With a freshly-painted rooster perched atop of what once was the Chick ‘n’ Deli, locals can stop wondering what happened to their long-standing chicken institution. The newly-named People’s Chicken is now open for business. After 30 years under its previous moniker, restaurant and rooster alike received a well-earned refresher prior to re-opening to the public last Thursday.
People are particular. This is why an entire vernacular exists solely for ordering drinks: dry, perfect, stirred, shaken, neat or stuffed. Roll your eyes and call it high maintenance, but sometimes, it’s magic. Case in point: just such an exacting set of taste buds were supposedly responsible for the creation of Italy’s classic bittersweet aperitivo, the Negroni.
It’s opening night at Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie, and owner John Hardy (the III, according to his business card) is cool as a cucumber, even if he’s in a bit of a pickle. His brand new barbecue joint is rammed; it’s bursting at the seams, and servers can barely keep up. Hardy doesn’t appear phased, even as local barbecue legend Darryl Koster gets a table.
If The Black Hoof’s twitter account is to be believed, Grant van Gameren is leaving the highly regarded restaurant. This intensely disheartening message was just sent out a few minutes ago:
Last winter, much to the surprise of many North York residents who had been frequenting the place for years (and in some cases, decades), Lorne Pancer decided to sell the deli his grandfather Moe opened in 1957. Now, months later, he has opened a new eponymous deli in Richmond Hill. We spoke with him about his decision to get back into the pastrami business.
This is a great time for a pink sparkling wine. Actually, the colour is more of what the French call “eye of the partridge.” A delicious, light-bodied bubbly, with a nose of raspberries and violets and a taste that’s dry, with raspberry and tobacco leaf flavours. A very versatile food wine as well as an excellent aperitif. Well-priced when you consider rosé champagne. Food match: cold salmon, chicken salad.
It was just last month that we reported on the closure of Forest Hill’s longstanding China House, and now Toronto is set to lose yet another Chinese food institution. Lai Toh Heen, uptown’s sibling restaurant to the Metropolitan Hotel’s much-lauded Lai Wah Heen, will be closing on Sept. 18 after five years in business.
Hassel Aviles’ efforts to create Canada’s first underground food market are about to pay off. On Sept. 24, Evergreen Brick Works will host the Toronto Underground Food Market’s first event, bringing in a lineup of home-cooking virtuosos.
It is with great anticipation that I crack open a bottle of Great Lakes Brewery’s latest creation: Miami Weisse. Get it? As a child of the ’80s, in a number of my high school years I was called Don Johnson almost as much as my actual name. So I feel a certain connection — nay, a kinship — with his new wheat ale crafted right here in Toronto.
For years, Jamba Juice has been running the smoothie-show in the United States. Now, it’s Canada’s turn. Thanks to the family that brought us Yogen Fruz and Yogurty’s, Jamba Juice is moving north, and Toronto will be its testing grounds.
This weekend, legendary competitve eater Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi battles Toronto’s own “Furious Pete” Czerwinski in the second annual pizza pie eating competition at PIE, Barrie’s only wood-fired pizza joint. The Let ‘Em Eat Part Deuce competition will see the two — along with nine others — hoovering sauce and inhaling cheese like human garburators.
College street’s bustling indie java spot Manic Coffee has a sweet new project in the works: house-made gelato. Owner Matthew Lee, who apprenticed at Vancouver’s famed Elysian Coffee, plans to approach his artisanal gelato with the same science-driven zeal and attention to detail that he takes with his coffee.
