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
Six things we learned from the Globe’s feature on Grant van Gameren, Enoteca Sociale’s new executive chef
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Last month we reported that Grant van Gameren, formerly of The Black Hoof, was working the stoves at Lucien (although the arrangement turned out to be more of a consulting gig). In a feature in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Chris Nuttall-Smith reveals van Gameren’s found a permanent home: Enoteca Sociale, the west-end Italian restaurant where he’s been named executive chef (Matthew DeMille was hired as the chef de cuisine there in July). He’s also working on a “Grant restaurant” (i.e. his own place) with Max Rimaldi, co-owner of Enoteca and sister restaurant Pizzeria Libretto; that project is probably a year away from opening. After the jump, six things we learned about Grant van Gameren, The Black Hoof and the chef’s new plans.
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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The Black Hoof Cocktail Bar to kick off its guest chef series next Wednesday with Colin Tooke
The former Hoof Café is now home to the Black Hoof Cocktail Bar (Image: Karon Liu)
The Black Hoof has seen a whirlwind of changes in recent months (culminating of course in co-founder and chef Grant van Gameren’s recent departure). Come September 14, Hoof owner Jen Agg tells us, there’ll be another change, this time at the month-old Black Hoof Cocktail Bar: a new guest chef series.
The vodka backlash backlash is here, apparently
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)
(Image: Renée Suen from the Torontolife.com Flick pool)
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.
Offal king Chris Cosentino smells Toronto’s Chinatown from three blocks away
(Image: Gary Stevens)
Chris Cosentino, America’s reigning king of offal and chef at San Francisco’s nose-to-tail mecca Incanto, is currently in Toronto for “adventure,” and like all good 21st-century chefs, he’s tweeting. From his feed, we learn that he made the requisite pilgrimage to the Black Hoof last night and that he wasn’t quite prepared for the powerful combination of a Toronto heat wave and Chinatown’s particular olfactory charms:
It so hot in Toronto I could smell china town from 3 blocks away! Holy dried and fermented fish
We’ll be watching for other revelations about the food in our fair (albeit pungent) city.
The next stage in the saga of the former Hoof Café: the Black Hoof Cocktail Bar
The once-mobbed Hoof Café is set to become the soon-to-be-mobbed Black Hoof Cocktail Bar (Image: Karon Liu)
Back in June, we reported that Jen Agg and Grant van Gameren’s ambitious plans to launch Black Hoof and Company this spring in the former Hoof Café space were being put on hold until spring 2012. Yesterday on his blog, Hoof pal Corey Mintz announced the next stage in the evolution of 923 Dundas St. W.: the Black Hoof Cocktail Bar. Starting this Thursday and running from Thursday to Monday night weekly, the new bar will serve Agg’s inventive cocktails (including, we hope, her barrel-aged manhattans) along with cheese plates for snacking. In September, the bar will be open seven nights a week and will feature guest chefs like Guy Rawlings and Colin Tooke, whose cocktails will go head-to-head against the house list. Eventually, the cocktail bar will take over the space adjacent to the Black Hoof across the street, and Black Hoof and Co., the new fine dining restaurant, will move in.
Agg has often lamented Toronto’s lacklustre cocktail scene, so we’re eager to see what she has in store. Oh, and in the spirit of her hilarious rant of a blog post in February, Agg will not be serving any vodka or vodka-based drinks at the bar.
Introducing: Tosho Knife Arts, the new Mirvish village mecca for fans of Japanese blades
Tosho specializes in hand sharpening and restoration of Japanese blades. (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Sitting down with knife enthusiasts Olivia Go and Ivan Fonseca, we couldn’t help but flash back to Kill Bill: Vol. 1, when Uma Thurman’s character visits Okinawa to procure the ultimate in Japanese steel, a Hattori Hanzō sword. These two knife nerds share that same reverence for finely-crafted blades and the art of knife making and sharpening, so it’s no wonder they’re now the co-owners of the new Tosho Knife Arts in Mirvish Village.
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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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Geoff Hopgood on leaving the Hoof empire and opening his own place (and yes, there’ll be brunch)
(Image: Renée Suen)
A while back we told you about Food Truck Eats, tomorrow’s food truck event in the Distillery District, noting the participation of Geoff Hopgood, best known as the chef de cuisine of the now closed Hoof Café. While most expected the Halifax-born chef to continue his duties with the café’s successor, Black Hoof and Co., we were surprised to learn (via Twitter, of course) that Hopgood had other plans ahead. Recently, we caught up with the chef, who was happy to fill us in on what’s been keeping him busy since his departure from one of the city’s hottest eateries. The first thing Hopgood told us is that he’s getting married in August and is currently in planning mode; the second is that he’s planning to open his own restaurant.
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