Shortly after Jeremy Day shuttered his Parkdale wine and cheese bar Café Taste in October, rumours began to fly that someone associated with the Black Hoof would be taking over the space. The building’s owner, however, wouldn’t spill the beans. Thanks to some enthusiastic tweeting last night from Hoof owner Jen Agg and others, the cat’s now out of the bag: the new spot, called Grand Electric, opened last night with ex–Hoof chef de cuisine Colin Tooke at the helm. A bare-bones website and Twitter account have been set up, from which we learn the bar will have “Mexican food, craft beer, brown liquor and loud music.” Agg, for one seems pretty excited: she appended the hashtag “#proudmama” to her congratulatory tweet.
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Ex–Black Hoofer Colin Tooke opens Grand Electric in Parkdale
Grant van Gameren and Guy Rawlings take over the reins at Lucien

Grant van Gameren at the Black Hoof, the Dundas West charcuterie bar he co-founded (Image: Renée Suen from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
Six weeks or so after leaving the Black Hoof behind him, Grant van Gameren has found a new home. Alongside Brockton General’s Guy Rawlings, the charcuterie pioneer has moved on to Lucien, replacing chef Scot Woods, who left recently. “During his tenure here, Scot proved to be an extremely talented and creative chef and we wish him the very best in his future endeavours,” owner Simon Bower told us. “But I have decided the restaurant is going in a new direction.”
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Today’s Globe and Mail has a piece about the anti-vodka movement, championed by people like the Black Hoof’s Jen Agg, and the growing backlash to it. (Agg penned a memorable rant against the “stupid” spirit last February and Ortolan’s Damon Clements also gets in on the action in the Globe article.) One backlash backlasher, Vancouver’s Lauren Mote, reminds bartenders that they’re in the service industry and that they should act accordingly. Still, she prefers to use small-batch and infused vodkas for her cocktails instead of the mass market stuff. As ever, bar patrons vote with their wallets: vodka sales apparently jumped from 18 to 23 per cent of all spirits over the last 10 years in Canada. Stupid or not, the stuff sells. Read the whole story [Globe and Mail] »
Chef and co-owner Grant van Gameren leaves the Black Hoof (UPDATED)
About an hour ago on Twitter, news broke that the Black Hoof’s founding chef and co-owner, Grant van Gameren, was no longer involved with the restaurant:
Its been AMAZING feeding all you over the years!BUT, I am no longer affiliated with the Black Hoof. Please follow me @grantvangameren PLS RT
No news yet on the reasons behind the move or on van Gameren’s future plans, although a follow-up tweet confirms that he’s leaving “in an amicable split.” We’re also curious about what this means for Black Hoof and Company, the fine-dining restaurant that van Gameren and co-owner Jen Agg were to launch next spring.
UPDATE: Agg spoke to The Dish this afternoon to clarify that the breakup between the two owners was perfectly amicable. “This is something we’ve been talking about for a long time,” she said of the split over the direction of the business. “The story is that it is no story.” Agg confirmed that she is now the sole owner. She noted that diners should not expect any great changes at the Black Hoof, not least because chef Brandon Olsen has been running the kitchen already for months (apparently about half of the menu consists of his creations) while van Gameren took on a more executive role in the company. Plans for the Black Hoof and Company have been put on ice and the Black Hoof Cocktail Bar, which opened earlier this month, will continue on in its current location.
L’Ouvrier set to open on Dundas West in September; hard workers invited
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Dundas West’s hipster restaurant row is about to get yet another new addition to its ranks. Behind L’Ouvrier are Justine Fowler, who works in fashion, and Angus Bennett of Ottawa pub The Manx and Angus Bennett Catering. The name comes from a line in Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London (“The cook does not look upon himself as a servant, but as a skilled workman; he is generally called ‘UN OUVRIER’ which a waiter never is”), and it’s reflective of Bennett’s philosophy about food. “Angus believes that cooking is less about art and more about hard work and dedication” says Fowler. The couple hopes their new restaurant will embody that philosophy in a welcoming and unpretentious environment.
The Black Hoof’s Jen Agg takes on the latest cocktail trend—barrel aging
Inspired by the experiments of Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, forward-thinking mixologists across the continent have been trying their hand at something that was until recently the province of wine- and liquor makers: aging their drinks in oak casks. Rob Mifsud has an interesting piece in the Globe and Mail about Black Hoof co-owner and bartender Jen Agg’s forays into barrel-aging her trademark Manhattans. Her initial verdict? “I’m going to go on the record. I don’t care for this.” It does get better, however. Check out the full story »
House of the Week: $900,000 for a two-storey Trinity Bellwoods townhome

ADDRESS: 1-257 Euclid Avenue
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Trinity Bellwoods
AGENT: Stacey Robinson, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage, and Anabela Bernardino, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage
PRICE: $895,900
THE PLACE: A two-bedroom contemporary townhome at Dundas and Euclid with a black-white-and-grey colour scheme, mini-gym and rooftop deck.
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Last month we reported that Grant van Gameren, formerly of The Black Hoof, was 






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