After settling the tabs of Friday parties, Saturday pub crawls and Sunday brunches, a segment of Toronto gears up to celebrate the “other weekend”—Sunday and Monday. On those evenings, business owners cater to hairstylists, musicians, event planners, promoters, bouncers and other members of the service industry. “They don’t get to experience the weekend nightlife,” Mathew Tsoumaris, marketing director at Uniq Lifestyle, which owns Cheval, told the Star, “so we give them a discounted night.”
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Posts Tagged ‘The Black Hoof’
New in Shops
How the charcuterie trend is affecting fashion
From the Black Hoof to Iris Schieferstein's Gun Hoofs (Photo via Design Milk)
Designers across the world are tapping into a macabre trend: creating accessories with animal parts. Designers are claiming that the pieces—rat’s head cufflinks, cow hoof heels and mink skull headgear—are a move toward sustainability, with artists espousing the notion that animals should be used in their entirety. In Toronto, Lori-Anne Krausewitz creates elaborate and macabre headwear from animal bones and hides, which she sells at such stores as Shopgirls and Model Citizen.
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Restauran-TO
No-reservations policies drive people outdoors, crazy
That's my queue: customers wait for hours to taste the fare at Guu (Photo by snowpea&bokchoi)
Capitalizing on one of the more frustrating dining trends, the Globe writes about the no-reservations policies at such restaurants as Guu, Black Hoof and Pizzeria Libretto and how they are resulting in long lineups, rushed dining experiences, annoyed customers and, in some cases, mayhem. TasteTO’s Sheryl Kirby opines that the chaos is a side effect of Toronto’s unsophisticated nature: diners care more about partaking in the latest trend than indulging in quality dining. The sight of teeming masses lined up in sub-zero temperatures may reek of herd mentality, but Michael Sangregorio, the owner of Local Kitchen, says that it’s all part of the fun. “I think people like lineups… People want to eat in busy restaurants.” He also suggests that restaurants (like his) often merit the attention and that reservations are unsuited to the operations of a small restaurant.
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Restauran-TO
The Black Hoof and Niagara Street Café host Haiti fundraiser this week
Jen Agg, co-owner of The Black Hoof, is hosting a benefit on Wednesday to raise funds for victims of last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. Anton Potvin has provided the space at Niagara Café Upstairs, where staff from both restaurants will create a Haitian-inspired menu: Niagara Street Café chef Nick Liu’s famous suckling pig (prepared Haitian style); spicy rice and beans made by Agg’s Haitian-born boyfriend; and cheese from the Cheese Boutique. Drinks will be provided by Ontario wineries, merchants and brewers.
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Opening
Just Opened: The Hoof Café melds Grant van Gameren’s charcuterie with brunch favourites and bar food
Trot across the street: The Hoof Café overlooks the original (Photo by Karon Liu)
Last year, the Black Hoof’s tiny kitchen ignited the city’s love of carnivorous delights with its bold charcuterie plates and snout-to-tail ethos. Now, owners Jen Agg and Grant van Gameren are trying to make lightning strike twice with their imaginative take on brunch and bar snacks—both served at the new Hoof Café, located directly across the street from the original. “Everyone’s doing the same thing across the city,” says van Gameren, who finally has a kitchen larger than a janitor’s closet. “Why can’t you have rabbit or suckling pig eggs Benedict in the morning?”
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Aprons & Icons
Q&A: legendary chef Thomas Keller on his culinary empire
Thomas Keller at his first Toronto appearance (Photo by Renée Suen)
A crowd of 450 (including top Toronto chefs Ted Corrado, Mark McEwan, Bonnie Stern and Donna Dooher) gathered at the Toronto Reference Library on Monday night to hear from Thomas Keller, who was in town to promote his new cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home. In the book, Keller, the only American chef to receive Michelin stars for two restaurants (The French Laundry, Per Se) at once, reveals recipes from Ad Hoc, his restaurant in Yountville, California, which serves a different prix-fixe menu every night. We wrangled some alone time with the chef to talk about his culinary empire.
It’s your first time in Toronto. Will you be exploring much of its culinary scene? Read the rest of this entry »
Unfortunately, I got in late last night and am leaving early tomorrow morning, so I won’t really get to see much this time. The one restaurant that is on my list is The Black Hoof, which I heard from a friend is very good.
Aprons & Icons
More and more hot international chefs eating out in Toronto
Paul Kahan, Grant Achatz and Daniel Boulud (Photos by Kirk Bravender, Stu Spivack, winestem)
We have been noticing lately that internationally renowned chefs are increasingly traipsing through Toronto. A few months back, Grant Achatz of Chicago’s Alinea was in town tippling at Barchef and envying the St. Lawrence Market. This past weekend, culinary greats Daniel Boulud (owner of NYC’s Daniel and Vancouver’s Lumière) and James Beard Award winner Paul Kahan (executive chef at Chicago’s Blackbird, The Publican and Avec) were in town to help raise funds for Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital at the fifth annual Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival.
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Restauran-TO
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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Read All About It
Top foodie Twitter feeds, Vegemite 2.0, answering an eternal barbecue question
• Barbecue season may be coming to a close, but frustration over uneven wiener-to-bun packaging knows no temporal bounds. The oft-derided inconsistency—hot dogs come in packages of eight, buns in bags of 10—has finally been brought to the attention of the products’ makers. In this video, a man gets staffers from Wonder Bread and Oscar Meyer on the phone and tries to convince them to agree on an equal number. [You Tube]
• The National Post has listed its picks of the top Canadian foodies on Twitter. Clearly the Post doesn’t believe in the concept of “foodiot.” Read up on antics at The Black Hoof or see what Corey Mintz thinks of peaches. Missing from the list is a new addition: chef Michael Smith. [National Post]
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Toronto International Film Festival 2009
Five reasons we’re thrilled Oprah is coming to TIFF
Fan yourself off, Oprah. It's hot in Toronto
Yesterday, we reported that Oprah Winfrey has confirmed her attendance at TIFF—she’ll be here in support of the world premiere of Precious. We can’t wait for every entertainment reporter (ourselves included) to jump on Oprah Watch ’09. But here are five other reasons we’re happy her Harpo-ness will grace Toronto this September.
1) She could Skype in her shows Read the rest of this entry »
The new season starts on September 14, smack in the middle of the festival, but since Oprah has been Skype-ing in her guests rather than flying them in from the other side of the country (Oprah loves Skype, we get it), we think she’ll be more than happy to do an entire show via webcam.
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