Dear reader,

Once a week—or more often, depending on the week—I think about a certain cocktail. It was a take on a martini at the Haifa Room, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Ossington. It was made with fig-infused gin and garnished with a chonky green olive, its pimento centre cast aside for a filling of funky blue cheese. I like a drink finished with something that’s more snack than it is garnish.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer on the menu, but the city isn’t short on other excellent savoury sips. In this week’s newsletter, you’ll find a ranked list of Toronto’s best dirty martinis (sorry to do this to you so early on a Thursday). As with any ranking, though, it’s up for debate. Have a favourite dirty martini that didn’t make the cut? Email me at rfleming@torontolife.com because I want to know about it—for both professional and personal reasons.

Plus, an Italian restaurant on St. Clair West with a chef who used to cook for the pope, what’s on the menu at Masaki Saito’s new omakase spot in Yorkville, and a deep-dive into the successful empire of restaurateur extraordinaire Janet Zuccarini. 

There is perhaps no martini as polarizing as the dirty kind, but I’ll take cloudy brine and vodka over lemon and gin any day (and twice on Fridays). If you love savoury cocktails as much as I do, work your way through this list of the city’s best dirty—and in some cases, filthy—martinis. Not (yet) included: the Cornichon, a dill pickle–based take at Bar Pompette that I look forward to trying as soon as tonight. Research! 

Marino Song used to cook for pope John Paul II. Now, he’s the chef, owner and sole server at Agio, his teeny-tiny Corso Italia kitchen, where he cooks up northern Italian, Sardinian and Lazian dishes for a faithful following of regulars.

Toronto’s only two-Michelin-star restaurant has a new, much more casual (read: way less expensive) sibling. MSSM, which stands for Masaki Saito Sushi Master, is the charismatic chef’s new omakase spot and sushi school, where $98 buys a 14-course menu of artfully plated fish dishes.

After nearly three decades building her food empire in Toronto, Janet Zuccarini is launching an 8,000-square-foot, $7-million hotspot in LA this fall—all while mourning her husband, Robbie Robertson. Opening a restaurant in 2023 is brave. Running a dozen of them is bonkers.

Robert Konashewych was a police officer with expensive tastes, two girlfriends and a mountain of debt. Heinz Sommerfeld was recently deceased with a large unclaimed estate. In our October issue, read the story of a crooked cop, a dead man and an $800,000 estate fraud. Plus, the general contractor from hell, Toronto’s best farm-to-table chefs, a Q&A with new Raptors coach Darko Rajaković, and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today.