thanks to his time at Japango across from city hall, where he served some of the hardest-to-find fish in town. Now on his own, his cut fish and rolls at Couture are still excellent. His couture roll—rice and avocado wrapped in nori, topped with salmon and a scallop slice and flash-toasted with a blowtorch—is given a boost with scallion and roe. (But don’t order the o‑toro, a.k.a. bluefin tuna—it’s severely threatened, the marine equivalent of eating baby panda.) Zhang’s hot dishes, however, sometimes miss the mark. The $70 oma­kase option here is just $10 less than Sushi Kaji’s basic oma­kase and doesn’t begin to approach the master’s orbit. A soup of buttery shell clams, for instance, should be beautiful given its ingredients of sake, butter, yuzu zest and soy, but there’s far too much soy, so it’s too salty for more than a few sips. Roast duck salad brings cold, chewy slices as pallid as Lloyd Robertson’s wattle over mesclun mix that has started to brown. The tempura aji is exceptional, chopped and mixed with scallions, folded into a shiso leaf and quickly fried: the taste is creamy and full, balanced out with the sharp onions, the soapy leaf and crunchy shell. Unlicensed. Mains $19–$26.

Less than six months after opening in J‑Town, Markham’s Japanese shopping centre, this cheerful ramen spot has acquired a cult following. The young kitchen, staffed by a gang of cooks who barely look to be drinking age, turns out simple, classic noodle soup—hearty, comforting winter fare, even if it doesn’t quite merit all the on-line buzz. The tonkatsu shio brings a massive bowl of salty pork bone broth that’s properly white from emulsified fat, a heap of springy alkaline noodles (flown in, frozen, from Japan), a red-and-white-swirled slice of fish cake, seared chasu (pork butt), pickled ginger and half a soft-cooked egg. The soup could use more depth and half as much salt, and the demurely lean chasu will never draw ecstatic groans the way the great stuff can, but it’s fast, filling and less than $10 a bowl. Unlicensed. Closed Monday.

Michael Sangregorio and Fabio Bondi’s new satellite operation, a casual aperitif and salumi lounge just three doors up from their popular Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, is more of a stylish holding area for prospective Local diners than a destination of its own. But for Parkdalians looking for a glass of wine or a simple plate of cured meat, it has its charms. The vibe is very Queen West: esoteric decor (prosciuttos hanging from the ceiling); laid-back service; catchy, college chart–heavy playlist; and a microscopic menu. Bondi’s meats are good, though not entirely memorable: his dilled capicola is firm, smoky and veined with buttery white fat, but the sliced fennel sausage crumbles on the plate. The braised octopus is lovely; the nodini bread knots are crunchy and melba-toast dry. Closed Sunday and Monday. Small plates $4–$15.

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.

We have reason to believe in them; after all, Sangregorio and Bondi are the duo behind Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, which was named one of the best new restaurants of the year. Bar Salumi (Italian for charcuterie) is their “aperitif and piattini bar,” set in a former antique shop just a few doors down from the flagship. The menu here looks simple, but the small appetizer plates are scrupulously prepared. Take the octopus ($8)—pounded out and submerged in a braising liquid for two hours with bay leaves, salt, lemons and wine corks (for tenderizing)—or the sardines ($8), which are deboned by hand and cured in salt and sugar for two hours, then brined in orange juice, limoncello, white wine vinegar, olive oil and parsley for 24 hours, and finally served on a crostino.

While the owners hope the bar will become a destination in its own right, it was partially intended to handle overflow from Local Kitchen. Here, customers can indulge in four takes on the negroni (a gin-based cocktail, $10), a compact selection of wines and, of course, a variety of cured meats and cheeses while waiting for a table down the street. It’s a more lucrative alternative to sending customers over to Parts and Labour, and with the success of the similarly inspired Hoof Café, Sangregorio and Bondi have good reason to hope for two nearly side-by-side ventures to pay off.

Bar Salumi, 1704 Queen St. W. (at Roncesvalles Ave.), 416-588-0100.

Left to right: the sign on Queen Street West, a sardine on crostino, some delicious decor (Images: Jon Sufrin)

The Parkdale it spot is a raucous hybrid of fine dining and indie cheek. It’s loud, stylish and double-dares you to eat fried pig face By Chris Nuttall-Smith

(Image: Ryan Szulc)

They started jacking the stereo around 8 p.m., just as we were eating the chopped raw lamb with herbed, salted lard. By the time the horse tenderloin arrived, it felt as if a maniacal toddler had been handed control of the dial. Groups of young, aggressively stylish women tottered in, past the velvet rope, past the bouncer with the neck tattoo and under the decorative, gold-leafed satellite dish that its designer (one of the restaurant’s owners) described as a “Hegelian dialectic between high and low.” The music, thumping from the five JBL speakers arrayed above the bar, kept rising, as if in salutation. We had to press our ribs into the edge of our long, too-wide communal table and shout to hear each other when we bothered trying to talk at all.

The playlist soon skidded from punk to ’80s pop. As Janet Jackson sang “Send it in a letter baby, tell you on the phone, I’m not the kinda girl who likes to be alone,” someone cranked the stereo one more time, and those speakers, with their eight-inch polypropylene-coated woofers and one-inch, horn-loaded tweeters, started at last to crackle and pop. We were nearly the only people sitting now, lost in a forest of heels and skinny jeans. A friendly man-waif in suede zipper boots leaned over and shouted, “I hope we’re not disturbing your dinner, eh?” and smiled. Far from it. Though I desperately wanted to hate the place, I was having an excellent time.

Parts and Labour, the new bar and restaurant hybrid from club magnates Jesse Girard and Richard Lambert (they also own The Social) and Castor Design (the hoser-chic Toronto studio that also runs Odd­fellows), became the west end’s it spot this summer, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The long, stylish room is rich with bespoke, ur-Parkdalian detailing: the bar is ringed with a constellation of pendant lights made from vintage fire extinguishers, the cutlery is stored in a red, rolling mechanic’s tool chest (a nod to the building’s former life as a hardware store), and the staircase to the basement, where there’s a gritty live music space, is glassed in with shattered windshields. And then there’s the menu, which is long on the gory realism that’s in fashion these days (fried pig face, anyone?). Chef Matty Matheson, a large, bushy-bearded tangle of body art—the man is no Food Network preener—calls it “fucking food for people who like to eat.” One of the bartenders even sports the requisite John Walker Lindh beard—a sure sign that they take their drinks seriously here. (He does make an excellent Pimm’s.)

This is what happens when the ethos behind the recent wave of indie-feeling, food-focused and, in some cases, brazenly inhospitable restaurants meets money and fashion. At the first-wave places that pioneered the trend—the Black Hoof, Guu, Local Kitchen and Wine Bar spring immediately to mind—the chefs cook exactly what they want to cook: relatively cheap, sometimes challenging, huge-flavoured foods, as opposed to, say, deconstructed caesar salad and molten chocolate cake. They play the music they like at the volume they choose, and often forgo such cash-sucking blandishments as reservations (it costs money to keep a reservations person), credit cards (the banks typically take three per cent off every cheque) and fresh-cut flowers. At Local, they won’t let you sit at a table until your entire party’s arrived—they’re not always gracious about it, either. At Guu, the raucous izakaya on Church Street, the servers announce once you’re seated (invariably after a long wait) that you can stay for only two hours. But a lot of people love it anyway. Rejecting the orthodoxies of fine dining enables young, talented chefs like Grant van Gameren, just 27 when the Black Hoof opened, to launch their own restaurants. It has also brought us places that are fresher, more democratic and more affordable than under the traditional model. You don’t need Riedel stemware or celebrity chefs to signify a good restaurant any longer. Great food has become the best sell of all.

Leaf fan: Matchbox Gardens grows rare and wonderful lettuces (Image: Jay Shuster)

The trendy Asian cuisine of the moment is at its most authentic when portions are big, salty-sweet and cheap. The $20 combo deal at this 24-hour spot brings one entrée, five domestic beers and a bottle opener. The onslaught of complimentary pan chan—soy beans both sweet and crunchy, mild kimchee, vinegary cucumbers and a block of tofu sauced with Korean chilies—is merely a prelude to a hefty bowl of wickedly addictive hot and sour pork.

As the ranks of the wheat intolerant swell, a flood of gluten-free goodies has hit the market. Baking without traditional ingredients, however, requires a special kind of alchemy, and most gluten-free breads are near inedible—either Sahara dry and crumbly, or gummy and hockey puck dense. That’s why the breads from Yoshi’s Sweets are a revelation. Using a combination of seeds, bean and grape skin flours, Barry Horn makes six types, including a romano bean bread that could pass for wheat and a slightly sweet white bean with grape skin loaf that’s an ideal partner for raspberry jam. The crusts are crusty, the insides are fluffy, and, wonder of wonders, the loaves are delicious even without being toasted. The biggest compliment: non-celiacs willingly eat it, too. From $8.50 a loaf.

Rousong looks a little like candy floss, but that’s where the similarities end. A staple garnish in Chinese cooking, it’s made by braising pork tenderloin in soy sauce and sugar; the softened meat is pulled, strained, oven-dried and wok-fried until it becomes lighter and fluffier than pork has any right to be. At Asian Legend, rousong is served as part of a dish called Glutinous Rice Roll, which involves wrapping it in fried bread that’s in turn enclosed in an omelette and a layer of sticky rice. The entire thing is served, for mysterious reasons, in a plastic bag. One bite and the cottony fibres begin to dissolve, their sweet, salty porkiness takes hold, and you realize that the molecular gastronomy guys have nothing on Chinese line cooks. $5.

The humble date square—a specialty of this Distillery baker—proves that an old-fashioned Canadian recipe, perfectly executed, can rival ritzier confections. Rich, vanilla-infused date filling between two buttery layers of dense oatmeal crumble forms a brilliantly sticky sandwich, best enjoyed with an espresso (Balzac’s is a few doors down) or a scoop of vanilla gelato (Soma is around the corner). $3.

Seafood is the last frontier of high-minded foodies. Few fishmongers lose sleep over sustainability; not only is it difficult to keep track of what’s endangered, it’s also hard to make a profit without threatened cod, monkfish and bluefin tuna. Leave it to the Healthy Butcher to fill the void with a certified guilt-free selection of aquatic edibles, some farmed, some wild, from across the country. The thrice-weekly catch usually includes Arctic char, steelhead trout, tilapia and whitefish. The crispy skin and juicy white flesh of fresh Lake Huron pickerel is the real catch: sautéed in butter and olive oil, it ticks off all the ethical boxes without compromising quality. From $4 for a pickerel fillet.

Matchbox Gardens takes the 100-mile rule seriously: they grow their seedlings in greenhouses at Downsview Park and have a three-acre plot in Brampton. The company’s focus on heirloom greens means they always have wonderfully peculiar lettuces with tongue-tying names. The pick of the bunch is Italienischer, a rare oak leaf variety that grows like a weed. Each massive bunch contains dozens of long (up to 30 centimetres), curly leaves that spike out in all directions. It combines the crunch of romaine, the slight bitterness of a dandelion green and the mild sweetness of butter lettuce. When dressed with a simple olive oil vinaigrette, it makes the quintessential summer-fresh salad. In season July to September. $2.50 per bunch.

Jesus Martinez, the Veracruz-born owner of Kensington Market’s newest snack spot, serves the most authentic burrito in these parts. The sublime mole verde is our favourite: refried black beans, sour cream, rice, lettuce and soft shreds of chicken are elevated by a zingy, long-simmered, chili-laden sauce of creamy avocado, citrusy green tomatillos and puréed pumpkin seeds. $5

When summer’s swelter takes its toll and serious hydration is required, consider how they do it in Caracas. At Arepa, the easy-going Venezuelan restaurant on Queen West, they use a sugarcane syrup to lend the thirst-quenching citrus sipper a complex, full-bodied sweetness. The sugar cane gives the drink a warm caramel hue, gently rounds off the lemons’ zing and puts cloying white sugar concoctions to shame. $3.

The tangy, musty rind is reminiscent of camembert, and the nutty flavour hints at a Dutch origin, but Le 1608 is as Canadian as poutine. It’s made from the raw milk of rare Vache Canadienne cattle, and named after the year of Quebec City’s founding. When a cheese gets you excited about history, you know it’s good. (Plus, the giddy enthusiasm of the staff at this tiny shop is contagious.) $8 per 100 grams.

Forget the newfangled pulled pork pancakes, pulled pork pizza and pulled pork poutine that dominate Toronto’s menus. To experience true Southern-style pork shoulder, you want someone to smoke the living daylights out of it, douse it in kicky homemade sauce and pile it between two pieces of bread. Paul and Sandy Kocukov leave their pork for 10 to 12 hours in a custom-designed smoker behind their humble Etobicoke storefront. The result? Meat that’s tender, juicy and hickory licked. Call ahead, because they often run out before the day is done. $7 with one side.

Giovanna Alonzi, the chef at the Terroni group’s Osteria Ciceri e Tria, spends a lot of her time travelling in Italy in search of the sorts of rustic recipes that are the foundations of the mini-chain’s formula. Olive Ascolane, from Ascoli Piceno, near the Adriatic coast, has to be her greatest find. Alonzi stuffs large, mild olives with mortadella, pork, beef, pecorino and spices, then rolls them in bread crumbs and deep-fries them to an absurdly delicious golden green. They’re cheesy, meaty and salty little poppers, with a briny olive pucker. And they’re easily the best thing that’s ever happened to the humble fruit. $5.

When the coffee is as good as it is at this perfect little café, it feels blasphemous to talk about the herbal tea lattes. That is, of course, until you taste a Miami Haze, barista Jay Galbraith’s rosy take on a London Fog. He makes an infusion of nutty almond tea—a magical mix of dried apple, almonds, cinnamon and beetroot from the Trinity Bellwoods tea boutique Tea­lish—then adds a shot of organic vanilla extract and a cloud of steamed milk. An attention-grabbing pink and with an intoxicatingly fruity smell, this bauble of a beverage easily doubles as a dessert. $4.

There are a dozen butchers in town with excellent steaks, but Cumbrae’s Stephen Alexander still puts the most care into his succulent slabs. Alexander works with a loyal handful of Haldi­mand County farmers who raise Angus and Hereford cattle on red clover and alfalfa for deep flavour, and corn and barley for magnificent marbling. Then he ages his beef for an all-important six weeks. A few minutes on a searing charcoal grill is all it takes to unlock their unctuous juiciness. $25 a pound.

Every carton arrives from Stoddart’s free-range farm and is like an idiosyncratic collection of Easter eggs. Shells can be rutty or smooth, freckled, reddish or even pale turquoise (spotted on the menu at Nota Bene and Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, they come from rare South American Araucana chickens). On the inside, rich orange yolks and thick whites whip up into an uncommonly fluffy omelette. We also recommend serving them soft-boiled with the shell on for a brunch spread worthy of Martha Stewart. $7 per dozen.

Parkdale prospectors: Michael Sangregorio and chef Fabio Bondi (Image: Renée Suen)

Fabio Bondi and Michael Sangregorio, the guys behind the Parkdale hot spot Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, are slowly taking over the neighbourhood. In a few months, they’ll open Bar Salumi, an aperitif joint, a few doors east of Local. As it stands, their restaurant’s popularity has outgrown its diminutive size; since they don’t take reservations, there are often lines out the door. Bondi says that the new place was conceived as a place to send customers while they wait for a table, since they don’t presently have a lounge.

Aperitif bars are all the rage in Milan right now, Bondi says, but the pre-dinner lounge hasn’t really hit Toronto. (Although we can’t help but note the success of Hoof Café, Dundas West’s carnivorous snack bar conceived to accommodate the Black Hoof’s spillover, which quickly became a hot spot in its own right.) As the name suggests, the menu will consist of small dishes ($5–$12), cheese and meat platters and drinks. “This is just another way to take care of our guests,” Bondi says. “It’s a way of growing while keeping it intimate.”

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.

By James Chatto, Photographs by Brendan Meadows and Ryan Szulc, Illustrations by Jack Dylan

That's my queue: customers wait for hours to taste the fare at Guu (Photo by snowpea&bokchoi)

Capitalizing on one of the more frustrating dining trends, the Globe writes about the no-reservations policies at such restaurants as Guu, Black Hoof and Pizzeria Libretto and how they are resulting in long lineups, rushed dining experiences, annoyed customers and, in some cases, mayhem. TasteTO’s Sheryl Kirby opines that the chaos is a side effect of Toronto’s unsophisticated nature: diners care more about partaking in the latest trend than indulging in quality dining. The sight of teeming masses lined up in sub-zero temperatures may reek of herd mentality, but Michael Sangregorio, the owner of Local Kitchen, says that it’s all part of the fun. “I think people like lineups… People want to eat in busy restaurants.” He also suggests that restaurants (like his) often merit the attention and that reservations are unsuited to the operations of a small restaurant.

As long as the crowds continue to accrue for hours on end, though, we think the important issue is how to deal with them. Guu has already begun doling out hot green tea to those shivering outside. If the queue lasts two hours, though, perhaps sake might be a better choice.

• No-reservations policies invite restaurant chaos [Globe and Mail]

Friends in food: Michael Sangregorio and Fabio Bondi at the counter of Local Kitchen and Wine Bar (Photo by Mary Luz Mejia)

It takes guts to open a fledgling restaurant on a Parkdale strip during Toronto’s recent civil servant strike and this decidedly un-rosy economic era, but neither of these obstacles stopped lifelong friends Fabio Bondi and Michael Sangregorio from breathing life into a 29-seater they call Local Kitchen and Wine Bar. With Bondi manning the stoves (he trained in Umbria at the much-lauded Il Postale) and Sangregorio working the front of the house, the dynamic duo has done the near-impossible. “We finally did it!” beamed Sangregorio on the second night, as customers started drifting in.

The two left full-time gigs to follow their slow food dreams of opening an intimate space where cured meats hang by the kitchen alongside T-shirts and an apron exclaiming “I Heart Parkdale.” The room resembles a nonna’s eat-in kitchen, only with touches of west-end chic provided by artists Alain Parizeau and Adam Hilborn of neighbouring Parishil Studio. The bar’s feature wall is covered in newspaper headlines of years gone by and is graced by a tomato red vertical sign that reads “LOCAL” (just in case too many handcrafted cocktails render patrons unable to remember where they are).

The partners have made it their promise to use food “grown by local farmers using sustainable methods,” to make Italian-inflected piattini, or “little plates.” This way, says Bondi, “customers can have fun and mix and match flavours. It’s the way we like to eat.” The menu will change with the seasons or whenever there’s new produce on hand. Keep an eye out for Bondi’s house-made charcuterie options—guanciale, sopressata, culatello—all of which use Berkshire pork from Perth, Ontario. House-made pasta like the garganelli with Ontario tomatoes, basil and peperoncino will be a staple, as will stuffed tortellini (right now it’s stuffed with rabbit).

Sangregorio has sourced a largely Ontario-based wine list, including bottles from Daniel Lenko, Norman Hardie and Malivoire vineyards, with a few Italian bottles thrown in for good measure. If you’d rather an artisanal cocktail, there’s the boys’ newest creation, “Penny’s Cousin.” Named after the wild boar’s head that smiles down on the room from her post above the front door, this libation features “bacon washed bourbon,” maple syrup and grapefruit juice.

Local Kitchen and Wine Bar, 1710 Queen St. W. (at Triller Ave.), 416-534-6700, localkitchen.ca.

Pile it on: A mountain garbage continues to grow at the Christie Pits dumping site (Photo by Martin Reis)

Restaurant owners aren’t exactly singing “Solidarity Forever” these days. With such services as garbage collection and permit processing halted during the city worker strike, restaurateurs are getting increasingly frustrated. Carmine Accogli, chef-owner of The Big Ragu, is fuming after contending with lineups at temporary garbage transfer stations. “Other than the city worker’s contentious behaviour regarding what’s right for them and disregarding the rights of everyone else, they’re not offering us much—except filth in the streets,” he says. “Summerlicious this year is going to stink.” And he means that literally.

Big players, such as the Royal York Hotel and the Oliver and Bonacini restaurants, regularly use private garbage contractors, and are thus untouched by the strike. However, it’s affecting small business operators like Greg Bolton of Pantry. “It’s a lot of extra work to do this myself, and if I’m not mistaken, I’ve already paid for it,” he says. “Or wait, are we getting a rebate on our taxes for the duration of the strike?”

Garbage collection isn’t the only issue. New restaurant permits aren’t being processed, which has delayed the opening of a few establishments. Michael Sangregorio was hoping his new Local Kitchen and Wine Bar in Parkdale would be up and running, but he filed his application the day of the walkout. “The strike is hindering small business,” he says. “Our city is already broke, we’re knee-deep in a recession, property taxes are rising, and thousands of Torontonians have lost their jobs. At a time like this, our city should be encouraging small businesses to open.”

Not all small businesses are suffering. As in any crisis, there are those who have found a silver lining. Bill Hennessey sees opportunity amid the trash. “When I heard of the strike, I asked: how can I capitalize off this? I had recently looked at acquiring a recycling business, so I had a bit of background on how disposal works,” explains Hennessey. He and his brother Bobby got to work and rapidly opened Strike Garbage, offering restaurant owners and residents same-day garbage pickup for $10 a bag (with a $50 minimum). “We legally dispose of all garbage,” he says, pointing out that “customers could choose the other option: wait hours at a transfer station where they let one customer dispose a maximum of four bags every 15 minutes.”