That Little Place, by the Huntsville lights
That Little Place by the Lights is the family Italian room at 76 Main Street East in downtown Huntsville, next to the town lights and a waterfront…
Row & Roast, the Deerhurst coffee bar
Row & Roast Coffee Co. is the cafe inside Deerhurst Resort: Muskoka Roastery beans, espresso, in-house baking, open to guests and the public. The…
Rahier, the Leaside patisserie
Rahier Patisserie has been the neighbourhood bakery at 1586 Bayview Avenue since 1996. Francois Rahier's official house still calls it a friendly…
Deerhurst, Peninsula Lake
Deerhurst Resort opened in 1896 on Peninsula Lake in Huntsville: 760 acres, a two-hour drive from Toronto, now under Freed Hotels & Resorts. The…
Terroni Price, above Summerhill
Terroni Price sits at 1095 Yonge Street in Summerhill, above Bar Centrale: two upper floors and a rooftop that looks both uptown and downtown.…
Madrina, Distillery tapas
Madrina Bar y Tapas is the Catalan room at 2 Trinity Street in the Distillery District. Michelin files it as a lively old-and-new warehouse: pan…
Mylar and Loreta's, the Singhampton table
Mylar and Loreta's has been the home-style room on Grey County Road 124 in Singhampton since 1985. Sandra Hamilton turned the old Hampton House —…
United Bakers, a dairy room since 1912
United Bakers Dairy Restaurant is the Lawrence Plaza table that started in 1912 as a five-cent coffee house in the Ward. Aaron and Sarah Ladovsky,…
EDO-ko, twenty-five years on Spadina Road
EDO-ko is the Forest Hill Village Japanese room at 425 Spadina Road. The house says it is celebrating twenty-five years in the village, having…
The Good Son, Don Mills wood oven
The Good Son at the Shops at Don Mills is the uptown room of a two-shop Toronto house. Official copy still says come for the food, stay for the…
Black Camel, the Crescent window
Black Camel is the take-out barbecue window at 4 Crescent Road, just off Yonge at Rosedale. Brisket, pulled pork, seared steak, the Camel Club.…
Aloette, a June supper on Spadina
Aloette is still the diner under Alo at 163 Spadina Avenue: bar stools at the kitchen, a burger, an iceberg wedge, lemon meringue pie. Michelin…
Bomou, the Bayview atelier
Bomou is the French-inspired artisanal bakery Azar and Negar Sabzevari opened on Bayview: hand-made viennoiserie, naturally leavened breads, a…
Wonderland, a park day of food
Canada's Wonderland is the Vaughan park that still treats food as part of the ticket: Grande World Eatery on the old Backlot / Ginza Gardens pad,…
ViVetha, the east Beaches bistro
ViVetha Bistro opened in 2005 at 2485 Queen Street East, at the east end of the Beaches. Chef Siva Thambinathan still calls it an Italian-French…
Cafe Landwer, shakshuka and the takeout bag
Cafe Landwer is the Israeli-Mediterranean café that Toronto now treats as both a sit-down brunch room and a takeout counter. The Canadian site…
Beaches n' Cream, by Woodbine
Beaches n' Cream sits at 2075 Queen Street East, in the heart of Woodbine Beach. The official house calls it the place for desserts, coffee, and a…
Mizzica, gelato not ice cream
Mizzica Gelateria is the family shop Denise and Paolo brought from Sicily and Abruzzo to downtown Toronto: gelato made fresh daily in-house,…
Airbnb, a stay across two statements
Airbnb is the stay that is not a hotel name on the door. Two statement lines, same listing token, late spring into early summer: a rented room in…
Bodega Henriette, Beachhill brunch
Bodega Henriette is the independent restaurant-café at 1801 Gerrard Street East, in the Beachhill pocket of the east end. The official house says…
Village Chill, the Forest Hill habit
Village Chill is the take-out ice cream counter at 325 Lonsdale Road in Forest Hill Village. City licensing still files it as ice cream, no seats:…
Mandy's, the Toronto salad house
Mandy's is the Montreal salad house that Toronto now treats as a weekday lunch room: create-your-own bowls, named plates, a shop that sells the…
Remarkable Bean, roasted on Queen East
The Remarkable Bean is the family roaster that has sold coffee and tea on Queen Street East since 1994. The official house still says it plainly:…
Bagels on Fire, wood oven on Queen East
Bagels on Fire has been making Montreal-style bagels in Toronto since 2013: from scratch, daily, in custom wood-fired ovens. The Well still prints…
Mayrik, mother’s kitchen on Bayview
Mayrik is the Armenian room at 1580 Bayview Avenue. The official house says the word translates to mother: a kitchen that pays homage to that…
Eggstatic, sunshine on Bayview
Eggstatic is the halal brunch room that started at 1568 Bayview Avenue in Leaside in 2018. Chef Faris Awwad still frames it as breakfast classics…
Dineen, 140 Yonge
Dineen Coffee Company occupies the ground floor of the 1897 Dineen Building at Yonge and Temperance. The heritage block was a hat and fur house.…
Grey Gardens, the Kensington wine bar
Grey Gardens is a restaurant and wine bar at 199 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market. Jen Agg and Mitch Bates opened it in February 2017. Agg said…
Pizzeria Libretto, Ossington heat
Pizzeria Libretto opened on Ossington in August 2008. Max Rimaldi and chef Rocco Agostino were among the first in Toronto to serve VPN-certified…
Union Pearson Express, twenty-eight minutes
The Union Pearson Express is Metrolinx’s airport rail link: Union Station to Toronto Pearson, with brief stops at Bloor, Weston, and Mount Dennis.…
Fairmont Royal York, across from Union
The Fairmont Royal York opened in 1929 at 100 Front Street West, directly across from Union Station. A château-style railway hotel, limestone and…
Aloette, the diner under Alo
Aloette opened in 2017 at 163 Spadina Avenue, downstairs from Alo. Patrick Kriss and the Alo Food Group built a narrow diner-bistro: bar stools at…
Bar Isabel, still the octopus room
Bar Isabel opened in 2013 at 797 College Street. Grant van Gameren’s Spanish tavern is the room that taught a lot of Toronto to order grilled…
Dispatch Coffee, after Bay Street
Dispatch Coffee is a Montreal roaster that opened a Toronto café in the financial district — 390 Bay Street, in the lobby of the Munich Re tower,…
Forno Cultura, King West oven
Forno Cultura is the Italian bakery Andrea Mastrandrea opened on King West in 2013 — a working oven first, a café second. Third-generation baker,…
Mildred’s, the Liberty Village temple
Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is the brunch room hidden at 85 Hanna Avenue in Liberty Village. The house calls the dining room a temple for a reason:…
Pai, under Duncan Street
Pai Northern Thai Kitchen opened in 2014 in a basement room at 18 Duncan Street. Chefs Nuit Regular and Jeff Regular named it after Pai, Thailand,…
Canoe, fifty-four floors up
Canoe sits on the 54th floor of the TD Bank Tower at 66 Wellington Street West. Oliver & Bonacini opened it in 1995 as a contemporary Canadian…