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Introducing: Winchester Kitchen and Bar, a new Cabbagetown restaurant with a storied past

Winchester’s orange-scented ricotta gnocchi ($15) (Image: Signe Langford)

“Al Capone used to sit right here.” Well, not exactly, admits Michael McRobb, co-owner—along with Anesti Tsiourantanis (Canoe, Tomi-Kro, Nota Bene)—of the Winchester Kitchen and Bar, which opened last week. “The stool is new, but this was his spot at the bar.” During the Prohibition Era, the gangster is said to have made the Winchester Hotel his home away from home—booking the whole third floor, according to McRobb—while he built his rum-running empire with Canadian rye whisky, brewed just down Parliament Street at the Gooderham and Worts distillery (now the Distillery District).

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Food Porn

March 2, 2011 | 10:57 am

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Soup’s on: a gallery of Toronto’s 13 most comforting (and beautiful) bowls

With frigid winter slowly giving way to soggy spring, the best way to keep warm remains to tuck into hearty broths, soups and stews. And while they appear on almost every menu, only a few rise above the ordinary. Here are thirteen feasts for the eyes, nose and stomach that melt our soup-loving hearts.

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: Chef David Lee tweaks an old favourite with this pretty starter. A mouth-watering and intense smoked chicken broth is dusted with sweet goji berries, moist shredded meat and a potpourri of edible flowers, coriander and sliced gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Tear-shaped pasta in pale browns and greens sit like pebbles at the base of the eye-catching broth, while lime and chili provide the namesake flavours.
$10.

: A specialty of this Cabbagetown gem is the khao soi: lean braised beef and egg noodles nestled in a rich yellow curry made of chicken stock and coconut milk. While the beef’s star anise and cinnamon marinade gives the protein character, it is the textural contrast between the crisp mountain of fried egg noodles and the gravy-soaked noodle bed that has our mouths singing. A squirt of lime juice brightens the thick stew and lightens the palate.
$10.25

: Chef Teo Paul’s take on the classic tomato soup may be inspired by childhood memories of Campbell’s condensed soup, but his is looser and more refined. Slightly tart canned tomatoes are combined with sweet onions, garlic and a touch of salt before being puréed and strained. A drizzle of olive oil finishes the ultra-smooth soup, which is accompanied by wedges of buttery grilled cheese, made with Harbord Bakery challah and P.E.I. cheddar.
$8 at lunch, $9 at dinner

: Frank’s house-made and season-conscious soups rotate frequently, but a perennial favourite is chef de cuisine Martha Wright’s parsnip with apple chutney. Sweet pears, parsnips and onions are cooked, puréed and sieved to create a velvety, dairy-free soup base; its neutral palette contrasts with a delightful mix of caramelized onions, apples, golden raisins and dried cranberries. The completely vegetarian soup is finished with a touch of cream (which can be left out for vegans), and served with a pappadum rosette—a nod to the AGO’s current Maharaja exhibition.
$9

: The Han brothers’ signature dish is a two-part DIY affair that’s as fun as it is delicious. Named for the sound made by dragging paper-thin slices of beef or seafood and market fresh vegetables—shimeji, enoki and king oyster mushrooms, zucchini, napa cabbage, Shanghai and baby bok choy—through hot beef bone broth, the dish is cooked on a tabletop burner and served with homemade sauces, including a zingy lemon-ginger soy sauce spiked with pineapple-juice mustard. Diners end the meal by cooking homemade potato-starch noodles or sesame oil–spiked jook (a risotto-like porridge made with short-grain rice and an egg) in the broth left in brass pot.
$15-$20 at lunch, $25-$30 at dinner

: This chef’s special is also known as #177, but the mì quảng would be just as delicious by any other name. Ample curls of pork, parboiled shrimp and tangles of soft egg noodles swim in a complex turmeric-stained pork bone soup. Sweet golden-fried shallots, crushed peanuts and thick sesame seed rice crackers provide crunch, while fistfuls of sliced green and white onion add kick.
$8

: One-bowl meals are the stock-in-trade of this Entertainment District mainstay. Expert saucier Ravi Kanagarajah, best known for his innovative soups, infuses the traditional belly-warming corn chowder with hints of ginger and Thai curry paste. The creamless, nut-free and vegetable stock–based soup is finished to order with a tumble of fresh shredded crab meat, crisp fried shallots and Thai basil, then sided by a flaky warm cheddar biscuit.
$8.99

: This traditional Korean stew is available at four spice levels and served in a cast iron shell that ensures the contents stay hot. A raw egg is cracked and left to poach in a kimchee-laced broth, with a single small shrimp and clam frolicking in the bubbling waves. Stir the pot to find creamy heaps of silken tofu hidden below the soup’s chilli oil–slicked surface. An assortment of side dishes joins a stone bowl of steamed rice to complete this cheap and filling feast.
$6.95

: Chef Scott Woods’s version of the cheese-laden classic is anything but standard. Silky duck consommé is fortified with Shaoxing wine, sherry, sweet roasted garlic and onions, then poured tableside over rich duck-leg confit, julienned cured duck breast and gizzards. Meanwhile, a veal jus–brushed sourdough chip acts as a golden raft that keeps crisp fried leeks and an aged cheese tuile dry. A creamy slice of foie gras, Thunder Oak gouda froth and a blistered cipollini onion add body and nutty depth to the savoury broth. The full-bodied soup is a cacophony of textures, but harmonious in flavour, brimming with mouth-watering aromas and great visual appeal. It’s even better with a glass of Riesling.
$12

: Everybody’s tutti matti (crazy, that is) about Chef Alida Solomon’s no-fuss, hearty ribollita. The soup is made from organic Tuscan black winter cabbage and mirepoix sourced from Holland Marsh, as well as creamy cannellini beans, and is thickened by bread and potato. Its name refers to its reboiled nature, which builds upon a mother soup over a 3–4 day period. The rosemary and thyme–finished ribollita is ladled over thick slices of grilled garlic–rubbed sourdough miche from Fred’s Bread, then christened with raw red onions and a healthy drizzle of olive oil.
Part of the $15 prix fixe lunch menu, $12 at dinner.

: The secret to this popular hot course is in its preparation: Chef Luis Valenzuela sautés mirepoix with garlic in chorizo fat before adding chestnuts, chestnut water, cumin and a hint of tomato paste. All the familiar flavours of the thick peasant soup are retained, but enriched with the locally made chorizo and chunks of roasted chestnuts. The result is uncommonly aromatic and comforting.
$8

: This Leslieville haunt is known for a flavourful beef noodle soup from Huế, Vietnam’s imperial capital, that bathes round rice noodles and shaved rare sirloin beef. Here, beef broth is enriched by stir-fried lemongrass, ginger, star anise and a scoop of pungent shrimp paste. The result is a light, yet satisfying, one-bowl meal that is topped with cilantro, green onions and Vietnamese basil. Bean sprouts and lime may be added to taste.
$9.50

: One glance is all you need to see that the split pea soup is one of the more popular items at this North York institution—there’s a bowl on nearly every table. The humble milk- and meat-free soup is thickened by green split peas and laced with parsley and sweet feathery dill. Strands of egg noodles float amongst diced carrots, celery and onion in this simple and crowd-pleasing number.
$3.99

The Dish

De-licious

January 26, 2011 | 5:08 pm

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Alternalicious: a roundup of this year’s Winterlicious rebels

Few subjects are as divisive among Toronto diners and industry people as the merits of Summer- and Winterlicious. While the biannual culinary event may help restaurants fill empty tables during an otherwise slow season, as we’ve explored before, participation in the city-run festival can have its limitations (dining rooms filled with stingy tippers, owners bound by the city’s rules). As in previous years, a number of restaurants have decided to strike out on their own with prix fixe specials.

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From the Print Edition

January 13, 2011 | 9:04 am

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Good Stuff Cheap: nine of the city’s best foods for under $6

A few bucks won’t fulfill your caviar dreams—if it does, you need to dream bigger—but it’s possible to taste the best of the city’s food for next to nothing

Inventively flavoured macaroons are perfectly pillowy treats worthy of a patisserie in Saint-Germain-des-Près. $2.10 each. Nadege, 780 Queen St. W., 416-368-2009.

Coleslaw delivers creamy crunch with a kick (even better as a topping on the pulled pork sandwich). $4. The Stockyards, 699 St. Clair Ave. W., 416-658-9666.

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From the Print Edition

December 15, 2010 | 9:06 am

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Toronto’s five best steak frites

The world’s most perfect meat-and-potatoes pairing is a bistro classic. Here, the city’s top five steak frites. By Rob Mifsud

1. Nota Bene’s Cumbrae Farms steak
The rub (thyme, rosemary, balsamic and olive oil) offsets the complex, almost gamy flavours of an incredible strip loin nurtured by 60 days of dry aging. Flesh so tender it parts at the nudge of a knife contrasts with the snap of lustily salted frites. $45. 180 Queen St. W., 416-977-6400.

2. Jacobs and Co. Alberta rib-eye
Toronto’s best steak house doesn’t serve steak frites, per se, but sumptuously marbled and aged High River Hereford beef ($50). The rib-eye deserves an equally extravagant partner, in this case a side order of tarragon-showered duck-fat fries ($12) that mingles the earthiness of the potatoes with the musk of the deep-fryer. 12 Brant St., 416-366-0200.

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Restauran-TO

November 19, 2010 | 8:47 am

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When it comes to making restaurant reservations, is OpenTable a friend or foe?

From a customer’s perspective, OpenTable might seem like the perfect dovetailing of the Internet and dining: restaurant reservations are made and confirmed instantly. There’s no favouritism, waiting for a return e-mail or negotiating with front-of-house staffers. Lots of restaurants use it (290 in Toronto alone), and, perhaps best of all, it’s free. For all that convenience, restaurant owners foot the bill.

That’s where the problem comes in for Mark Pastore. He’s the chef at San Fransisco’s famous Incanto restaurant. In an eloquent, if long-winded, indictment of the service posted on his eatery’s Web site last month, Pastore notes that OpenTable’s fees are exorbitant. “OpenTable is out for itself, the worst business partner I have ever worked with in all my years in restaurants,” one anonymous restaurateur from NYC told him. “If I could find a way to eliminate it from my restaurants, I would.”

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

November 8, 2010 | 8:19 am

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Weekly Lunch Pick: the soft shell crab BLT at Nota Bene

Former Splendido mastermind David Lee named his restaurant after the Latin for “take note”—and this BLT is one of many reasons to do just that. The classic lunch sandwich more than lives up to its acronym: crisp bacon, fresh greens, lemon-herb mayo and plum tomatoes as red as they are flavourful are nestled between toasted slices of toasted white Epi Bread. Lee ups the ante by stuffing it full of crispy, deep-fried, chipotle-zinged soft-shell crab. With a few house-made potato chips and gherkins, the deli staple becomes a lunchtime luxury.
The cost: $33, including tax and tip.
The time: 55 minutes, with our food arriving in less than 15 minutes.
Nota Bene, 180 Queen St. W., 416-977-6400,
notabenerestaurant.com.

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From the Print Edition

August 4, 2010 | 12:08 pm

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Best of the City 2010: 14 picks for the top food in Toronto

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

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Restauran-TO

July 20, 2010 | 1:16 pm

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Canoe, Nota Bene and Splendido named go-to restaurants for golfers

Tasty triptych: Canoe, scallops at Splendido, Nota Bene

The RBC Canadian Open rolled into town yesterday, bringing with it such golf heavyweights as Mike Weir, Luke Donald and Paul Casey. Instead of chasing the pros along the St. George’s Golf Club fairway, a better way to spot celeb swingers (that’s not a Tiger Woods joke; he’s not playing) might be to check out the restaurants the PGA Tour has predictably recommended on its Web site. Perennial favourite Canoe, Queen West’s Nota Bene and Harbord fixture Splendido all received top ratings from the PGA Tour’s Travel section. Local fare seems to be the basis for recommendation, as all of them offer quality seafood dishes and Canadian specialties.

• Tour Life Travel, Destination: Toronto [PGA]

(Images: Canoe, Matthew Fox; scallops, Renée Suen; Nota Bene, PJ Mixer)

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Aprons & Icons

June 15, 2010 | 2:52 pm

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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 20^th 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 Dish

From the Print Edition

May 3, 2010 | 2:23 pm

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The Rebirth of Booze

At the hottest restaurants, cocktails are as sophisticated as the food. Bartenders are playing with liquid nitrogen, concocting infusions, and changing the way we drink. It’s the most exciting gastronomic development in years By James Chatto

Smoke and firewater: Barchef, on Queen West, serves a $45 haute manhattan, a mix of whisky, vanilla cognac and bitters that arrives in a bell jar filled with hickory smoke (Image: Finn O'Hara)

There are only two kinds of cocktails—those that are dead and those that are alive—and the only way to tell them apart is to taste them. A dead drink is at best two-dimensional, merely a mixture of liquids; a living cocktail is full of motion as its flavours unfold on the palate. It’s like the difference between a paint-by-numbers canvas and a true work of art. And in this city, the dead outnumber the living by about a thousand to one.

But not for long, thanks to a handful of determined pioneers. Frankie Solarik at Barchef, Moses McIntee at Ame, Jen Agg at the Black Hoof and Bill Sweete at Sidecar make up the new avant-garde, along with Christine Sismondo, the author of the influential book Mondo Cocktail, who is opening her own place on College Street in July, wryly called the Toronto Temperance Society. Each one has a different view of what constitutes a great cocktail, but they all share a single belief: it’s high time the age of the crantini was over.

The most extreme place to observe this revolution is Barchef, the dimly lit temple of mixology on Queen West where Frankie Solarik is the celebrant. Tall, slim and bearded, wearing a black porkpie hat, he works behind a bar crowded with more than 30 spiced infusions and subtle elixirs in various flasks and jars. I’ve never seen such a set-up—like an alchemist’s laboratory, complete with the molecular foams, flavoured airs and gelatinous transubstantiations that are Solarik’s specialty. His masterpiece is a smoked vanilla manhattan, a $45 cocktail set in a bell jar filled with hickory smoke until it smells like a campfire and tastes like heaven.

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Restauran-TO

January 28, 2010 | 11:45 am

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Five 2010 trends to watch: we ask Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Walsh, David Lee and other chefs what to look for in the coming year

Bespoke bread from Marc Thuet (Photo by Renée Suen)

It’s no secret that 2009 was rough for restaurants—“It’s a year a lot of restaurateurs are happy to see go,” says C5’s Ted Corrado—but with the new year almost a month old, optimism is back on the table. We talked to some of the city’s top chefs about five culinary trends for the coming year.

1. Less Is More
Small, chef-run restaurants that are down-to-earth in both atmosphere and culinary style. Chef Jamie Kennedy, who’s focusing on the Gilead Bistro, a decidedly more casual restaurant than the Wine Bar he sold last fall, anticipates more “chef-driven” spots like J.P. Challet’s Ici Bistro and Grant van Gameren’s Black Hoof. Claudio Aprile, who’s working on his second restaurant, Origin, agrees: “I’m hoping that we see a lot more restaurants that are open kitchen, 30 seats, three line cooks.”

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Bottoms Up

November 23, 2009 | 12:59 pm

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Toward a better booze-scape: seven egg-infused creations boost Toronto’s cocktail comeback

For years, Torontonians returning from Chicago and New York brought tales of their cocktail adventures—stories typically followed by complaints about the dismal state of mixed drinks in their hometown. Well, that’s in the process of changing. Professional mixologists are increasingly common at bars and restaurants in this city, and they have been leading something of a cocktail comeback. Such Gatsby-era classics as flips, fizzes and sours are popping up everywhere, and crafty bartenders have revived the use of eggs to froth up these bold creations. We decided to look into the practice and found some of the city’s more inspired egg-infused cocktails.

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Aprons & Icons

November 20, 2009 | 5:06 pm

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David Lee and his chicken cartilage take home top honours at the Toronto edition of Gold Medal Plates

Crisp chicken skin and chicken cartilage: David Lee's winning dish at the Toronto edition of Gold Medal Plates

The bar was raised mighty high last night for the city’s haute cuisine scene with a head-to-head cook-off between some of Toronto’s most dazzling chefs. Mark McEwan (Bymark, One), Jason Bangerter (Auberge du Pommier), John Kwan (Lai Toh Heen) and seven other star cuisiniers battled it out at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the Toronto title of Gold Medal Plates—a national fundraiser for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic Athletes. Held in seven cities across the country, Gold Medal Plates selects, by jury, each city’s top chefs, then asks them to create a medal-worthy meal. With plating assistance from Olympians (like dishy rower Adam Kreek), the meals are then judged by a panel of tough-to-please palates, which included food writer James Chatto (who is also GMP’s National Culinary Advisor) and last year’s Toronto winner, chef Patrick Lin.

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Restauran-TO

October 28, 2009 | 11:40 am

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Toronto scores two deserved, but predictable, spots in enRoute’s 2009 best restaurant ranking

(Courtesy of enRoute)

Anyone who has spent hours sitting on a delayed Air Canada jet (an astronomical number of people, to be sure) is familiar with the airline’s boredom-thwarting magazine enRoute and its annual countrywide search for the best new restaurants. The 2009 choices were announced this morning, and the Toronto entries, while not surprising, reflect the kind of eating we’ve come to appreciate in a year riddled with closings, cutbacks and comfort food.

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