(Image: Lorne Bridgman)

FOR A CINQ À SEPT
Devoted locavores should head to Beast after work Wednesday through Friday, when former Jamie Kennedy chefs Scott and Rachelle Vivian serve up nose-to-tail small plates—including pig’s head pappar­delle for only $4. Lovely Quebec and Ontario beers for pairing are also just $4; a number of wines are $5 a glass. 96 Tecumseth St., 647-352-6000.

FOR A ROMAN HOLIDAY
When it opened last year, Enoteca Sociale (above), the rustic Italian restaurant, earned an instant and obsessive following. In true Roman tradition, it offers Nonna night on Sundays: that’s three courses, including one of the house’s fabulous fresh pastas, served on heaping family-style platters. $35 per person. 1288 Dundas St. W., 416-534-1200.

FOR DISCOUNTED DECADENCE
After jockeying with Joe Pantalone for a liquor licence, Harbord’s Içi Bistro is finally open. J. P. Challet’s classic French style is surprisingly affordable, with smaller portions at smaller prices. That means diners get discount boeuf bourguignon ($17) and lobster thermidor ($18) and still have coin left over for brut. 538 Manning Ave., 416-536-0079.

FOR RAW HIDES
Sushi Couture, the highest-quality raw-fish destination on sushi-dense Bloor, serves up an excellent $39 omakase menu by master chef Ken Zhang. All told, it amounts to five courses of, among other delicacies, high-calibre tuna, butterfish and mussels—blowtorched, lime marinated, barbecued or hand-rolled into bites. 456 Bloor St. W., 416-538-8618.

The season’s most anticipated openings are two seafood-centric spots By Chris Nuttall-Smith

Maléna at Av and Dav (Image: Ryan Szulc)

Toronto is a raw bar town. We’re over-served by excellent oyster houses, and we probably consume more sushi per capita than any city east of Vancouver. But cooked fish is a problem here; we’ve never had a standout seafood spot. This spring, Nathan Isberg, of Czehoski and Coca fame, opened what early adopters described as a nose-to-tail disciple’s take on the life aquatic on Dundas West. And in Yorkville, a neighbourhood that’s desperate for a few more decent places to eat, front-of-house kings David Minicucci and Sam Kalogiros launched Maléna, a flashy fish spot. It looked like Toronto might finally turn into a seafood town.

Kalogiros and Minicucci, who also run L’Unità, the casual Italian place near Av and Dav, are masters of engineering atmospheres that are loud, exclusive and democratic all at once, with service staff who are expert at navigating it all. Maléna is done up in high-homely style, with barnboards, glossy-framed mirrors and Hellenic-themed dinner plates on the walls. The two-storey space is jammed most nights with a mix of middle-aged glitter girls, criminal lawyers (Clayton Ruby and Brian Greenspan one night, dining separately) and boldface names both minor (Senator Pamela Wallin, designer Sarah Richardson) and major (Jessica Alba, who, one blaspheming regular noted, looks a lot like an ugly version of Jessica Alba in person). It has quickly become one of the toughest reservations in town.

Kalogiros learned the trade in New York, where he was captain at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Mercer Kitchen. Minicucci, mean­while, managed Xacutti and Annona at the Park Hyatt. And no one is better than Zinta Steprans, Maléna’s young, disarmingly down-to-earth sommelier, who patrols the room in a cotton boyfriend blazer, working from an oddball-fabulous list that’s strong on fish-friendly Greek and Southern Italian wines (I loved the northern Greek sparkler made in the French style from moscophilero grapes) and making a point of stopping at every table.

The kitchen gets a lot of things right. The menu is Greek, mostly, by way of Sicily and Puglia, so the tzatziki is seasoned southern Italian style with only a little garlic, and the sheep’s milk feta salad gets fennel and white balsamic vinegar. Chef Doug Neigel marinates fat sardine fillets in lemon and good vinegar so they’re bright, balanced and nicely punchy, and then stacks chopped romaine on top as a smart, if trashy, refresher. Soft-shell crabs—not Greek, exactly, but no one’s complaining—get the tempura treatment, sizzling from the fryer; only Nota Bene’s David Lee, who was eating at Maléna one recent Friday, does them better.

Neigel sources fish so fresh you’d think you were in a seaside town. Though the cooking is inspired by the shores of the Ionian Sea, he forgoes the usual farmed and dubiously sourced southern European seafood for an Ocean Wise–approved list that few other east-of-the-Rockies restaurants could match. Neigel buys live spot prawns, firm-fleshed wild salmon and line-caught ling cod direct from Organic Ocean, a B.C. fishermen’s co‑operative, plus impeccable soft-shell crabs from the East Coast, and mackerel that tastes mild and delicate instead of the usual funky and badly in need of a shower. Plenty of other restaurants feature one or two great seasonal West Coast fish selections these days. Neigel seems to have them all. And then, as if to apologize for his good fortune, he does what just about every otherwise competent chef in Toronto does with seafood—he cooks the bejesus out of it.

Seafood dumplings and cream tarts

The place: Perched on the second floor of the Metropolitan Hotel, Lai Wah Heen has long been Toronto’s go-to spot for haute contemporary Chinese dining. A maple-panelled room provides privacy for VIPs, but the main room has its own austere calm, despite the lunch rush.

The crowd: Friendly and efficient staff alternate between tables of serious suits and retirees. A distinguished-looking man enjoys his midday break at a tucked away table with a couple small plates and a glass of wine.

The deal: Besides the premium rice and noodle plates, and the famous two-course Peking duck ($56), Lai Wah Heen does excellent, proper dim sum. It’s a communal affair so we choose to go a la carte, mixing traditional options with chef Terrance Chan’s innovative Hong Kong-style creations.

The dish: Our party of four starts with two orders of cookie-crusted pastries filled with a salty-but-good mixture of cured ham, shrimp and pork (three pieces for $6). Dim sum staples are well prepared, especially the crystal shrimp dumplings (four for $6) and pork-shrimp-scallop siu mai ($6 for four). Complimentary XO sauce—dried shrimps and scallops in chilli oil—is amazing when used judiciously, namely with the steamed lobster dumplings ($3.50), the pan-seared rice cakes topped with loose crabmeat ($3.50) or the deep-fried vegetable and exotic mushroom roll ($3.50). The carved zucchini basket, filled with cured ham and shrimp mousse ($5), needs no accompaniment beyond its flavourful broth. Notable reinterpreted classics include shredded chicken in cream sauce inside deep-fried taro root paste (three for $6), rice rolls wrapped around diced chicken and sweet corn (three for $8) and aromatic dried seafood over a checkerboard of steamed turnip and taro cake ($6). We finish the meal with mini cream custard tarts (four for $6) and a trio of durian cream pastries (three for $6)—pungent fruit cocooned in layers of flaky pastry.

The time: A 52 minute feast

The cost: $160 for four people ($40 each) to split 22 plates, including tax, tip and bottomless pots of Iron Goddess tea ($2). Leftover pastries made a fantastic mid-afternoon office snack.

Lai Wah Heen, 118 Chestnut St. (at Dundas St. W.), 416-977-9899, laiwahheen.com.

• Read the Toronto Life review of dinner at Lai Wah Heen »

Clockwise from top left: rice cakes with crab meat, zucchini basket, pork-shrimp pastries, tunip-taro cakes (Images: Renée Suen)

The strip of Dundas West between Ossington and Lansdowne has not been immune to the wild gentrification going on directly south of it. New restaurants, stores and bars have been cropping up for the past couple of years (Red Canoe, a swank Canadiana shop, opened two weeks ago), but there is a hesitation in the ’hood to turn Little Portugal and Brockton Village into the next Ossington. Incoming business owners make a point of blending in with the long-standing family-owned bakeries, soccer bars and pho stops. Even in new establishments, the decor has a thrift shop feel, and the prices cater to locals rather than destination diners. From east to west, here are our 21 favourite Dundas West spots for cheap eats, good music and authentic Portuguese cuisine. By Karon Liu. Photos by Jenna Marie Wakani.

The east end’s main thoroughfare has long been known for two things: Greek food and the Taste of the Danforth. Over the past many years, though, homebuyers drawn to the subway line have slowly turned the long strip of two-storey brick buildings into a bustling neighbourhood that has attracted a rich selection of fine shops, independent coffee houses, Thai joints and haute cuisine restaurants. The Danforth has reached a wonderful maturity that we think should be celebrated. Here are 21 of the best reasons to cross the viaduct. By Matthew Hague. Photography by Devin Jeffrey.

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A farewell to Arms: J.P. Challet bids farewell to the Yorkville institution (Image: windsorarmshotel.com)

Master chef J.P. Challet is leaving the Windsor Arms Hotel’s Prime just five months into his tenure—and nine years after doing it the first time. His company Jean-Pierre and Co. unceremoniously pulled out of the steak house after a deal to take over the hotel’s food and beverage program fell through. Challet served his last supper for the Arms at a 2,000-person function at Exhibition Place last Sunday and is now looking to restart construction on his once-hyped Harbord Street project, Ici Bistro.

Challet and hotel owner George Friedman couldn’t cut a deal, explains the chef. The long-time associates (Challet helmed the kitchen for the hotel’s glitzy relaunch in 1999) first got to chatting when Prime’s chef resigned last year. Challet proposed a partnership that would bring his company’s modern flavour (bistro-style small plates) to the hotel and increase the dining room’s dwindling clientele. Challet hoped that his brand would add to the hotel’s appeal; he would share in the profits and have carte blanche when it came to the menu.

The team debuted a slightly modified menu at Winterlicious, but by March, Challet felt he was being kept at arm’s length. “I don’t believe in the steak house. I don’t believe in fine dining anymore,” says Challet. Friedman, who did not respond to calls to discuss the change, clearly does. “He didn’t feel comfortable to make the move,” says the chef. “For him to have my company inside, he could not have control.”

The power struggle started the schism, but money matters proved the final push. Challet claims that his already slim profit margins were eaten by the Arms’s take for overhead and wine from its cellar—a typical bill booster on which Challet got only a small cut. “I cannot stay here if there’s no money for me to be made,” Challet said in April. “I’m running a business.” When Friedman wouldn’t up the ante, the chef and his crew (Jennifer Decorte and Peter Tsang) gave notice that they were leaving immediately after overseeing Richard Andino’s arrival from Flow.

A timely twist at Ici helped Challet walk away from Prime. In January, the bistro was still mired in glitches: liquor licence disputes, inspection issues, a missing building permit and botched plumbing. What a difference five months makes: all new plumbing has now been installed, and the ceiling has been ripped out to meet city standards. Only electrical work is now pending, and Challet hopes to open in July.

The chef points out with a half-pained laugh that he was originally offered the spaces that are now L’Unità and Tati Bistro. On friendly advice, he passed, only to watch two hot spots spawn while Ici sat empty. “It’s like I’m at the beginning all over again.”

While Challet claims he has no regrets—in fact, he is already negotiating a deal to revive a yet-unnamed defunct restaurant—he seems cautious. “When you have your place, it’s always better. It’s your decision, and that’s it.”

The bar at Spice Safar (Photo by Renée Suen)

The recession may just be ending, but around King West, there are few signs it ever happened. Buca has just opened, The Roosevelt Room starts up in two weeks, and the Bell Lightbox is rapidly climbing into the sky. And now there are two new locations of Montreal’s Spice Safar to add a dose of the unexpected to the district.

One Spice Safar is located right at King and Brant Streets, but it’s much harder to categorize than neighbouring bars and restaurants. The concept is “boutique-bakery-café-lounge,” although the latter three take up most of the room. House-made viennoiseries ($2–$3), organic Mexican arabica espressos (served with sparkling water and a tiny brownie, $3.50–$4.25) and rooibos red lattes ($3.95) are popular with clients, and plans are already underway to expand the menu to include brunch and high tea.

The bright, spacious interior is done up with wood and velvet, lending the room a luxurious feel far from that of the rustic neighbourhood coffee shop. Of course, that vibe is helped along by the small boutique section that showcases eclectic products that project a youthful and professional sensibility: iPhone ball speakers from Japan ($29), handmade porcelain-and-wood amps from Iowa ($500), Green Technology shoes ($1,500). At dusk, the space becomes a lounge, where DJs blend music ranging from Brazilian to Middle Eastern to Indian and pump it at volumes that are conducive to conversation.

Wilhelm Liebenberg (Photo by Renée Suen)

Founder and CEO Wilhelm Liebenberg tells us Spice Safar’s lifestyle-based business is unique in the city, catering to everyone from the budding socialite to the savviest of shoppers. “It is both affordable and luxurious,” he says, noting that he serves up “guilty pleasures for only 50 cents more than Starbucks.”

His other Safar Lounge location, just a few blocks away on Adelaide Street, strives to be a modern take on the 1920s absinthe bars of Paris and Cairo. The cocktail menu lists several beverage creations (such as the molecular bellini, $12) by mixologist Miguel Aranda (from Manhattan’s Apothéke), as well as an international gamut of small plates from executive chef Matthew Sullivan (previously of The Fat Duck) and decadent desserts prepared by chef Carlo Lazzarino (formerly of Four Seasons Toronto and Colborne Lane). The Adelaide lounge is also home to the iconic Adonis espresso machine by Victoria Arduino, one of the few in commercial use in North America.

Liebenberg admits that the jack-of-all-trades concept can seem confusing to the uninitiated but says, “Everyone who comes in gets it. It’s the emotional journey that everybody’s always wanted but didn’t know existed. We are a lounge, but it’s the all-around visual and emotional experience we try to create.”

Spice Safar, 270 Adelaide St. W. (at John St.) and 510 King St. W. (at Brant St.), 416-340-0444, spicesafar.com.

Rob Gentile hangs with his meats (Photo by Karon Liu)

The brains behind Brassaii, Jacobs and Co. and soon-to-be-opened The Saint are adding yet another restaurant to their empire, this one tucked away in the alley beside Cheval on the ritzy King Street strip. The week-old Buca is serving Italian fare by executive chef Rob Gentile, a former sous-chef at One, Bymark and North 44°.

“The kind of food we do here is what you’ll eat at the family table in Italy. It’s the food I grew up with,” he says, sitting in Buca’s dimly lit back room, which will open to diners next week (Penelope Cruz enjoyed a private dinner when she was here for TIFF last month). He’s flanked by hanging meats that he cures himself. Every Thursday, an entire animal is brought in, and every part of it is used; even the pork fat is used to make shells for cannoli.

The industrial-chic interior of Buca (Photo by Karon Liu)

Daily menus are printed and date stamped each morning. Prices are in the standard King Street range of $15 to $25, and the dishes fall into the usual categories: antipasti, pizza, pasta, meat, fish, small plates, raw. On the day we visited, dishes included an Ontario heirloom tomato salad ($12) with Gentile’s 30-year-old vinegar; duck egg tagliatelle with duck ragù ($18); and funghi pizza ($18) with lobster, mushrooms and mascarpone. Vegetarians need not be intimidated by the giant leg of prosciutto near the entrance; there are plenty of veggie options on the menus.

The space in which all of this is served used to be a boiler room. Co-owner Peter Tsebelis says he netted the place in November 2006 but had to delay the opening due to a moratorium on liquor licences in the area (it’s not just Ossington that’s too hip for the city). It’s easy to imagine that this was a 19th-century utility space; the old brick walls remain, set off by dark woods and bare light bulbs—the kind more commonly seen in a mine shaft. Though the restaurant looks effortlessly put together, the before picture is quite tragic: there was no floor, just sand and a giant boiler that had to be taken out in pieces. “The architecture of the place is very simple and clean,” says Tsebelis. “Much like the food.”

Buca, 602 King St. W., 416-865-1600.

Gardiner gospel: Jamie Kennedy and his locavore philosophy roll with the punches

Having served the last à la carte meal at the Gardiner on June 7, local produce booster Jamie Kennedy invited professional foodies for a preview of the location’s new concept, which includes a weekly lunch series and Friday afternoon happy hour. In addition to the new Gardiner Café (which offers sandwiches and salads during the week), a $25 three-course lunch, available every Wednesday at noon (starting June 17), will soon be served in the formerly full-service Terrace Room. The prix-fixe meal will feature the wares of a different artisanal grower each week. Kennedy’s team will also cater events in the space, and the terrace bar will serve small plates for a scotch-soaked happy hour on Fridays, with three kinds of Balvenie single malt to keep workaholics giddy. Yet excitement about new plans (and giggles from swooning food writers) is accompanied by a sobering discussion and the news that he has decided to sell Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.

“It’s not often I call a press conference,” laughs Kennedy, who, all joking aside,  serves some food for thought on the local movement’s troubled times. “Costs inherent to the pursuit are far more than for our competition,” explained the chef. His efforts to bring back the direct contact farming model of yesteryear are finding some success (he’s sourcing some 60,000 pounds of potatoes from a local producer to supply his four restaurants with his signature fries), but Kennedy is concerned that people are swapping down to commodity products in lean times. He believes that the transformation of the Gardiner from high-end dining room to prix-fixe lunch spot speaks volumes about the economics of eating. “Food is never going to be cheap again, let’s face it,” he says, throwing in the following call to arms: “By creating more demand [for local goods], distribution systems will improve and costs will come down.”

A sampling of the new mid-week meal proves that local products are certainly delicious. Kennedy butters us up with steamed asparagus swimming in creamy mustard sabayon followed by braised beef in tangles of tasty broad noodles. When we caught up with the chef afterwards for butter tarts and head-clouding whiskey, he was frank about the Gardiner’s end. “It was bleeding money like crazy,” Kennedy says. “We hung on for a year longer than we should have.”

Inside the new(-ish) Gardiner Café

Though he seems a sniff melancholy over the evolution, we are hardly surprised that the upscale venue has gone the way of the café. Kennedy talked to us about the trend away from Gardiner-type establishments back in February, predicting that “big-buck dining out will take a hit, but a coffee and a croissant is a whole other ball game.” How right he was; the Gilead and Hank’s, his more casual restaurants, have withstood the bearish market, proving that even well-meaning locavorism isn’t immune to the politics of pricing. “I can only afford to charge so much,” says Kennedy. “Somewhat more than The Keg, but not a lot.”

He laughs, but the comparison struck fear into our Balvenie-warmed hearts. We’re keeping a revolution-ready pitchfork on standby.

Hot off the grill: steak burgers, chorizo hotdogs and pulled pork sammies (Photo by Karon Liu)

When the publicist said the biggest name who had RSVP’d for the InterContinental’s SkyLounge patio opening last night was Rick Campenelli, we expected it to be a long evening—especially when said ET Canada host failed to show up.

No matter. The shindig gave us (along with a bevy of networking industry types and unnaturally tanned, unnaturally blonde recession/fashion/style-istas) the opportunity to sample the TIFF hotspot’s new recession-friendly Thursday grill menu.

Jian Ghomeshi surveys the crowd (Photo by Karon Liu)

Served straight off the barbecue, the protein-heavy selection consists of small plates ($3–$4.50) of skewered shrimp, wild boar burgers and lamp chops, along with a few veggie options, including grilled asparagus and vegetable brochettes. An heirloom tomato and watermelon salad was a refreshing accompaniment. We quenched our thirst with a good cause: Ernestine’s Elixir, a fruity Hpnotiq-lychee liqueur concoction ($1 from every cocktail purchased this summer will be donated to the Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter).

We did spy Jian Ghomeshi in his trademark graphic tee, blazer and jeans, chatting away about books and his favourite Keith Richards quotes, but that’s where the quasi-A List sighting stopped, folks. It was straight to the end of the alphabet from there.

But, who needs stars when there’s mixed grill to be had? The privacy of the courtyard patio (don’t let the name fool you, it’s not on the roof), the affordable menu and noble fundraising efforts (though alcohol isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to helping an abused women’s shelter) makes the SkyLounge an ideal post-work oasis.

Expect to see comfort food on Toronto menus year-round (Photo by Sifu Renka)

Comfort food staples usually disappear from menus around this time of year, but the city’s top toques are finding reason to serve the rich, wintry fare as temperatures rise. We spoke to three to find out what’s up.

Brendan Gooderham, one of the head chefs at Czehoski, said that his summer menu will include more raw produce and such warm-weather dishes as lavender and honey brûlée and a pig cooked on the restaurant’s rooftop, he’s likely to continue serving poutine and mac-and-cheese.

“They’re relatively cheap to produce, so we don’t have to charge a lot for them, which is what people want with the economy right now,” said Gooderham. “Perhaps when it gets warmer people are willing to spend a bit more on other dishes.”

The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year that such familiar brands as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese are seeing higher profits not just because of lower prices but also because of the happy childhood memories they conjure. So it’s of little surprise that Corinna Mozo, owner-chef of Delux, told us that she has no plans to take the restaurant’s cheesy Cubano sandwich off the menu. “I think comfort foods are here to stay. In fact, they’re going to be even more popular,” she said. “Right now you still want to go out with your friends, but you don’t want to break the bank. You want something that’s satisfying and reminds you of better times.”

The Gladstone’s chef, Marc Breton, has created a menu that allows diners to customize their fries with more than a dozen fatty toppings, like bacon and five types of cheeses and, of course, the grilled cheese sandwich. “People aren’t interested in cooking at home, but their budget is reduced so places are serving more generous portions at reasonable prices. It’s more about value and comfort,” said Breton, whose favourite childhood meal is headcheese on toast. “People want better value and less of an esoteric return on their admission.”

But Breton believes that like all trends, something will inevitably replace the comfort food craze. “I think we’ll always go back to the small plates and the big productions. Like in fashion, it’s always come and go,” he said. “We’ll see better times in the future, when people will be more interested in dining out and more into the experience of going to the restaurant.”

But while no chef (or economist) knows exactly when that time will come, what’s certain is that greasy grub is here to stay for a while. “I love comfort food. It makes me happy and excited,” says Mozo. “You can still be creative, but I like the basics, and keeping it simple and homey. That’s what people will always want.”

Ultra Supper Club is attempting rebirth (Photo by Matt MacGillivray)

Recession menus and food giveaways are quickly becoming the norm for Toronto restaurants. It is in the midst of such bad-times ballyhoo that Ultra Supper Club has gone in a defiant direction, choosing to adopt a new look, a new name (“Ultra” instead of “Ultra Supper Club”) and a new menu (Asian fusion). Since its inception in 2003, the supper club has become known as a TIFF hot spot and the site of non-festival celebrity sightings. It hardly seemed to be in need of a facelift—so why now?

The make-over was apparently in the works before the recession struck. “Five years is a long time in the entertainment industry,” said Ink Entertainment’s Tara Hendela, and much has changed since ’03. Although Ink—also involved with This Is London, Spice Route and Tattoo Rock Parlour—isn’t seeing a “major” drop in sales, the number of corporate events is diminishing. Said Hendela, “Gone are the days of the three-hour dinner.” In place of a lengthy three-course meal, Ultra is moving to small, shareable plates with an Asian-fusion menu by chef Chris Zielinski—and the prices will be as low as $8 per dish.

The interior renovation was undertaken by Ink’s go-to designers Munge/Leung Design Associates—the firm that produced Ultra’s original look, as well as the futuristic environments found at Sopra, Lux and the Orange Room. A new seating arrangement has been installed, complemented by a long wooden communal table that was designed by Castor and can double as a runway. The new look and re-branding will be unveiled tonight at a party in the redone digs.

Asian fusion? Sharing plates? Communal table? Castor? Certainly, no one can accuse Ultra of not being trendy enough. Just to be sure, though, we’re putting on our party shoes and scoping the scene tonight. Stay tuned.