Power lunchers and after-work diners are the bread and butter of Summerlicious. Here, 22 Toronto Life picks for where to go. Read the rest of this entry »
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Introducing: The Ballroom, the downtown bowling alley with UFC and gourmet chicken wings
Until recently, Bathurst Bowlerama—site of kids’ parties and seniors’ leagues—has been the only option for downtowners looking to play a few frames. That is, until now. The much-anticipated Ballroom is now open in the old Montana’s space at John and Richmond. It’s billing itself as “Toronto’s newest interactive entertainment centre,” and with 20,000 square feet of space, nine lanes, two floors, 52 big-screen TVs and seven 12-by-six-foot projection screens, the claims appear to be justified.
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The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants
(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.
Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).
When it comes to making restaurant reservations, is OpenTable a friend or foe?
From a customer’s perspective, OpenTable might seem like the perfect dovetailing of the Internet and dining: restaurant reservations are made and confirmed instantly. There’s no favouritism, waiting for a return e-mail or negotiating with front-of-house staffers. Lots of restaurants use it (290 in Toronto alone), and, perhaps best of all, it’s free. For all that convenience, restaurant owners foot the bill.
That’s where the problem comes in for Mark Pastore. He’s the chef at San Fransisco’s famous Incanto restaurant. In an eloquent, if long-winded, indictment of the service posted on his eatery’s Web site last month, Pastore notes that OpenTable’s fees are exorbitant. “OpenTable is out for itself, the worst business partner I have ever worked with in all my years in restaurants,” one anonymous restaurateur from NYC told him. “If I could find a way to eliminate it from my restaurants, I would.”
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Former Vertical chef Tawfik Shehata brings locavorism to new downtown bowling alley
Chef Tawfik Shehata was supposed to be taking it easy after he threw in the apron at Vertical, but the ambitious owners of The Ballroom—a new leisure complex opening in mid-December in the former Montana’s space on Richmond—made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. They want him to create a menu of local, sustainable, serious and seriously whimsical bowling alley food (yes, there will be actual bowling, too). We’re talking suburban classics, like hot dogs and burgers made from cuts of local beef, all ground in-house.
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2,000 chefs weigh in on the top restaurant trend of 2010
High times: a rooftop garden in Toronto (Image: Steven Harris)
Toronto is not always on the ball when it comes to eating and drinking trends (we’ve only just climbed on the speakeasy bandwagon), but we seem to be ahead of the game on the latest one to make—or rather, re-make—the news. According to a survey of 2,000 chefs by the National Restaurant Association, gardens are the hottest restaurant trend of 2010.
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Where to eat lunch this week: Vertical
This financial district mainstay keeps the food fresh and the patio busy
The late-summer lunch: duck breast on the Vertical patio
The place: Vertical’s lofty canopy-covered terrace rises above the hubbub of King Street and draws the crowds on this cool summer’s day.
The crowd: Business-casual 30-somethings clink martini glasses while two CEO types linger over their dessert plates and wrap up negotiations. Nobody is rushing to get back to work from the glorious patio.
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The great scapes: five ways that Toronto chefs are using garlic shoots
A bunch of garlic scapes (Image: Joe Shlabotnik)
For the past few weeks, garlic scapes have been cropping up on menus throughout the city. An early summer treat, these shoots are the sweeter, mellower off-growth of the more pungent bulbs that come later in the season (cutting them from young plants helps the bulbs grow plumper). But as they are delectable in their own right, scapes have lately found a following from locavore chefs. Below, five ways of the best ways to enjoy scapes in Toronto right now.
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Marijuana and haute cuisine: Toronto chefs on how some top kitchens are going to pot
Who's hungry? (Image: Torben Hansen)
The correlation between marijuana and the munchies is no secret, but a New York Times article that went viral a few weeks ago is taking the link to new heights. In the Big Apple’s “new kitchen culture,” haute cuisine is being influenced by chefs and kitchen staffers who find culinary inspiration by indulging in a little weed. We talked to a few Toronto chefs about the emerging trend and its breakthrough potential in Toronto.
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The Path Guide: 24 spots worth getting lost for
(All photos by Karon Liu)
Even those who were born and raised in Toronto have a hard time navigating the city’s underground labyrinth, with its dead ends, identical food courts and utterly useless maps—not to mention the complete lack of sunlight, which can drive a person mad. Still, the world’s largest below-ground shopping complex is like a city of its own, with lots of unique shops, restaurants and attractions that are worth the slight possibility of getting cabin fever. An added incentive for people going to a game or a concert: most of the restaurants offer free parking. Here are 24 places to check out.
Five 2010 trends to watch: we ask Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Walsh, David Lee and other chefs what to look for in the coming year
Bespoke bread from Marc Thuet (Photo by Renée Suen)
It’s no secret that 2009 was rough for restaurants—“It’s a year a lot of restaurateurs are happy to see go,” says C5’s Ted Corrado—but with the new year almost a month old, optimism is back on the table. We talked to some of the city’s top chefs about five culinary trends for the coming year.
1. Less Is More Read the rest of this entry »
Small, chef-run restaurants that are down-to-earth in both atmosphere and culinary style. Chef Jamie Kennedy, who’s focusing on the Gilead Bistro, a decidedly more casual restaurant than the Wine Bar he sold last fall, anticipates more “chef-driven” spots like J.P. Challet’s Ici Bistro and Grant van Gameren’s Black Hoof. Claudio Aprile, who’s working on his second restaurant, Origin, agrees: “I’m hoping that we see a lot more restaurants that are open kitchen, 30 seats, three line cooks.”
Riding the gravy train: Smoke’s Poutinerie plans new locations and a poutine truck
Smolkin shows off his triple pork poutine: bacon, pulled pork and sausage atop fries (Photo by Karon Liu)
Fries, curds and gravy—three simple ingredients that, when combined, create a dish as Canadian as hockey. Toronto’s love affair with poutine started years ago with haute incarnations from Jamie Kennedy and in restaurants like Bymark (it’s hard to go wrong when both lobster and fries are involved). When Café du Lac opened in 2008, we swooned for its foie gras–topped version. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that poutine-focused restaurants would soon follow, and the first was thanks to Ryan Smolkin, an ex-advertising exec with no hospitality experience.
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Stop for Food, the summer’s other prix fixe festival, is underway
Ring my bell: Cowbell chef Mark Cutrara tempts diners with his Stop for Food prix fixe menu (Photo by Davida Aronovitch)
On the heels of yet another whine-infused Summerlicious (with the garbage strike adding fodder to the usual grumblings), Stop for Food offers a second (and stink-free) chance for prix fixe fun. Until August 31st, top restaurants like Vertical, Harbord Room and Frank are featuring locally-focused three-course menus for $35 or $50, complete with the feel-good glow of giving back to The Stop Community Food Centre.
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BYOB: Toronto restaurants drop corkage fees
Bottle shock: corkage fees are falling all over Toronto (Photo by Quinn Dombrowski)
Along with prix-fixe menus and pink slip parties (we’re looking at you, Globe), reduced corkage fees have become a popular recession-era tactic for restaurants trying to attract diners. Ontario jumped on the BYOB bandwagon in January 2005, it has never had the same success as similar programs in Quebec. That is, until now.
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