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It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Ruby Watchco, F’Amelia and Marben.
All stories relating to Ruby Watchco
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Ruby Watchco, F’Amelia and Marben
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Table 17, The Gabardine and Ruby Watchco
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Table 17, The Gabardine and Ruby Watchco.
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Yours Truly, Ruby Watchco and JaBistro
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Yours Truly, Ruby Watchco and JaBistro.
Friday Night Bites: The Grove, Ruby Watchco and Glas
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: The Grove, Ruby Watchco and Glas.
Top Chef Canada’s Ryan Gallagher to helm a revamped Reds
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News of big changes at Reds Bistro and Wine Bar, SIR Corp’s signature Bay Street power restaurant: Michael Steh, who left a sous-chef gig at Splendido to take over Reds’ kitchen in 2006, is out as executive chef. Replacing him is Ryan Gallagher, who made it to episode nine in the last season of Top Chef Canada and worked until recently at Ruby Watchco (there’s a studly-chef photo of him, tattoos and all, on Reds’ new website). But the changes go further than that. The restaurant will be shutting down on September 1 for three weeks of top-to-bottom renovation. When the dust clears, the restaurant will have a new feel and a new name: Reds Wine Tavern. We spoke with assistant general manager Ayla Neilly to get the details.
Friday Night Bites: Ruby Watchco, The Grove and Bestellen
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Ruby Watchco, The Grove and Bestellen.
The Weekender: Doors Open Toronto, Bonnie Raitt and six other items on our to-do list
Odysseo (Image: Odysseo)
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1. DOORS OPEN TORONTO
This long-running design event is really the architectural equivalent of a peep show. For one weekend of every year, buildings like Havergal College, TIFF Bell Lightbox and Steam Whistle Brewery allow visitors to explore their normally private spaces. May 26 and 27, Various locations, toronto.ca/doorsopen.
The Black Hoof is Canada’s fourth best restaurant—according to Vacay.ca’s inaugural poll
Vij’s was named best restaurant in Canada (Image: Mack Male)
Shrewdly piggy-backing on the S. Pellegrino list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (which comes out on Monday), new-ish travel site Vacay.ca conducted its own poll to determine the top 50 restaurants in Canada, the results of which were released today. At the top of the list is Vij’s, the much-lauded Vancouver haute-Indian restaurant, followed by Cambridge’s Langdon Hall and Montreal’s Joe Beef. The top Toronto restaurant is The Black Hoof, which took fourth place, followed by Canoe (5), Sushi Kaji (11), Splendido (14), Guu (18), Ruby Watcho (19), Scaramouche (28), Buca (31), Acadia (37), Biff’s (39), Origin (44), Wine Bar (45) and Pic Nic Wine Bar (48). The rankings were determined by the ballots of 15 judges (regular Dish contributors Renée Suen and Gizelle Lau among them), who ranked the 10 best Canadian places they’d dined at in the past 30 months. See the whole list [Vacay.ca] »
Gallery: the fifth annual Brewers Plate brought Ontario craft brewers together with Toronto chefs
(Image: Safa Jinje)
On Wednesday, 450 Torontonians gathered at Roy Thomson Hall for the fifth annual Brewers Plate, a fundraiser that celebrates the marriage of sustainable food and Southern Ontario craft beers. Each year, Brewer’s Plate raises money to benefit a Toronto-area initiative in the food and farming sectors. This year, the beneficiary was Green Thumbs Growing Kids, an innovative program that seeks to reconnect urban youth to their food through a variety of garden-based programs. There were a total of 47 serving stations offering up a springtime feast that featured in-season, locally produced ingredients. Each chef was teamed up with a craft brewery; some made dishes that paired well with their partner brew, while the more intrepid chefs featured beer as a key ingredient in their dishes. In all, a dozen chefs were in attendance (including Lora Kirk of Ruby Watchco, Aaron Joseph Bear Robe of Keriwa Cafe and Brook Kavanagh of La Palette), along with 21 craft breweries (Wellington, Great Lakes, Beau’s) and 11 other food producers (Wanda’s Pie in the Sky, Buddha Dog, Monforte Dairy).
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The Toronto Top Chef Canada contestants go through the motions for us at a mock quickfire
Head judge Mark McEwan with resident judge Shereen Arazm and host Lisa Ray
Season two of Top Chef Canada premieres this Monday, and to celebrate, Food Network Canada held a mock quickfire challenge at Victor (the home kitchen of competitor David Chrystian) for the Toronto-based contestants. Judges Mark McEwan and Shereen Arazm were on hand with Lisa Ray (in an ivory Pink Tartan sheath dress) playing host, as on the show. Chrystian had home field advantage, while Ryan Gallagher (sous chef at Ruby Watchco and erstwhile private chef for the Thompson family), Daniel Boulud–alum Carl Heinrich, Frank and caféAGO sous chef Elizabeth Rivasplata, Crush Wine Bar sous chef Trista Sheen and Sarah Tsai of the Toronto Lawns Tennis Club vied for the symbolic win (the real show, of course, was filmed months ago).
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Six things we learned about how chefs are dealing with rising food prices from today’s Star
The prices of many agricultural commodities are determined by traders at the Chicago Merc (Image: Matt Griffin)
Though the proliferation of exorbitantly priced hamburgers may make it hard to believe, most chefs hate passing the high price of food onto their customers. In the face of rising costs, Toronto chefs are taking steps to ensure that more expensive food doesn’t necessarily lead to more expensive meals, according to a piece by Tony Wong in today’s Star. After the jump, six things we learned from it.
Top Chef Canada season two contestants announced; here are your six Toronto chefs
(Images: Food Network Canada/Insight Productions)
UPDATE: Check out our recap of episode 1 »
With the sophomore season of Top Chef Canada set to premiere on March 12, Food Network Canada has finally introduced the 16 chefs hoping to cook their way to $100,000 (and, lest we forget, a GE Monogram kitchen). The group (which, perhaps responding to feedback about season one, is a tad more multicultural) once again contains six Torontonians, among them Marben’s Carl Heinrich and Ruby Watchco’s Ryan Gallagher. Tasting the food will be new host Lisa Ray, alongside head judge Mark McEwan and resident judge Shereen Arazm and a spate of guests that includes culinary personalities (Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelsson) and sundry celebrities (handyman Mike Holmes, actor Alan Thicke, Kenny vs. Spenny’s Spencer Rice). We round up the Toronto contestants, starting with Victor’s David Chrystian »
Introducing: Stasis Local Foods, the new Roncesvalles emporium for all things pickled and jarred (and preferably local)
Inside Stasis Local Foods, looking out onto Roncesvalles (Image: Caroline Aksich)
Up at the northern tip of Roncesvalles, just south of Dundas, sits the neighbourhood’s newest gourmet food shop, Stasis Local Foods. The store carries a tightly curated selection of local and seasonal gems, but the focus is on the made-in-house jams and preserves prepared by the shop’s young owner, Julian Katz. Katz has cooked his way across the Toronto dining landscape (C5, The Drake, Lucien, Ruby Watchco), but when not preparing $30 mains, he would pickle in-season produce and whip up scrumptious jams. One day, he had a revelation: “I looked around and saw that I had 30 or 40 cases of jam in my house, and I was like, ‘This is ridiculous! I can only give away jam as Christmas gifts for so long!’ ” Katz left his gig with Lynn Crawford in January to brave the city’s farmers’ markets, and then founded his company, Stasis Preserves. After a year of pestering his chef friends for access to their kitchens, Katz decided it was time to get his own.
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Introducing: Enoteca Ascari 26, the new Leslieville wine bar from the people behind Table 17
(Image: Signe Lanford)
The duo behind the popular Table 17 has just opened another restaurant with a number in its name, Enoteca Ascari 26. Chef John Sinopoli and business partner Erik Joyal, at 35 and 37, respectively, already have three restaurants under their belts. During their 20s, they opened Front Street’s Izakaya (which they later sold; it’s now Le Papillon on Front). In 2008 they charmed Leslieville with Table 17, offering rustic French fare with local Ontario ingredients. Their new wine bar feels like a boy’s dream come true: a pasta restaurant named after a fallen hero, famed Italian Formula One driver Alberto Ascari.
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