Your weekly digest of Toronto food news
Dear reader, For my partner’s first pandemic-times birthday, I pre-ordered a dozen freshly shucked oysters from Island Oysters, then a teeny takeout window in Bloordale. The idea was to bring them to a nearby park for a picnic. I thought I was being very cool and romantic, but the date quickly went south. First of all, each and every one of the benches and picnic tables were taken. I had failed to bring a blanket, so we squatted on a cement bollard and tried to find a place on the ground that wasn’t littered with cigarette butts to rest the tray. It was a pretty hot day for early June, so we felt the need to consume the oysters as quickly as possible, lest they cook in the blazing sun. It started to feel like work. Then, the pigeons arrived. The moral of this story is that takeout oysters are better in theory than they are in practice. So it’s a good thing that Island Oysters’ owner, Jason Kun, went and opened a sit-down restaurant just a shell’s throw away from that temporary to-go window. You’ll read all about it below. Also in this week’s newsletter, what’s on the menu at Ceci Bar, Oliver and Bonacini’s colourful new cantina in the old O&B Café Grill space. Plus, a look at Affinity Fish’s sort-of secret, 16-seat lunch service. For more of our food-and-drink coverage, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition. |
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| —Rebecca Fleming, food and drink editor |
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| | O&B’s colourful new cantina at Yonge and Front is the more casual sister spot to Leña, the brand’s South American restaurant up the street. Where Leña is an invitation for a quiet sit-down dinner at Abuela’s house, Ceci Bar caters to a younger, livelier and louder crowd—one that likes spicy popcorn enhanced with liquid nitrogen, plant-based birria tacos and boozy paletas. |
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| Last month, Affinity Fish—Little Portugal’s super-sustainable seafood store—quietly launched lunch service at their 16-seat counter. The menu will rotate but right now it includes a trio of katsu creations featuring Lake Huron whitefish: a soba noodle set, a rice bowl and what might be one of the city’s best katsu sandos. Click here for a closer look at each of the fish dishes. |
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| In the latest issue: 20 Torontonians doing big things with small footprints. Plus, the ugly truth about Ontario’s reform schools, a Q&A with the city’s traffic czar, vintage cars retrofitted for the electric age and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today. |
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