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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. Words and images by Renée Suen

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The Dish

TV Diner

June 1, 2011 | 10:34 am

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Top Chef Canada: season two casting call

Although we’re only halfway through season one of Top Chef Canada, it looks like Food Network Canada has already decided to sign the show for a second season. This week on the FoodNetwork.ca blog, a casting call appeared for “passionate, knowledgable, skilled chefs who have the ability to compete with the best of the best.” The 20-page application asks prospective Top Chefs to create a five-minute audition tape and answer a seven-page personality quiz, but there isn’t much time, since applications are due by June 22, 2011 at 6 p.m.

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The Dish

Deathwatch

April 21, 2011 | 6:12 pm

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It’s official: Duggan’s Brewery has served its last pint

(Image: Danielle Scott)

Not long ago, it seemed as though brew and gastropubs were on the rise in Toronto, but a couple of recent closures are giving us pause. While My Place’s failure might be attributed to its west end location and size, many are shocked to hear that downtown brew pub Duggan’s Brewery has also shut its doors.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition

April 20, 2011 | 9:11 am

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The sipper club: meet the city’s competitive cabal of top sommeliers

Will Predhomme belongs to a competitive cabal of top sommeliers who sniff, sip and spit their way through hundreds of bottles a week. They do this to help you decide what to drink with your dinner, while making you think it was your idea all along
By Jason McBride | Photography by Sandy Nicholson

One hundred and fifty-one people have reservations at Canoe tonight. Among these are many Bay Streeters, a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, dozens of people on dates, including the bar manager from Crush, and a young woman who plans to propose to her boyfriend over dinner. The two private dining rooms are fully booked.

Canoe, part of the ever-expanding Oliver and Bonacini empire, is routinely considered one of the finest restaurants in the city. Last summer, in a rigorous competition held by the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, known as CAPS, Canoe’s head sommelier, Will Predhomme, was proclaimed Ontario’s best. Predhomme has devoted a third of his life—he’s 29—to wine scholarship. He now knows more about wine than almost anyone in Toronto.

Just after 5 p.m., the bar area begins to fill up with commuters sipping cocktails as they wait for the traffic on the clogged Gardiner, 54 floors below, to dissipate. One of the restaurant’s first guests, a retired trial lawyer, arrives. As a young female host escorts him to his large corner table, he puts an arm around her shoulder. “I don’t like to pay bills,” he says. “I want a fucking account. Last time I was here, I offered those ladies”—referring to the hosts who greeted him at his last visit—“$300 and told them to set up an account for me. And I still don’t have one.” He and his three dining companions, Canoe regulars, have brought in several bottles of their own wine, including a cabernet franc from the ex-lawyer’s private vineyard in Tuscany. When Predhomme arrives at the table to discuss the wine, the ex-lawyer, captivatingly bratty in a way that only the rich and sort-of-powerful can be, repeats his complaint. “Look, I spend about $50,000 a year at Bymark, and I’d do the same here if I had a fucking account.” Predhomme is unmoved, but gracious. “If you give me your contact information,” he says, “I’ll make sure that it gets to the right people.”

“You’ll get me an account?”

“I’ll look into it.”

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The Dish

Weekly Lunch Pick

March 14, 2011 | 8:40 am

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Weekly Lunch Pick: a sumptuous tart with an earthy soup

The prix fixe at Biff’s: a parsnip and pork soup with a caramelized onion and anchovy tartlet (Image: Matthew Fox)

A favourite with financial district suits, Biff’s combines bistro decor—art nouveau posters, yellow walls, black and white photos, a large silver-framed mirror—with the Oliver and Bonacini group’s trademark polish. We go for the prix fixe: an onion and anchovy tartlet with a parsnip and pork soup.

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The Dish

Opening

February 24, 2011 | 4:10 pm

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Introducing: Canoe, the Oliver and Bonacini flagship revamped

(Image: Renée Suen)

After 16 years at the top, Canoe, one of the city’s culinary beacons, closed its doors on New Year’s Day for a renovation. Unlike most restaurants, they actually completed it on schedule. Although we previewed Canoe’s overhauled space during its Winterlicious opening, the Oliver and Bonacini flagship officially relaunched last week with a completed dining room and revamped menu, so we thought we’d take a closer look.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

February 3, 2011 | 4:55 pm

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The fate of legendary table 26 and other tales from Canoe’s reopening

Once upon a wine list (Image: Matthew Fox)

On Tuesday, we found ourselves sitting at the chef’s rail at Canoe for the second night of the Oliver and Bonacini joint’s grand reopening (check out our peek at the renovated space). Executive chef Anthony Walsh stood nearby marvelling at the general lack of chaos, and we asked him how the opening was going. Sure, minor elements of the $1-million renovation remained incomplete—baseboards weren’t finished, soapstone counters weren’t treated—but all in all, Walsh told us, things were running smoothly. The biggest challenge for staff, he said, was the installation of a new, more efficient computer system (which resulted in a few servers huddling over monitors trying to figure out how to process gift cards).

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

February 2, 2011 | 1:18 pm

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Empire watch: Oliver and Bonacini to open new restaurant at The Bay’s Queen Street flagship

The experience of eating at The Bay is about to get a whole lot snazzier. Canada’s oldest corporation is bringing in restaurateurs Peter Oliver and Michael Bonacini to open new in-store eateries at various locations (the Bay’s existing restaurants will get revamped by another food services company). Much like she did by re-opening The Room last year, HBC CEO Bonnie Brooks is bringing in the proprietors of Biff’s and Canoe as a part of her efforts to nudge the retailer upmarket.

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The Dish

De-licious

January 4, 2011 | 4:15 am

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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).

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The Dish

De-licious

December 21, 2010 | 1:51 pm

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12 best bets for Winterlicious 2011: our chief critic goes through the menus so you don’t have to

A steak dinner at Noce (Image: Renée Suen)

Big-spending downtown Torontonians have taken in the past few years to whining about Winterlicious, but the two-week dining festival, running from January 28 through February 10, remains popular for a reason: it offers great value, particularly if you choose your reservations well. Here are a dozen of Toronto Life’s best bets. They’re older, more established places, generally, with kitchens that clearly care. And though we haven’t yet tasted the restaurants’ 2011 Winterlicious menus, they’re full of interesting, delicious-sounding picks.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

December 10, 2010 | 3:45 pm

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More Canadiana! The inside details on Canoe’s forthcoming make-over

Fourteen years after first opening, Canoe is closing its door to undertake a major renovation starting New Year’s Day. The million-dollar revamp, which partner Michael Bonacini calls “a 30-day extravaganza,” will include top-to-bottom redecoration, Canadiana accents and a fresh menu. “We need to continue to reinvent to keep Canoe pointed true north,” says Bonacini, “and, of course, afloat.”

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

September 13, 2010 | 3:17 pm

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TIFF PHOTO GALLERY: Peek inside TIFF’s new home, the Bell Lightbox

“Why are we here?” a young child asks his mother inside the freshly opened Bell Lightbox. What a poignant question. We had been here at the TIFF Bell Lightbox opening party since 11 a.m., wondering the same thing. Certainly, it wasn’t to see film celebrities—the Reitmans, after whom this part of town is now named, attended the ribbon cutting—and it wasn’t to see TIFF volunteers blowing bubbles with impunity outside, or the striking Hyatt employees playing drums on overturned buckets. What about the Taste of the Danforth–esque food tents on King Street? The too Canadian music lineup that included The Sadies and K’naan? The bouncy castle that we were, unfortunately, too tall to enjoy? No, no, no.

“It’s a new building,” the mother answered, “and we’re here to see what it’s like.” Ah, yes. The Bell Lightbox. Here is what it’s like.

: Local baker Madeleines created this Lightbox replica out of cake (Photo by Jag Gundu/Getty Images)

: Atom Egoyan’s 8 1/2 screens at the TIFF Bell Lightbox opening (Image: Jon Sufrin)

: Looking up in the main hall of the TIFF Bell Lightbox (Image: Jon Sufrin)

: The exterior of he TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street West (Image: Jon Sufrin)

: Looking up in the main hall of the TIFF Bell Lightbox (Image: Jon Sufrin)

: K’naan performs outdoors at the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: K’naan performs outdoors at the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: K’naan performs outdoors at the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: K’naan performs outdoors at the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: An unidentified Stormtrooper near the Bell Lightbox threatens Boba Fett, who calls for ransom money (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: Rocking face paint at the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

: The Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz showed up for the Bell Lightbox block party (Image: Stefania Yarhi)

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

September 3, 2010 | 11:38 am

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Where to get a TIFF drink: the film festival’s 44 spots with 4 a.m. licences

The arrival of TIFF always demands answers to three crucial questions: which celebs are coming to town, what are the best flicks to see, and where can we get inebriated at ungodly hours of the night? The first two we’ve taken care of here and here, and now we have the nearly complete list of venues with extended hours for TIFF. The news is good: last year, around 25 bars and restaurants were approved for extended hours; this year, about 44 will be serving late. The selection is more varied, and with spots like Gabby’s and Hey Lucy on the list, it’s decidedly more casual. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario tells us that the list could expand as more venues get last-minute approval. Here, the 44 bars officially licensed to stay open until 4 a.m. »

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The Dish

Opening

July 28, 2010 | 10:42 am

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O&B reveals the names of its Lightbox restos

Oliver and Bonacini thinks inside the Box (Image: Bell Lightbox)

What a coincidence: Oliver and Bonacini put out a press release about its new Lightbox restaurants just as TIFF published its list of 50 special presentations.

First things first: we finally have the names of the two restaurants. The 3,500-square-foot bistro right at the building’s main entrance at King and John is called O&B Canteen and will open mid-August, serving meals from breakfast to late-night seven days a week. It will seat 90 people inside (banquettes and a communal table) and 70 on the patio.

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

July 26, 2010 | 1:19 pm

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Opening soon: a peek inside the Bell Lightbox, TIFF’s new home

The Lightbox lobby. Now picture it filled with celebs (Image: Karon Liu)

With less than two months to the Bell Lightbox’s grand unveiling, we put on our hard hats and rubber boots Friday to see how far TIFF’s new home has come since we last saw it a year ago.

Noah Cowan, the Lightbox’s artistic director and former TIFF co-director, guided us through the main entrance at King and John, where celebrities will walk down a black granite path (it will serve as the red carpet area) with enough space for media lines on either side. To the right of the entrance will be a shop stocked with all things-film related (“not unlike a museum gift shop,” says Cowan) and to the left will be a casual marketplace-style restaurant from Oliver and Bonacini.

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