By Signe Langford | Photographs by Kevin Hewitt

On November 30, councillors Joe Mihevc and Mary-Margaret McMahon took on the considerable challenge of trying to overturn nearly three decades of city hall opposition to backyard hens. They didn’t quite succeed. (Their motion to study the issue was referred to the municipal licensing and standards committee for consideration in February.) With his trademark zeal for kindergarten humour, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti opined, “Now we’re going to have thousands of chickens crossing the road and we’re going to have neighbours fighting against neighbours because they don’t want to hit the chickens.” But what Mammoliti and his ilk don’t understand is that urban hen keeping didn’t really go away when it was outlawed in 1983. It just went underground—into garages, sheds and secluded corners of backyards. The hopes of these renegade urban hen keepers are now running high, riding Toronto’s ever-growing wave of locavorism. Here, nine of those rebels, who break the law every day, talk about that other love that dare not speak its name: that between man and hen.

First up, Jill and Sunshine »

While we’re busy teaching our kids to tend school gardens, they’re failing provincial tests in reading, writing and math. The folly of the new enviro-propaganda

(Illustration: Tavis Coburn)

This fall, hundreds of Toronto students are harvesting beets and zucchini from their school gardens. I say: nice photo op, bad idea. The argument for school gardens assumes that by grubbing in the dirt, kids will learn to love eating vegetables. They won’t think chickens hatch into this world as deep-fried nuggets. And they’ll develop a respect for nature.

Here’s the counter-argument: our students shouldn’t be out scrabbling in the hot sun when one in five can’t pass the Grade 10 literacy test administered by the provincially funded Education Quality and Accountability Office. And while Canadian students score high internationally in reading, mathematics and the sciences, Statistics Canada says our relative ranking is declining due to improved performance by other countries. In this era of global competition, we can’t afford to let other nations nip at our heels.

Half of Toronto’s population was born outside Canada, and it’s a safe bet many of them came here for a better life, including a good education for their offspring. A lot of immigrants originate from agrarian regions of countries such as India, Pakistan, China and the Philippines. The last thing these newcomers need is a morality crusade about carrots. Yet more than 200 of Toronto’s nearly 600 public schools now have gardens, and an army of well-meaning parents, volunteers, activists and advocacy organizations with a social agenda is successfully lobbying for more.

The schools I’ve visited tell me that growing your own food is worthy, wholesome and educational. That’s what Chairman Mao said when he shipped millions of Chinese youth to the countryside—and abandoned them there. I know whereof I speak. I moved to China in 1972, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. As a third-generation Canadian, I didn’t speak Chinese. I knew only what my profs at McGill University had taught me: that China was a revolutionary utopia.

At Beijing University, where I studied Mandarin and Chinese history, I enthusiastically embraced Maoism, including the precept that students must “reform” their wayward thinking through physical labour. It was, to put it delicately, horticultural hell. My classmates and I harvested wheat and hauled pig manure and dug ditches. At one point, we marched 20 kilometres to a farm, where we tilled the land for nearly a year. It being the silly ’70s, McGill gave me full credit toward my Asian history degree, and I graduated on schedule. Intensive farm work, however, vaporized my Chinese classmates’ one precious chance at an education. Today, they’re called China’s Lost Generation.

Mao’s agrarian fantasy and the Cultural Revolution sputtered to an end with the Great Helmsman’s death in 1976. China immediately relaunched its vaunted education system, with rigour. This past year, Shanghai beat the rest of the world in reading, math and science in standardized tests managed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

So it’s alarmingly déjà vu to see the gardening campaign underway at so many Toronto schools, both public and private, even if it’s a far more touchy-feely version. Toronto Waldorf School, where tuition and fees exceed $16,000 a year in the higher grades, is an enthusiastic proponent of whole-earth education. It has a chicken coop, a few goats and a $150,000 organic greenhouse that recycles grey water. A farming and gardening program, centered on its three-acre teaching garden, is an integrated part of the curriculum from Grade 3 through Grade 9. Ninth graders spend three weeks living and working on organic farms, some as far away as Europe.

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Baguette Pasta Fad Hot Sauce Lobster reinvented Carnivore cure Roast chicken Devilled eggs Patio for dessert

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Lobster reinvented
Toca
181 Wellington St. W., 416-585-2500
Lobster’s great and all when it’s done in the usual high-end ways, but it’s rarely better than when it turns up in humbler dishes, like the Fancy Fish and Chips at Toca, in the new Ritz-Carlton hotel. The “fish” in the dish is sweet, meaty, perfectly cooked lobster chunks wrapped in hot, light, golden, mouthgasmically crunchy tempura beer batter. Sure, it’s fancy lobster. But the best thing about it is that it’s also not. $21 for a small, $32 for large.

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(Image: Liam Mogan)

Patio chair Camera Axe Reclaimed wood furniture Vintage Curios Fresh-cut flowers Guilt-free makeup Soil for a veggie garden Kids’ furniture Kids’ sheets Gold faucet

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Patio chair
INabstracto
1160 Queen St. W., 416-533-6362
The Solair chair is a lucky beneficiary of Toronto’s fascination with all things retro. Originally designed in Montreal by Fabio Fabiano and Michelange Panzini, it was a product of Quebec’s Expo 67 triumphalism and went on to populate motel patios up and down the Eastern Seaboard in the ’70s before going out of fashion. Two years ago, Queen West furniture store INabstracto staged a resurrection, and now you’ll find Solairs sitting ironically on Parkdale porches. Bruce Mau recently bought 10. Their bright colours and inviting dimple seat make it easy to see why they have a permanent spot in the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and why a few more around town wouldn’t be a bad thing. $129.

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)

Camera
Henry’s
119 Church St., 416-941-0579
Everyone has a sanctimonious friend who only shoots pictures on film with her dad’s Pentax—because, she claims, the image quality is better. This is bullshit. The current crop of digital cameras take phenomenally good pictures. What they lack is character. Enter the Fujifilm Fine Pix X100. Designed to look like that old Pentax, the X100 features solid metal construction with a grippy plastic shell. More importantly, the aperture can be adjusted directly on the lens mount, which means no more fumbling with buttons on the back. $1,200.

(Image: Liam Mogan)

Axe
Lee Valley Tools
590 King St. W., 416-366-5959 (plus two other locations)
Nothing about the urban woodsman trend is functional: toques and work boots in the summer, clanking keys on belt loops, plaid. But that doesn’t mean devotees shouldn’t be ready to chop some wood (they’re probably already wearing regulation-size safety glasses). For the loft-living lumberjack, there’s the Gränsfors Bruks axe, Lee Valley Tools’ finest specimen for wood chopping, splitting and carving and recreational hatchet throwing. Handmade in Sweden out of steel and oiled hickory, Gränsfors axes are perfectly balanced and ready for anything—whether that’s hanging over the fireplace, perching gracefully beside a box of President’s Choice pre-wrapped fire logs, or, you know, actually being used. Plus, each Gränsfors axe comes with a 20-year guarantee. It’s a tough world out there, and one can never be too prepared. From $111.

(Image: Liam Mogan)

Fresh-cut flowers
Sweetpea’s
163 Roncesvalles Ave., 416-537-3700
When Sara Jameson ditched her marketing job to open her Roncesvalles landscaping business in 2009, she was instantly inundated with clients, drawn by her commitment to power tool–free garden maintenance. That success has followed her to Sweetpea’s, her new Roncey flower shop, which opened last September and brings with it the same eco-friendly attitude that made her landscaping company a hit. She still spends much of her time in muddy steel-toe boots building clients’ gardens by hand, leaving the shop to two full-time florists. Jameson’s mom, a master gardener, even comes in a few times a week to answer customers’ gardening questions. Walk-ins love the posies—small, densely packed bouquets that look far too delicately arranged for the $10 price tag. The store buys direct from area growers and also sources from the Ontario Flower Growers Co-Operative, so nearly every petal is fresh and local.

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C5’s Summerlicious spread (Images: Andrew Brudz)

On the fifth floor of the ROM’s Michael Lee Chin Crystal is C5, the museum’s fine dining restaurant, which boasts a sharp dining room and stunning views of the city. Executive chef Ted Corrado (who worked his way through George, Luce and Rain) serves inventive dishes that highlight local and sustainable ingredients, and his decidedly rustic $25 Summerlicious lunch menu is no exception. After a slightly dry albacore tuna salad with mango and mint, our main arrives: a hefty slice of grilled pork shoulder, with lots of tasty marbling, that’s resting in splashes of creamy polenta and spicy chorizo cacciatore. The excellent dessert, a summer berry shortcake, is more hearty scone than delicate cake, stuffed with rich vanilla chantilly cream and macerated cherries, strawberries, blueberries—the whole plate looking like it came straight out of a talented country kitchen.

The cost: $43, including tax, tip and a Mill St. Organic lager ($8).

The time: 50 minutes

C5, 100 Queen’s Park, 416-586-7928, c5restaurant.ca

DOWNTOWN NORTH | DOWNTOWN SOUTH | EAST | WEST | UPTOWN

(Image: Jessica Milan)

Backpacks, a natural extension of the scruffy-prep “found-this-in-the-back-of-my-closet” look, are everywhere this summer, and for good reason. The schoolyard staple is eminently practical, a bag that’s purpose-built for carrying life’s real necessities: gym clothes, organic sausages, six-packs. Knapsacks even showed up on the runway at the most recent LG Fashion Week. Branksome-girls-turned-design-darlings Chloé and Parris Gordon (Chloé Comme Parris) featured iterations so chic they could have been ripped right off Kate Moss’s bony back, and a Bay Blanket bag was the jewel of the ridiculously buzzy Klaxon Howl show. Meanwhile, Queen West’s haute hipster outposts are churning out simpler versions that are big and boxy, with subtle flourishes like exposed stitching and leather trim. The look is almost anti-fashion, which, of course, makes it even more fashionable. But what we like most is having hands-free storage space and shoulders that don’t ache at the end of a long day. Whoever said “fashion before function” needs to update their accessories.

Left, Herschel Claim, $85. Right, Duluth Scout Pack, $148. Both from The Future of Frances Watson, 1390 Queen St. W., 416-531-8892.

By David Lawrason

(Image: Jack Dylan)

California wine has always had a certain easygoing appeal, and the region’s big-ticket bottles have been a staple in collectors’ cellars for the last three decades. In my opinion, however, they’ve also suffered from excess—they’re too expensive, too candy-coated, too oaky and too hot on the finish. I get angry when I taste a $300 Napa Valley icon wine and discover it barely deserves 90 points—the quality doesn’t match the price. But a new generation of California winemakers is breaking away from tradition and working with new blends and grape varieties. Regions like Mendocino County, the Sonoma Coast and Paso Robles, which typically live in the shadow of Napa and Sonoma, are producing wine that’s more refined, better balanced and much more affordable (in the $20 to $40 range). This improvement, combined with a strong Canadian dollar, has boosted sales at the LCBO’s Vintages stores, where, for the first time ever, California wines are outselling those from Italy and France. In 2010, they brought in $70.8 million, which is a 21.5 per cent increase from 2009 and accounts for a fifth of all Vintages sales. I recently tasted several dozen of these top sellers and picked the best of the bunch.

Beringer 2008 Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
$34.95 | Knights Valley | 90 points
This popular Beringer is down in price from two years ago. It has a ripe black cherry, mocha, herb and tobacco nose. It’s dense yet supple, with tannic grip on the finish, and it’s less ostentatious in the hands of winemaker Laurie Hook. Best 2013 to 2018. Vintages. LCBO 352583

Cline 2009 Ancient Vines Mourvèdre
$18.95 | Contra Costa Country | 88 points
The Cline family owns very old Rhône variety vineyards in this less famous Bay-area enclave east of Oakland. Their mourvèdre sports a deep purple colour and blueberry pie, clove, vanilla and white chocolate aromas. It’s fragrant and a bit sweet but balanced by firm acidity and fine tannin. Vintages. LCBO 66084

La Crema 2008 Pinot Noir
$29.95 | Sonoma Coast | 90 points
Pinot noir is increasingly being planted on the Sonoma Coast, an up-and-coming cool region. This example has a bright personality with vibrant cranberry-cherry fruit amid wood spice, smoke, cinnamon and herbs. It has jump on the palate, without being overly aggressive. Vintages. LCBO 719435

Big House 2009 White
$11 | California | 87 points
This delightful blend was originally conceived by Randall Grahm, who has been pushing against California’s cabernet-chardonnay axis
for years. A choir of nine different grapes, including the floral muscat, makes for a delicious summer sipper full of pineapple, banana and star anise, with a touch of sweetness. LCBO 173286

Grgich Hills 2009 Fumé Blanc
$29.95 | Napa Valley | 91 points
Grgich (now certified biodynamic) is a classic maker of Napa whites that maintains a European sense of restraint with this barrel-aged sauvignon blanc. It’s full-bodied, firm and dry, with a lifted, complex nose of dill, avocado, pear and citrus. Excellent length. The price is down from last year. Vintages. LCBO 346296

Napa Ridge 2007 Petite Sirah
$19.95 | Napa Valley | 91 points
Petite sirah is typically too edgy and masculine for a land of easy-drinking wine, but it’s been grown under the radar in California for years. This dense, black monster has a lifted, iodine-laden, meaty and peppery nose, with floral and blueberry notes. It’s firm, tannic and laced with fruit that powers to excellent length. Vintages. LCBO 213686

Bonterra 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon
$19.95 | Mendocino County | 89 points
Bonterra is a leading organic producer in California. This one packs great complexity for $20, with clove spice, chocolate, vibrant blackcurrant and juniper notes. It’s full-bodied, dense and rugged, if not hugely concentrated. It’s young, so try aging it for a year or two. Vintages. LCBO 342428

J. Lohr 2009 Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon
$21.95 | Paso Robles | 89 points
An artful blend of 79 per cent cabernet, with just enough petite sirah (nine per cent) and petit verdot (five per cent) to soften cabernet’s green edges. It’s medium-weight, smooth and rich with ripe cherry, chocolate, tea and herbs. It exemplifies good winemaking. Best now to 2015. Vintages. LCBO 656561

Rodney Strong 2008 Chalk Hill Chardonnay
$22.95 | Sonoma County | 92 points
The opulence of California’s warm climate shines through in this chardonnay, while Sonoma’s cooler climate lends it taut minerality. It’s complex with nutty, smoky, orange, clove and vanilla aromas. Medium- to full-bodied yet anchored by firm acidity. A nicely made wine. Vintages. LCBO 275552

Scores: David Lawrason assigns scores on a 100-point scale. They reflect a wine’s overall quality. A rating of 95 to 100 is outstanding; 90 to 94 excellent; 85 to 89 very good; 80 to 84 good.

Leslieville’s recent boom in new gourmet food stores—including Foodist Market, Hooked and Sausage Partners—shows no signs of abating. The latest addition? Olive and Olives, the first Toronto location of the Montreal-based purveyor of high-quality olive oils. Danièle Beauchamp and Claudia Pharand, who run five shops and a thriving mail order business in Quebec, have partnered with Torontonian Mia Sturup to open up the Leslieville location.

The trio will be taking over a Queen East storefront that has been sitting idle for quite some time, sandwiched between Bergstrom Originals and Elbers Antiques and Refinishing. Set to open by the end of May, the shop will sell a collection of pantry staples—tapanades, stuffed olives, balsamic vinegars, hard-to-find piquillo peppers—and a few olive oil–related kitchen gadgets. But the main event will be the carefully chosen selection of small-grove, estate-bottled olive oils. Most are from Spain, the world’s largest producer, and almost all are exclusive to Olive and Olives. Pharand, who enjoys a long love affair with Spain’s olive oils, will be dropping in to offer workshops and tastings, conducted very much like wine tastings.

“Fine olive oils really are very similar to wine,” Sturup says. “When you taste the oils you can taste the variety of the fruit, how it was made, the terroir. We want to educate people about how to get the most enjoyment from the oils, how to use them in cooking, what foods the different oils go best with.” We’re told the tasting counter will be stocked with one open bottle of each for the curious to have a try.

Olive and Olives, 779 Queen St. E., www.oliveolives.com

The Sausage Partners: Lorraine, Lilly and Kyle Deming (Image: Signe Langford)

First there was the Leslieville Cheese Market, then the Foodist Market, then Hooked, and now Sausage Partners. Leslieville is rapidly becoming the east end’s go-to ’hood for gourmet food shopping, and with many of these places being run by pro chefs, it’s easy to see why. This new meat shop will open in June in the former Inspired Cook space, with Kyle Deming (head chef at Starfish and Ceili Cottage) and his wife Lorraine at the helm. “We’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time,” explains Lorraine, “but we really got the push about two years ago when we made sausages for Patrick [McMurray]’s 40th birthday. Everyone was asking, ‘Where can we buy these?’ So we just kept thinking about it and it feels like the right time now.”

The couple will be working closely with Kawartha Ecological Growers (K.E.G.), buying whole animals from the collective’s farmers and butchering them into prime cuts and sausages with clever names (Naked Pig, Smoked Naked Pig, and, for the one with offal, the Organ Grinder). “We’re not adding a ton of spices. We just want to show off the flavour of the meat,” says Lorraine. Chef Deming, who intends to keep his day jobs, will be experimenting with Mark Trealout of K.E.G. on pre-seasoning the animals. “I’m hoping to feed one pig huge amounts of Kernal Ontario peanuts and see if that enhances the flavour of the pork.”

The shop won’t just be a sausage party, however. Kyle plans to house-smoke salmon and bacon over Ontario and Newfoundland peat, as well as make haggis (the recipe a gift from Stravaigin restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland) and bake Scottish meat pies based on his grandmother’s recipe. Lorraine will be busy stocking shelves with her preserves and pickles—jams made from K.E.G. fruit and her famous Brampton Pickle, a play on the classic British Branston Pickle—many of which are already on the menu at Ceili Cottage.

The pair are also promising a fish counter selling Purdy’s Ontario lake fish, Jim Giggie’s Ocean Wise trout and sustainably farmed halibut from Nova Scotia. Game meats from Ontario Harvest, local veggies and, yes, Deming’s famous sticky toffee pudding will also be on offer.

Sausage Partners, 1378 Queen St East, 647-227-0031, sausagepartners.com.

The place: Wednesday night’s opening of John Allan’s spa for men took place at The Bay’s flagship on Queen Street (just like so many things seem to these days). Occupying a corner of the third floor, the guys-only spot offers treatments for the shopping-weary fellow. The view doesn’t offer much serenity (it looks out over people who either can’t afford a membership or don’t want one), but we still think an accessible Toronto boys club is worth celebrating. Once The Bay gets its decent restaurant, we’ll never leave.

The stuff: John Allan’s offers options from head to toe, such as the “signature full service” (scalp-massaging shampoo, conditioning treatment, hot towel, haircut, manicure, shoeshine, beverage) for $65, haircuts ($51), facials ($78), massages ($105) and shoeshines ($4). For those keen on making return visits, an annual unlimited membership goes for $720, but the first 100 early adopters get a reduced rate of $620 (at publishing time, there were only 46 spots left).

The shoppers: Club director Diane Crete notes that the 54 members acquired to date range from Style by Jury’s David Clemmer and Bruce Turner to The Bachelor’s Jesse Palmer and, most generally,“meat-and-potatoes kind of guys.”

Our favourite thing: We love the organic all-natural, fragrance-free John Allan’s products and the rotating gallery with art for sale, currently featuring Josh Chalom’s pop art series of iconoclasts broken up into tiny Rubik’s cubes. More and more, The Bay is becoming Toronto’s version of a casino, where time seems to stand still and patrons are hypnotized by the show around them.

(Illustration: Jack Dylan)

The consumer revolt against chardonnay, known as the ABC (anything but chardonnay) movement, hasn’t stopped Ontario winemakers from producing excellent chardonnays. The province’s cool climate and limestone-rich soils provide similar conditions to those in Burgundy, France—the region that put chardonnay on the map with such wines as chablis, pouilly-fuissé and meursault. As the Ontario industry and its vines mature, home-grown chardonnays are becoming truly impressive, especially the more expensive varieties that are fermented and aged in French oak. To get the word out, Ontario vintners are sending their best bottlings (as selected in a blind tasting by Ontario wine critics) abroad to wine fairs. At the first event in London last year, pundits were pleasantly surprised to discover such high-quality chardonnays from a province known mostly for icewine. The enthusiastic response prompted Ontario wineries to repeat the performance this month for Manhattan’s wine critics. Niagara will also become an international chardonnay hub this July, when it hosts a multi-winery festival in honour of the cool-climate grape. To prime your palates, we’ve selected the region’s most seductive bottles.

Cave Spring Blanc de Blancs Brut
$29.95 | Niagara Peninsula | 89 points
Chardonnay is one of the grapes in champagne, so its success in Ontario is fuelling optimism for the future
of local sparkling wine. New to the LCBO, this one is 100 per cent chardonnay, with almond, dried apple and shortbread aromas. It’s light bodied, yet gentle and built on a beam of acidity. LCBO 213983

Huff Estates 2007 South Bay Chardonnay
$29.95 | Prince Edward County | 90 points
Huff’s chardonnay won Top White Wine at the 2010 Ontario Wine Awards. Burgundy-trained winemaker Frédéric Picard has crafted a seductive, rich wine with a sumptuous nose of butterscotch, pear and cashew. It’s elegant, with limestone acidity and nutty tones on the finish. Vintages. LCBO 88955

Norman Hardie 2008 County Chardonnay
$35 | Prince Edward County | 89 points
Norman Hardie draws the old-school Burgundian minerality out of the area’s limestone-rich soils. The nose is lifted and toasty, with green chive, almond, butterscotch and dried apple. It’s light, yet mouth-wateringly stony on the finish, with terrific length. Best now to 2013. Vintages. LCBO 149054

Chateau des Charmes 2008 Chardonnay Musqué
$16.95 | Niagara Peninsula | 89 points
Musqué, the aromatic clone of chardonnay, has become a Niagara specialty. This unoaked bottling is the best of the 2008 vintage. It has lifted notes of apricot, lavender and lemon-lime. It’s medium to full bodied, juicy and intense, with great length. Surprisingly good for the price. Vintages. LCBO 640516

Inniskillin 2009 Unoaked Chardonnay
$11.95 | Niagara Peninsula | 87 points
Some winemakers try too hard to make unoaked chardonnay as complex as oaked versions. Not Innis­killin. This unoaked version is light and simple, with classic chardonnay apple fruit, plus lemon and fennel aromas. It’s crisp but not too tart, with good focus and length. It’s a good sipper. LCBO 66266

Southbrook 2008 Whimsy Chardonnay
$29.95 | Niagara-on-the-Lake | 89 points
Southbrook is a provincial leader in organically grown chardonnays. This one is big, bold and golden, with peach, cashew, butterscotch, tobacco and peat smoke aromas. It’s full bodied and aggressive (age it from one to three years), with loads of flavour. southbrook.com

Hidden Bench 2008 Estate Chardonnay
$32 | Beamsville Bench | 91 points
This is the least expensive of Hidden Bench’s just-released 2008 vintage. It’s bottle-aged for a powerful, rollicking and golden wine, with crème brûlée, toast, cashew, peach and tangerine nuances. Lush and creamy and underpinned by firm acidity, with a slightly bitter finish. hiddenbench.com

Le Clos Jordanne 2008 Le Grand Clos Chardonnay
$65 | Twenty Mile Bench | 92 points
Ontario’s most expensive chardonnay comes from Le Clos Jordanne, a winery specializing in organic pinot noir and chardonnay. The nose is complex, with layers of walnut, honey, woodsmoke, garlic and dried apple. It’s taut on the palate, with great length. Age it a couple
of years. Vintages. LCBO 34561

Tawse 2008 Robyn’s Block Vineyard Chardonnay
$41.95 | Beamsville Bench | 93 points
Named White Wine of the Year at the 2010 Canadian Wine Awards, this one comes from a 28-year-old biodynamic farm. It’s a masterpiece of integrated pear and almond notes, with mineral complexity. Outstanding length. Age it a decade. Vintages. LCBO 204982

Scores David Lawrason assigns scores on a 100-point scale. They reflect a wine’s overall quality. A rating of 95 to 100 is outstanding; 90 to 94 excellent; 85 to 89 very good; 80 to 84 good.

(Image: Signe Langford)

The Foodist Market, a new small grocery shop in Leslieville, has only been open for a few days, so it’s no surprise that many of the deep, white shelves lining the walls of this former juice bar are still bare. The shop should be fully stocked in a matter of days, but until then there are still plenty of organic goodies in store to draw the locals. Standouts include over-the-top rich and porky lonza (cured pork loin), pancetta and capicollo from Niagara Food Specialties, cheeses from Monforte, breads from nearby St. John’s Bakery, salsas and chips from Toronto’s Mad Mexican and, of course, locally grown veggies, eggs and meats. Despite these, the focus here is on organic first, local second.

Owner Dolores Golob, a resident of the area for over 18 years, got tired of waiting for someone to open an organic grocer, so she did it herself. “I’m first generation Italian Canadian, and I grew up with nothing but fresh, wonderful food,” the former nurse and clinical researcher told us. “Everything came from our garden, each fall we bought a whole pig and made our own salamis; I was making gnocchi by the time I was five!” Golob grew up in Sudbury, where her mom was a chef. “She was an amazing cook; everything was from scratch, all the pasta, everything. I still make my own pasta all the time.”

As for the store’s unusual name, Golob explains that everyone interested in food calls themselves a foodie nowadays. “I wanted a name that suggests a level of seriousness about food, like a cardiologist is a heart specialist. Well, a foodist is a food specialist!”

The Foodist Market, 1129 Queen St. E., 416-465-5221

Highland Blue, Grey Owl and Cape Vessey cheeses from Le Caveau (Image: Signe Langford)

Building on their success with chocolate and cheese lovers in the Junction, Jeff Brown and Jennifer Rashleigh, co-owners of Delight Chocolate and Junction Fromagerie, have taken their show on the road to Queen West. The husband and wife team opened up a second location of Delight last March in the two-story space that once housed the Spice Trader and the Olive Pit. Last Saturday, they opened the door to a second cheese shop, Le Caveau—only this time, it’s in the chocolate shop’s basement.

The concept is the same: all Canadian, with a focus on Ontario and Quebec artisanal cheeses from small producers, breads and charcuterie from Thuet Fine Foods, dairy from Harmony Organic and house-made preserves made from Niagara fruits. Rashleigh and Brown are keeping the look local as well, with neighbourhood artists brightening up the tiny basement space (there’s only enough room for a church pew, harvest table and two display fridges). Right now, paintings by a 13-year-old local artist, Theo Gallaro, are hanging on the walls, and come May, Le Caveau will be hosting an exhibit as part of the Contact Photography Festival. We’re guessing there probably won’t be cubes of Cracker Barrel marble cheddar at that opening.

Le Caveau, 805 Queen St. W. (at Manning Ave.), 647-349-4984.

1. Monforte Dairy Halloumi
This sheep’s milk cheese is exceptional brushed with olive oil, grilled or pan-fried, then eaten hot; the crusty exterior gives way to a squeaky-chewy interior. Available March through November at various farmers’ markets, including St. Lawrence Market North (93 Front St. E., 416-392-7120) on Saturdays. $2.50/100g.

2. Glengarry Cheesemaking’s Lankaaster Gouda
About Cheese carries this pasteurized cow’s milk cheese from Ontario. It’s mellow enough to appeal to the stink-phobic, but complex enough to charm hardcore fromageophiles. The slightly sweet paste with a semi-firm texture makes for an awesome nibble or an upscale addition to a sandwich. $6.85/100g. 483 Church St. (at Wellesley St. E.), 416-925-8659.

3. Le Bleu d’Élizabeth
This organic, raw-milk cheese from Quebec’s Fromagerie du Presbytère is available at Thin Blue Line. It combines the mild mould of roquefort with the lush creaminess of a young gorgonzola. $7.60/100g. 93 Roncesvalles Ave. (at Pearson Ave.), 416-840-6966.

4. Handmade Salt Spring Island Blue Juliette Goat Cheese
A terrific goat’s milk cheese, this tangy number has timid blue notes and a creamy, slightly oozy paste that’s perfection when slathered on a crusty baguette. Luckily, Thin Blue Line carries those, too. $13.95/200g. 93 Roncesvalles Ave. (at Pearson Ave.), 416-840-6966.

5. Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar
La Fromagerie brings in this gauze-aged cheddar from P.E.I. The nutty flavour and grainy texture evoke a Dutch beemster, but it’s still an exceptional example of the cheesemaker’s art. $5.25/100g. 868 College St. (at Concord Ave.), 416-516-4278.

6. Fifth Town’s Cape Vessey
Not for the faint of heart, the 90-day-aged goat’s milk at The Cheese Boutique is for anyone who likes a little bit of flirtatious dominatrix in their cheese. There are pungent garlic notes, the paste is firm, and the grey, slightly creamy rind contributes to the noble rot. $7/100g. 45 Ripley Ave. (at South Kingsway), 416-762-6292.

What are some of your staples?
Mostly condiments. I cook one meal a week at home, so most of the things in my fridge are snacks or condiments or beverages. I have my children on the weekends and I like to give them a really good and wholesome meal. Generally Sunday roast.

So you don’t have a fridge full of noses and tails?
The meat I get is fairly fresh—I’ll cook it that day. I don’t have a steak in the fridge. But bacon’s a staple.

What’s up with all the pickled stuff?
I like all pickles. I think we should eat a lot more pickles. I think pickles should be served with almost every meal. Especially this time of year. And not just cucumber pickles, the whole gamut: pickled cauliflower, artichoke, giardiniera, eggplants, peaches. I went last February to dinner at Mark Trealout’s organic farmer out in Kawartha. When we got back from ice fishing and drinking our faces off, we had dinner with his family and we ate some of the fish that we caught and all these preserves that he had prepared in the summer. It’s just the way we should be eating in North America in the winter.

If you were going to make meal out of what’s currently in the fridge, what would you make?
I could do a decent risotto. I’ve got chicken stock. I could use the artichokes, bacon, parmesan cheese. Straight up risotto, without very much protein—maybe salami.

What’s the most embarrassing thing in your fridge?
The Kitchens of India butter chicken curry paste. I was previously married and my wife loved to use this curry paste—I just haven’t had the heart to throw it out. I never eat it and I will never eat it. And yet, it’s been there since 2009. I guess it’s time to let go, huh?

Do you ever dip into those items that are supposed to be just for the kids?
Yeah, I do. I finish work quite late, sometimes 1 or 2 a.m. So when I get home I’ll cut off a whack of that No Name cheddar. It’s not quite Velveeta, but it’s close enough. I’ll have one full meal a day, and that’s at work, but by the time I get home, I need to recharge.

What’s the alien about?
When I first moved to Toronto, I had a toy alligator in the freezer for the longest time. Now, it’s an alien lives that in the freezer. I don’t know where he came from, but one of my dogs chewed off his hand and feet off at some point, so he can’t get away.

We noticed you’re reading World War Z. If the zombie apocalypse arrived, and you could only keep one condiment, what would you choose?
Grainy mustard for sure.

(Images: fridge, Davida Aronovitch; Cutrara, Renée Suen)