The Fiano grape is pretty well exclusive to Italy’s Campania province and to Sicily; this comes from Sicily. It’s golden in colour, and has a medium weight with a minerally nose of tropical fruit. It offers a richly extracted, creamy mouth feel.
Gose seems to be the craft beer of the moment in Ontario these days. In the spring, Amsterdam Brewery and Great Lakes Brewery got their Maverick & Gose collaboration onto LCBO shelves, and as of July, Opa’s Gose from Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co. is now available across the province.
A stone’s throw from Christie Pits, Northwood has been a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. Locals perch on seats overlooking the Bloor West street scene, or they sit by the bar while Ana Wolkowski pours her simple yet elegant cocktails.
One of the best-value red wines at Vintages. It’s a richly extracted full-bodied wine with a spicy, smoky nose of blackberries and black olives. It has a sweet and savoury taste backed by lively acidity.
August is a glorious month of warm weather, fresh air and, let’s not forget, greasily delicious CNE food. But you don’t have to wait until Aug. 16 to (over-) indulge. These Toronto restaurants are serving up fair-inspired food just because they can.
While the conglomerate-owned Beer Store continues to pull shenanigans like listing Keith’s as an IPA, the LCBO has transformed itself into the default retail source of good beer for most Ontarians. The government-owned monopoly deserves a (brief) round of applause for opening its shelves over the past year to envelope-pushing bottles like special-release double IPAs and the province’s first gose
El Catrin, the Distillery District’s jazzy new joint for tacos, is a visual feast. A loud mural dancing with colour is splayed across one accent wall; neon skulls glow from a back room; and eye-catching dioramas of rural scenes from the homeland are dotted throughout the space. Liquor also plays a role in the decor scheme, with bottles of tequila and mescal surveying the scene from mammoth shelves behind the bar.
July was not a good month for me, coffee-wise. You see, I work near York Mills and Don Mills, which is a terrible area if you are hungry, thirsty or tired. There is little in the way of good food, and even less in the way of good coffee.
Gamay, the grape that makes Beaujolais, also produces the most versatile of food wines. At room temperature, serve it with meat. Chilled, it can work well with salmon. It’s medium-bodied and dry, with crisp acidity and a gentle tannic line giving it good structure.
Toronto’s climate may not compare to the Caribbean, but we sure have our fair share of joints dishing out Jamaican heat. Chef Grant van Gameren tells us who knows their jerk chicken — and who doesn’t.
It’s not often that you hear of an izakaya closing in Toronto these days, but Nejibee has appears to have bit the dust. The Wellesley Street restaurant is currently papered up, and a note on the door indicates that, due to “various circumstances,” the business is closed.
A beer based on a TV show seems like it must necessarily be a gimmick. But scratch the surface and it becomes obvious that the Game of Thrones-inspired Iron Throne ale from Brewery Ommegang is a substantial and remarkable brew.
