(Image: Renée Suen)
Toronto Life’s annual ranking of the city’s 10 best new restaurants is in our April issue, on newsstands now. Despite the lacklustre economy, it’s been a banner year for eating out. Here, James Chatto picks five more new restaurants are worth lining up for.
Thankfully, Caplansky's Delicatessen remains intact (Photo by Ian Irving)
Caplansky’s Delicatessen was closed yesterday, and officials crowded its College Street space after a technician set off a small fireball while trying to install a fryer. Zane Caplansky writes on the restaurant’s blog that the technician got burned and, amid the panic, used the fire extinguisher, then ran onto the street. Firefighters arrived, and soon the police, EMS, Toronto Public Health, the Ministry of Labour and Technical Standards and Safety Authority arrived to see if the technician who fled was OK. Eventually, the fryer vendor who hired the technician came to the restaurant and told the police that he installed the fryer himself. The cops promptly arrested him for obstruction. “Seeing your kitchen equipment guy being cuffed in your dining room and led away by the police is an experience I never imagined I’d have,” writes Caplansky. “And I’m not grateful for it.”
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The peak of Toronto dining? (Photo by Oliver Mallich)
As if our superior Chinatown weren’t enough of a draw, New Yorkers in search of a reason to visit Toronto may find inspiration in this odd list compiled by the travel site eTurbo News.
Some of the city’s best restaurants fail to make the cut, though some obvious culinary draws—like Wine Bar and the CN Tower’s touristy 360 Restaurant—are given a thumbs up. But how about fleeing the deli-filled streets of NYC for, wait for it, a deli? Apparently Caplansky’s is worth the journey (the writer even fantasizes about having the “cute, charming (a little pudgy), intelligent” owner Zane Caplansky as a son-in-law). Theatre district joints Dhaba and Focus Group are also top picks.
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Ratted out: Cora Pizza reopens after health inspectors discovered rats on the premises (Photo by The Pizza Review)
• U of T students, rejoice: Cora Pizza reopened its doors last week. The restaurant, a long-standing refuge of drunken university students, was closed due to unsanitary conditions (including, apparently, several dead rats and rat feces on the premises). With a history like this, we’re sure the customers will come flocking back. [CBC]
• Joanne Kates counts down Toronto’s top new restaurants of 2009, with fairly predictable results. Among her favourites are Buca, Black Hoof, the revamped Splendido, Osteria Ciceri e Tria and Mildred’s Temple Kitchen. The one wild card is Ba Shu Ren Jia, a Szechuan spot with a four-figure Steeles Avenue address. [Globe and Mail] Read the rest of this entry »
• The travel Web site concierge.com lists the world’s scariest foods. At first glance, we thought Jell-O reigned supreme as the scariest—at least scorpions and tarantulas are natural—but then we watched this video of a writhing plate of sannakji (live baby octopus). Imbibers have to contend with still-active tentacle suckers, which apparently present a choking hazard. [Concierge]
• New York Times writer Micheline Maynard visits Ottawa’s Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute to see if it lives up to its worldwide reputation. There, she experiences the highs and lows of professional cooking, including a successful lobster in verbena cream sauce, and a not-so-successful platter of skate. [New York Times]
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As people downsized discretionary spending (and foie gras consumption), the city’s chefs embraced their new bread and butter, turning humble sammies into the greatest thing since, well, sliced bread (sorry, we’re, um, on a roll). We chart the best of an ever-increasing bunch.
Smoked meat: Zane Caplansky insists on waiting for the cure (Photo by Robin Sharp)
Zane Caplansky, owner and operator of Caplansky’s Delicatessen, confirms on his blog that he will not be serving his famous smoked meat for one week—that is the time he’s estimating for the meat to be properly cured. This may pose a problem for his patrons, as the somewhat limited lunch menu has two items with smoked meat: an eight-ounce burger (20 per cent smoked meat, 80 per cent ground chuck) and a seven-ounce sandwich.
The reason behind the shortage is entirely due to Caplansky’s success: “I am a victim of my own excess. Or lack of excess,” he writes. “I figured we’d be busy. I didn’t think we’d be this busy.” The meat master is convinced that the deli meat he has been serving is not up to his standards, so serving none of it for a week is “better than [feeding customers] under-cured meat and have them never return.” Fret not, though; Caplansky goes on to say he’ll be purchasing a new bigger and better smoker for the deli within the next few days. Until then, we’ll have to stick to non-hilariously named foods. Grilled versht, anyone?
Guardian of the beef: Zane Caplansky lords over a cake version of his famous sandwich (Photo by Renee Suen)
Zane Caplansky is bringing his celebrated “Toronto smoked meat”—part Schwartz’s, part Hogtown corned beef—to a brand new space in the heart of the city’s old deli town. The new Kensington chop shop is slated to open in August and will feature an expanded menu, a patio, a performance space, and a family legacy close to Caplansky’s meat-loving heart. With many of the city’s charcuterie shops up at Eglinton, Caplansky opened his current Clinton Street spot in the hope of bringing the traditional deli experience back downtown. Almost a year later, he’s garnered praise for his hand-cured, hand-smoked brisket: Joanne Kates called him a “one-man smoked-meat renaissance” selling fare fit for her bubbe, and even the “godfather of deli,” Shopsy’s Yitz Penciner, signed off. Now that the beef buff has curing cred, Caplansky is bringing the deli rejuvenation home to what he calls “the heart of the old Jewish deli soul”: the former Jewish quarter of Kensington Market.
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