With Friends Like These
A look inside three near-perfect dinner parties By Kate Allen
DINNER #1:
Queen West Bacchanalia
Is it cheating to have the executive chef of one of the city’s buzziest restaurants cook for your dinner party? For Bradley Denton, the founding partner of Czehoski and co-owner of Le Petit Castor, it’s expected: he has been best friends with Cory Vitiello, chef-owner of the Harbord Room, for seven years. The two met when Denton recruited Vitiello to be sous-chef at the fledgling Czehoski (he ended up at the Drake when Czehoski’s opening was delayed). Their tight-knit crew grew from their professional lives; Luke McCann (co-owner of Le Petit Castor) and Anton Potvin (owner of the Niagara Street Café) are all players in Toronto’s elbow-to-elbow restaurant scene, and Denton’s girlfriend, Kate Chartrand, who is the director of public relations at Hermès Canada, brought her friends from the fashion and TV world into the fold. “When we get together, it’s more about making fun of each other than really discussing anything,” explains Vitiello. “No heavy politics, just laughing.”
Because they spend their days fussing over strangers, when they throw one of their dinners, they keep things simple: “Good friends, a lot of food and even more to drink,” says Vitiello. Denton originally wanted to hold the party on his massive rooftop patio, but a thunderstorm forced them into the tiny dining room. Denton’s three-year-old son, Oliver, spent most of the meal under the table playing with their Lab, Parker. The party started once he was tucked into bed. By two a.m., everyone was drinking vodka smoothies (“drinks that would have been very healthy, if not for all the alcohol splashed in,” says Denton) and dancing to Madonna.
Vitiello describes his group of friends as “incestuous.” Anton Potvin created the wine list at the Harbord Room, and Denton designed its eraser-pink dining room; Denton co-owns Le Petit Castor with McCann; and this summer, Denton designed the Double Deuce Saloon, which Vitiello co-owns.
All photographs by Daniel Ehrenworth
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