Salt Wine Bar | torontolife.com

The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com

All stories relating to Salt Wine Bar

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

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

War on Fun

May 19, 2011 | 3:25 pm

Comments

The war on fun takes aim at a new target: city patios

Future Bakery’s popular Annex patio (Image: Andrzej Wrotek)

City council was busy junking 2010’s harmonization of city zoning bylaws yesterday—but as the Toronto Star points out, that isn’t necessarily the best idea. Although the project was roundly criticized by the development industry and David Miller’s opponents for a multitude of technical errors—its supporters, on the other hand, greeted it as an unglamorous but important achievement—there was good reason behind it. Take, for example, the existing bylaws pertaining to the city’s outside patios and rooftop decks: basically, they’re kind of ridiculous.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

May 16, 2011 | 2:46 pm

14 Comments

Introducing: Fishbar, the new Ossington seafood restaurant from the people behind Salt

Fishbar’s dining room is adorned with Edison lights and salvaged and reclaimed furniture (Image: Gizelle Lau)

After keeping eager would-be patrons waiting for almost six months, Fishbar, the new restaurant from William Tavares (co-owner of Salt Wine Bar just a few doors away), will officially open tomorrow. We snuck in during Fishbar’s soft opening to see what it was all about and meet the staff Tavares has assembled for the front and back of the house.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

From the Print Edition

February 10, 2011 | 2:45 pm

Comments

Just Opened: we review three of the city’s new restaurants

European invasion: a humble bistro, a homespun trattoria and a glam tapas bar

Le Rossignol star
686 Queen St. E., 416-461-9663

The service in this small room at the edge of Leslieville is ably handled by a garrulous French woman who wears her glasses on a chain around her neck (she’s like a character from The Triplets of Belleville). The wine list is short but nice, and the menu is traditional bistro, with a few modern touches. An amuse-bouche shooter of smooth butternut squash soup dazzles with Chinese five-spice and is topped with coconut foam. Steaks are not a strength: one night’s flank is cut straight down rather than across the grain. It’s epically chewy, but the accompanying shoestring frites are addictive. Braised boar shank is brilliant: soft, moist and flavourful. Too bad it’s set on risotto that tastes like it was made long before service. The chef takes Wednesdays off, leaving the kitchen in less capable hands. Mains $17–$27.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Restauran-TO

November 15, 2010 | 12:12 pm

Comments

19 months later, Ossington merchants too busy to hate on the moratorium

From the outside, there’s been little more inherently confusing, even maddening, in the last year than the moratorium on liquor licenses along the stretch of Ossington between Dundas and Queen. At the behest of Joe Pantalone (who proceeded to run for something, we hear) the city stopped approving liquor licenses for the strip and then passed a by-law shrinking the allowable size of restaurants and bars. For this, Pantalone was named one of Torontoist’s villains of 2009. The evolution of Ossington slowed dramatically, and at least one spot, Salt Wine Bar, was closed down for licence infractions.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

November 10, 2010 | 4:10 pm

1 Comment

Salt Wine Bar is back in business; war on fun faces temporary setback

Break out the champagne: the famous Ossington booze ban has finally been lifted. And that means that Salt Wine Bar, closed down in September for violating the ban, can reopen its doors. Indeed, the spot was bustling with dinner guests last night. Post City Magazine got the story yesterday that apparently the war against liquor licences is over:

Salt manager and co-owner William Tavares tells us that he got a call from Councillor Joe Pantalone’s office saying the moratorium was over and Salt was free to open.

Originally, the May 2009 moratorium was supposed to only last one year. However, it was held in place because of a challenge to a zoning bylaw that limited the size of new restaurants and bars to 2,400 square feet.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Restauran-TO

August 27, 2010 | 3:27 pm

12 Comments

Go now: Ossington’s Salt Wine Bar could soon be closed for licence infractions

Salt Wine Bar, a small, excellent new tapas place on Ossington Avenue, might not survive its first month in business, after a story on the Toronto Star’s Web site today exposed an open secret on the popular strip: that the room is operating without the proper liquor or business licences.

Albino Silva, the restaurateur behind Chiado on College Street, is part owner of Salt. He secured the lease for the space at 225 Ossington in January 2009, just four months before the city issued a year-long moratorium on business licences for new bars and restaurants on the street.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

June 17, 2010 | 4:22 pm

2 Comments

Salt Wine Bar finally set to open on Ossington

Salt Wine Bar is the green-trimmed storefront just south of The Saint, pictured last summer (Image: Google)

The Saint is the only mystery resto left on Ossington. The much-anticipated Salt Wine Bar, which has been tantalizingly papered up since last summer, should be opening within the next few weeks. Owners say it will be a simple, competitively priced bar-eatery-store that will focus on cuisine from the Iberian peninsula, so expect Spanish and Portuguese products and dishes. Chef Dave Kemp, previously of the utterly un-Iberian Prego Della Piazza in Yorkville, will head the communal tapas-style menu. True to the bar’s name, cheeses and charcuterie—up to seven different types of prosciutto, including some house-cured meats—will be staples.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

June 15, 2010 | 2:52 pm

2 Comments

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

Opening

February 1, 2010 | 8:24 am

14 Comments

A first look inside Paul Boehmer’s eponymous Ossington restaurant (and details of his new Dean and Deluca-esque retail shop)

Trend count: Fresh and local? Check. Communal table? Check. Ossington Avenue? Check. Designer lighting? Check (All photos by Karon Liu)

Paul Boehmer’s soon-to-open restaurant is like the cherry on top of the Ossington sundae. The eponymous eatery was one of the last to obtain a restaurant and bar permit before the city imposed a one-year moratorium on new establishments last May. “People around the neighbourhood thought that I was opening a nightclub, but since I told them it wasn’t the case, I haven’t received any complaints,” says the former Stadtländer apprentice, who has also cooked at Rosewater Supper Club, Six Steps and Scaramouche. He expects Boehmer to open in less than a month—about six months later than originally planned.