Here’s some unfortunate news for lovers of fried chicken (which means pretty much everybody): Leslieville’s Paulette’s Original Donuts and Chicken is closing this Sunday. The upside is that a new location of Delica Kitchen will open at the Paulette’s space later this summer.
Straw-coloured, this medium-bodied wine has a floral, apple nose with a dry, red apple flavour. It’s fresh and lively and nicely balanced by citrus acidity. It’s a wine for quaffing on the dock or the patio or matching with tapas.
Finally, some good news related to street food regulations in Toronto: a new pilot project will allow some local food trucks to operate at five of the city’s parks. It’s an interesting move, because city rules currently prohibit new food trucks from selling grub on city-owned property, which includes city streets. That restricts new trucks to operating in private parking lots and at events.
The Dominus Vobiscum Saison is a standout from this year’s LCBO summer release. Its inclusion is appropriate, because as a style, saison was historically made to be part of the summer rations for farmhands. It’s also light on its feet and includes many familiar summer fruit flavours.
A few weeks back, Playa Cabana added yet another location to its quickly expanding roster of restaurants. Hacienda, the third taco-slinging joint, is more low-key (food-wise at least) than its brethren, though the same pumping beats pulse out alongside the characteristically boisterous signage.
Origin, created by Toronto’s brilliant chef Claudio Aprile, now has a third location in Bayview Village. This is a restaurant experience you don’t want to miss: the food is eclectic, super-trendy and absolutely delicious. The mozzarella bar features imported buffalo mozzarella and burrata; the raw bar has succulent oysters and mouth-watering tuna sashimi.
For this week’s post I ate smelly tofu, which I know is a bit of a cop out, because last week I ate balut, which is also an Asian food. Like, am I just going to write about Asian food every time? The answer is no, but let’s face it: Asians eat a lot of gross things. It’s partly what makes their cuisine so awesome.
Sotto in the Village, sister restaurant to the longstanding Sotto Sotto in Yorkville, closed its doors around two weeks ago. Owners couldn’t reach a lease agreement with the landlord, so they decided to close the restaurant after seven years in business.
Always a reliable Sauvignon. Pale straw colour with a nose of guava and cut grass, a palate alive with lime and gooseberry flavours and mouth-freshening acidity.
This week has been hot enough to literally fry stuff on the sidewalk. In Death Valley, lovers of rogue literalism have been getting so carried away with their curbside cooking that officials had to put out an official kibosh.
Years ago, before “beer knowledge” was added to my list of geeky obsessions, I struggled to remember the difference between pale lagers and pale ales. To some extent, they look the same, but they really share very little else in common.
Recognized as one of Toronto’s top mixologists, Moses McIntee has poured drinks at a who’s who list of sundown spots: Lucid, the Ritz-Carlton and Museum Tavern. Most recently, McIntee took the reins at Paese, where he’s built a well thought-out cocktail menu of crowd-pleasing libations.
