Sadies

Coffee starts with breakfast. No. Stop me, it's backwards. Breakfast starts with coffee, and without it I sometimes don't know my way around. Never mind that I'm writing this at 9 in the evening.

I wanted to wrack up a big appetite when I went to meet Willie at Sadies Diner (whose website exists in the Dark Ages of myspace) for brunch. It's a fair 6km from my house to the oldtimey vegan diner at Portland and Adelaide, and though I wasn't walking fast it did the trick to make my stomach growl, and for the last half of my trip I flat out craved that hot coffee!

And when it hit my tongue I was left with a strong and memorable impression of meh.

Sadly, it went for the whole meal. 

The brunch wound up with a funny vegan Tex Mex angle. Understand, Sadie's is in no way a Tex Mex place. It just so happened that on this occasion our appetites had migrated, as the geese do, to the south. Can't blame them. I had the vegan Huevos Rancheros (10$), one of my favourite brunch dishes usually. Willie got to tell me a bit about different soy based cheeses, since I am a blank slate. I know nothing. Do they pair well with wine? I am told, no, they don't. They don't melt, either...except for Daiya cheese, which is why it is a BIG DEAL for vegans. Sadie's uses Daiya. I did like it, too, though it is stiffer than milkcheese. It has a similar taste, but floury. That interesting newness aside, I don't think the tortillas were good. The tofu 'egg' was cold, and hadn't really been made 'eggy' in any way. It just tasted like tofu. Cold tofu, in big dry clumps. No turmeric to turn it yellow, even! I know that a lot can be done for vegan scrambled eggs, and this was a bottom line effort. You can't go too wrong with brown beans and a crunchy tortilla at least.
In instances like this, I praise my love of hot sauce, and soak that dish.

Keeping with a deep south theme, Willie went for a more lunch like nosh, and got the Quesadillas (9$). A mix of predictable veggies tasted good, but didn't open our eyes to anything new and delightful, and weren't handled in a way that made the stuffed tortillas seem rethought. It wasn't delicious, just plain. I complain a lot about the lack of inventiveness in the zucchini-eggplant-peppers trinity vegetarian dishes tend to favour, though it's most often a symptom of the token vegetarian menu item on an otherwise meat loving menu. Sadie's is mainly vegetarian and vegan! They should be doing something exciting- it's what I expect. So even though I like the Daiya cheese, and there was a fair amount, I think this dish could have been more inventively veganized. One could not even taste the sambal alleged to be in their vegan mayo! One thing I did like was that corny, soft tortilla- I wonder if it's actually made in house?

(You can read Willie's review here).

The Bellevue

I feel that this is the in-the-know haunt of beardo's and beardo-fanciers alike. Somehow between location and menu, the clientele at the Bellevue (located at 61A Bellevue at the corner of Nassau) have a certain style in common, a style reflected in the low-ceremony resto. I've been here for coffee previously, which is when I first lit on the homogeny of the indie joint. It's a kind of crowd that I feel comfortable with: those looking for cheap booze, coffee and good food, a casual setting and a lovable location. It feels like my uncles house back when I was a kid. Maybe that's just all the moustache's doing the cooking and serving...or the brown and speckled pottery?

The building used to be an eco-friendly clothes store, and the transformation is surprising to me. The new decor looks like it's been around forever or at least since the seventies. I know that this was a complete renovation, but the Bellevue has arrived with a quiet calm to announce that, actually, it's always been here, thank you. At least in spirit.

Their patio is a scattering of wood slotted tables and chairs, a bit wobbly. There's no fence, and the windows are big, open wide so that the interior restaurant seems to flow into the front yard, where we sit. Mary and I both order americano's to wake up (2.38$), and as I browse the menu I'm happy to note that they opt for sustainable options as much as possible. In todays geography that may no longer be unusual, but it certainly tickles me. I also read that many (or all?) their breads come from Woodlot, a bakery/restaurant that has been hanging out on my to-review list for a while. This gets me excited indeed!

The coffees are served in beautiful retro cups by our friendly lady server. I found the staff here very good. They seemed to be having fun, didn't mind answering a few questions, and didn't leave us wanting for anything. I can recommend the americano. It's got a thick froth of crema, and is pretty strong, though having more citrus than is my preference.

 

A fan of all things Latin American, Mary gets El Special (12$), which is a brekky plate of bacon or ham or sausage, cheesy scrambled eggs, tomatillo sauce, tortillas and black beans. Unfortunately this dishware is not very special! Plain white, oh well. The food is bright and the side bowl of black beans has punchy green avocado cubes on top. The tortillas remind me of cannoli's because of their shape, rolled into small tubes. Maybe a bit too small. There are only two, and they look more crisp and chewy than spongy. They prove a good dipper for the zesty tomatillo sauce, laced with lemon and cilantro but mostly full of itself. They don't help with the beans which are sitting in a soup of juice. We both find the beans sadly bland, even with the chili powder noticeable in them, onions, tomato cubes and avocado. They needed more salt, and less juice. I would also suggest baking them with a dash of sesame oil, but that's just me. The cheesy scrambled eggs please Mary who never met a wet egg she could eat. They are robust and well cooked with onions and herbs. The cheese was hard to notice. I think The Bellevue is using a soft and mild cheese, like babybel (I had something similar on my plate). Mary had asked for bacon with hers, but the kind of bacon used by the Bellevue is a thicker cut that when cooked crispy (as requested) has too strong a flavour of pork rind, and neither of us liked it much.

Interested as always in exploration, but craving eggs, I went for a plate with a unlikely assembly of nibbles, The Unusual (12$). Sunnyside eggs, sausage (chipolata, I think), sliced oven roasted beets, cheddar (though I again swear this was Babybel), kimchi (not house-made, but procured elsewhere in Kensington), with Woodlot's toast and fresh fruit. Yummy! It was a bit of a multicultural smorgasbord, and all things I enjoy separately. The Woodlot bread was GREAT. It was sliced thin and toasted to the texture of crostini, but still chewy and absorbant. Like all my favourite breads it was really grainy. The butter had melted and seeped in. Some flavours matched better than others. I tried kimchi with runny egg on the toast. Good combo. GREAT combo, with the vinegar, chili, tomato sauce and egg! The beets with green onions were sweet, cool and refreshing after the spicy kimchi, and tasted nice with the strawberries and blueberries. We both loved the sausage. It was meaty without being fatty. It tasted like a traditional English banger, but not nearly so fatty, with a crisper skin.

I think for what you get the price is right, moreso knowing the sourcing of ingredients is considerate to the environment. There are other things on this menu I would be interested in trying, namely gluten-free ricotta pancakes.

Note: Their online menu does not match the menu you will be served. Prices are slightly different, some descriptions have been changed. But it gives an idea!

Fabarnak

What really disappointment me with Fabarnak was how badly I wanted to love it. The pitch was great. The design and branding is colourful and crisp, and the menu reads like something out of my warmest gourmand fantasies. The price was also shockingly low on things with quality, often local-organic-gluten-free ingredients! Most alluringly, their heart is so in the right place.

Fabarnak is located in the Church Street Community Centre, 519 Church Street. One of the reasons I wanted to go there was because I wanted to contribute some traffic, some awareness, especially since I suspect people would hesitate to go out of their way to dine in a community centre (though after going inside, this place is BEAUTIFUL! They nailed the interior decorating, so cute). The tips get donated to the centre, as do the profits. The staff are people who may otherwise have difficulty finding work (I thought the service was quite fine). It's a beautiful idea.

If only the chefs were as skilled as the menu writer, if only their cuisine reflected that vision!

As with any breakfast brunch thing, my friend Abe and I started with coffee. We were getting a pretty late start, our date happening at 2. What I hadn't realized until the day before was that Fabarnak has shorter hours on the weekend, and would be closing at 3. There was fewer pastries than I had hoped for, as I looked across the counter while waiting. photo's show that the cupcakes here could be delicious, but there was none to try. The coffee was bitter and not very strong. I think the espresso based drinks are better, made with illy.

I was very excited after my initial research of their online menu. Finally, after all the horror and the majesty I'd heard about grits, I could try them! It's another of those love-hate foods I've been hoping to try...the menu touts the dish as this glorious thing garnished with shrimp and sausage, eggs, greens, molasses and shaved toscana cheese.

So, naturally, it had run out.

Now, I will concede the point that we had arrived close to the finish here, and the dish was unashamedly the most interesting and therefore tempting thing on the menu. Alas, my disappointment didn't take me to the grave, there were consolation pancakes to eat.

The idea of yeast leavened pancakes was a draw. Would they be fluffier? Would they have a beerishness to them? Toss in some rosemary whipped cream, and I'm sold on what I was hoping would be a savoury-sweet stroke of genius. What arrived? Two soggy pancakes more akin to bread pudding in texture than the boastfully fluffy griddlecakes I love. Everything was pooled together in the middle of the plate, the whipped cream all over the (dull, grey) peameal bacon and cakes. I was giving this a lot of thought after the fact, and I think one of the biggest shortcomings of this adorable, underwhelming cafe is presentation. The people working the kitchen need to learn to plate. It's not unlike making beautiful hand-lettering. You have to give the letters room to breathe! Let things sit with space between then on the plate.

Dear chefs: go to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Looks at the abstract paintings. Now, plate something beautiful. 

The portion was reasonable, and I DO think the food was good for what we paid (under 15$ each after tip), but my expectations were so high. Their menu reads so well. The pear that came with my pancakes was nice, but I couldn't taste a lick of maple in the whole dish.

I'd like to say that Abe fared better. He certainly seemed satisfied! With big eyes and a big stomach, the full monty sounded like a meal and a half. Picture a triple decker, but instead of toast you have savoury french toast, and in the layers are smoked fontina and peameal bacon. The spread described as garnish for the sandwich made me think of it would totally unique: plum and beet jam with dijon! Though I didn't only try one bite, so this may be a fair assessment, I couldn't taste it. The bacon was not as plentiful on this sandwich as I personally would have hoped, and it really needed something tart or sweet to make it unique. I was underwhelmed, and again, everything had just been stacked in the middle of a giant, white, rectangular plate.

After all this, I want to come back. I want to go to Fabarnak for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, and have them wow me. I still want this menu to taste as good as it sounds, to be more than just 'Okay'. I want to be able to say something great about a place that is trying to do something great.

The Drake Hotel

At long last! Drawn and Devoured returns with another weeks worth of delicious restaurant review. This week brought a most delightful brunch from Toronto's famous hotel/restaurant/club/you name it, The Drake. I've been a fan for a while, but it was really fun to go with some people who had never been, to hear what they thought of the food and to try something new myself.

One thing I will always love about The Drake but haven't drawn here is the Caesar. There's more horseradish in that thing than you can shake a fist at. I recommend you make a little detour over to BlogTO for some pictures and an extra-fantastic review of the drink here.

Two of my party of five opted for the manliest thing on the menu. First they mused over the smaller, more typical breakfast plate, but it was the lure of pancakes WITH all that bacon, egg and hash brown that drew them in. By the end I think the Lumberjack had felled them and both plates were whisked away half-done. From my samples and the feedback the ladies were more than happy to provide (I love vocal company!), there are some points of improvement on this platter. First and foremost, that splurge on the pancakes? A bit of a waste. On one plate they were overdone and rubbery. While the other plate had pancakes which were a more ideal golden-brown, they were still flat and bland. Drake needs to learn how to make a fluffier stack! Points go to the big bad plaid for it's crispy, greasy good potatoes, which were hot and fluffy on the inside, and to the mound of bacon heaped on the side. Not shy with the meat! Who's surprised, Drake also runs a barbecue.

I think it's generally pretty hard to mess up a burrito. When you mix all that good stuff together -eggs, potato, cheddar and sour cream in this case- wrap it in soft tortilla and grill until the essence of each ingredient melds together, well, it makes magic. In the Drake's case, they make it stand out by putting fries right in! Or did those potatoes just taste exactly like fries? This baby was on the large side, so bring your appetite if you plan to order it. It also comes with avocado (guacamole, actually) and salsa on the side so you can add them per bite as you work your way through. Oniony, the guac has good taste. Unfortunately the salsa was not as flavourful, lacking any bold choices and tasting like a plain pico- that's just diced tomatoes and onion, for those not in the know.

 

I present...quiche! Oh, they tried to fool us with clever naming, but when you're baking egg into a pie crust, it's a quiche. I did really enjoy this- the pastry was buttery and flaky, the egg was rich and creamy, full of mushrooms and greens. Ricotta was used in with the egg to give it that lovely extra body and delicious taste. I don't think I really tasted any custard, which is a bit of a shame since it would have added that extra level of interest to what was a perfectly created breakfast. I'm glad the humongous wedge of egg came with a salad sized to match. It worked to clean my palate in between forkfuls, and was also full of yummy red cabbage.

 

Daniel, Adelle (you should be familiar with her by now!), Lisa, Jane and I are all into coffee in a big way. I think it comes back to Australia- Jane and Lisa are from the java obsessed country, I've lived there, and Adelle has family there (Daniel doesn't have the Aussie connection, but he is awesome anyhow). They know good coffee! Toronto's coffee scene is only just emerging and unfortunately there's little consistency between what passes for a latte or cappuccino here. Order the same thing at different places, and you'll just get a completely different drink. The Drake makes their espresso beverages too watery, and bitter. I know it's not their specialty- but I demand perfection! If you go there, stick to the drip. It's passable.