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Is 20 per cent the new 15 per cent? Restaurant tips nudge ever upward

This customer scrutinizes his bills closely (Image: pasukaru76)

In today’s Toronto Star, Amy Pataki reports on the latest trend sweeping Roncesvalles: credit card machines suggesting a 20 per cent tip. At least, that’s the standard at the strip’s two newest restaurants, The Ace and The Westerly. Pataki quotes Ace owner Greg Boggs explaining, “It’s not a sneaky thing, nor is it an expectation. I always tip at least 20 per cent when I go out.” Of course, the two Roncy restos aren’t the only ones that have moved to what Pataki refers to as “the Manhattan standard”—at the three locations of Mexican restaurant Milagro, suggested tips come in at 16, 20 and, ahem, 30 per cent (the last for larger parties). Long-time Dish readers will remember the furor that broke out when then-MPP David Caplan (who happens to be the brother of Zane Caplansky) proposed a bill than would ban automatic gratuities on large parties (that effort died on the order paper). We wonder how Torontonians will react to this new nudge northward. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Dish

Foodie Follies

December 30, 2011 | 9:05 am

6 Comments

Year in Review: 2011 was the year street food finally took off in Toronto

After living through decades of delicious but pretty much uniform street meat, followed by a city-backed pilot program that ended up a complete fiasco, Torontonians finally got a glimpse of the street food promised land in 2011, thanks mostly to a clutch of feisty entrepreneurs. A selective and entirely arbitrary roundup of the highs and lows of Toronto ephemeral eating in 2011, after the jump.

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The Dish

Foodie Follies

November 30, 2011 | 12:09 pm

7 Comments

Truck-off: why Calgary’s food truck program works and Toronto’s doesn’t

Toronto’s food trucks are not permitted to operate on public streets in the downtown core

Somehow, inventive, high-quality food served out of a truck has become one of the hottest food trends across North America over the last few years, and Toronto entrepreneurs—like Suresh Doss of Food Truck Eats, or Zane Caplansky—are doing their best to keep up. But such ventures have succeeded despite some strict regulations that keep most trucks off public streets downtown. And although we have no desire to write yet another how-Calgary-is-better-than-Toronto article, that city is halfway through an impressive food truck pilot program that has 10 new trucks roaming the streets. We called around to find out how Calgary got started and see whether the same thing could happen here.

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The Dish

Aprons & Icons

November 3, 2011 | 5:29 pm

1 Comment

Zane Caplansky flaunts his delicious meats on Dragon’s Den, walks away empty-handed

A proud Zane Caplansky outside his first food truck (Image: Caroline Aksich)

Toronto diners watching Dragon’s Den last night got to see a familiar face: Zane Caplansky, owner of the eponymous College Street deli renowned for its smoked meat sandwiches. Before divvying up some luscious-looking sammies, he pulled a tarp off Thundering Thelma, his big blue food truck, and made his pitch. Caplansky described his vision of an entire fleet of Thelmas, offering up 15 per cent of his company for $350,000.

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The Dish

Locavoracious

October 13, 2011 | 4:36 pm

2 Comments

In a bid to stop the “mega-quarry,” Michael Stadtländer rallies (nearly) every chef we’ve ever heard of for Foodstock

Michael Stadtländer has rallied 100 of the best chefs from across Canada to participate in Foodstock, an epic, pay-what-you-can public food event on October 16 to raise money to fight the construction of a huge limestone quarry in the town of Honeywood, Ontario. The Highland Companies’ plan aims to span 2,316 acres of land and run 189 feet deep (deeper than Niagara Falls), and will have to pump 600 million litres of groundwater out of the pit each day (about the same amount used by 2.7 million Ontarians), all to extract crushed stone known as amabel dolostone.

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The Dish

Opening

July 22, 2011 | 5:15 pm

12 Comments

Introducing: Thundering Thelma, Zane Caplansky’s first food truck

Zane Caplansky with Thundering Thelma (Image: Caroline Askich)

Nearly two months past her original launch date, Zane Caplansky’s new food truck—named Thundering Thelma—has come roaring onto Toronto streets. It wasn’t Thelma’s mammoth size (18 feet long, eight wide and eight tall) that held up the launch, but rather a swath of new red tape that was laid down in May, one month prior to the scheduled launch. Caplansky estimates that missing half the summer has cost him well over $100,000 in revenue, but despite this baptism by fire, he’s all smiles and excitement as he and his team gear up for their first day on the road.

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The Hype

To-Do List

June 15, 2011 | 1:09 pm

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The Weekender: Deli Duel 2, Toronto Sketch Com-ageddon and six other events on our to-do list

Strawberries, Diamond Rings and Zane Caplansky

1. ST. LAWRENCE MARKET STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL (FREE!)
It’s berry season in Ontario, and St. Lawrence Market is celebrating with its annual strawberry-focused fest. The morning’s events are split between how-to sessions (making strawberry-mint jam with Bumpercrop, say, or a cooking demo with celeb chefs Massimo Capra and Michael Bonacini) and taste tests (chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate strawberry shortcake and strawberry lemonade). You really can’t go wrong. June 18. St. Lawrence Market, 92-95 Front St. E., stlawrencemarket.com.

2. NORTH BY NORTHEAST
In recent years, NXNE has really expanded its offerings to become something of a cultural event. (Hello, film fest and digital media conference.) But it’s also the same gigantic, new music-focused fest we’ve loved for the past 17 years—that would be the seven days and seven nights of shows and parties bit—with a lineup that includes Devo, The Pharcyde, Fucked Up, Diamond Rings, the Dum Dum Girls and Braids. To June 19. Five-day wristband $50; events at Yonge-Dundas Square free. Various locations, 416-863-6963, nxne.com.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

May 24, 2011 | 5:14 pm

2 Comments

Two Steeltown food trucks set to show Toronto the Slow how it’s done

Meat awaits New Yorkers at the Black Hoof (Image: Greg Bolton)

The Times is a bit late on the meat craze, with its magazine recently running a travel piece on some of Toronto’s carnivorous hot spots. Writer Adam Sachs went straight for brunch at the Hoof Café and had the stewed rabbit with blueberry-buckwheat pancakes, grilled cheese with tongue, eggs Benny with suckling pig and even more tongue. He also visited Sanagan’s Meat Locker in Kensington before heading to Caplansky’s for a smoked meat sandwich, a meat-filled knish and the famously large poutine.

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