Cork & Fin. ■ Parts & Labour. ■ Taylor’s Genuine Food & Wine Bar. ■ Local Kitchen & Wine Bar.
It was conjunction junction for this year’s openings. One is now officially the loneliest number, at least when it comes to restaurant names.
Sticky fingers
Top four things we tried to steal
- The secret salt shakers at Stone Soup Inn
Because dinner guests shouldn’t be seasoning their food – but if they insist, these stones by Vancouver Island’s Cathi Jefferson Pottery ensure discretion.
- The bread rack at Les Cavistes
Made from U-shaped steel that could hold fireplace logs, it was custom-ordered to cradle baguettes-in-waiting at this Montreal wine boutique and restaurant.
- The bill trays at Brasserie t!
Montreal ceramicist Pascale Girardin’s take on terroir stamps Quebec licence plates from the 1960s and ’70s in shades like gunmetal black and glossy caramel. On se souvient.
- The meathooks from Buca
Not just for hanging hams anymore: In this cavernous Toronto restaurant they make a bold hold for ingenious light fixtures.
How to get the 2010 restaurant look
1 Chef-as-carpenter
Michael Stadtländer at Haisai (Singhampton, Ontario) isn’t the only chef with a will to whittle; chef de cuisine Charles-Antoine Crête made the wooden boards for Brasserie t! (Montreal).
2 Salvaged wood
The bar at Pourhouse (Vancouver) boasts 28 feet of reclaimed Douglas fir. The floors at Taylor’s Genuine Food & Wine Bar (Ottawa) are made from lumber that spent the last century at the bottom of the Ottawa River.
3 Vintage-inspired equipment
The meat slicer at Acme Cafe (Vancouver) is a genuine Berkel, while the slicer, rotisserie and charbroiler at Charcut (Calgary) are vintage-designed but custom-built. The perfectly oversized ice cubes at Pourhouse come from a Kold-Draft machine (which comes with an oversized price tag).
4 Cut-out signage
Peekaboo logos at Charcut and at Parts & Labour (Toronto), and abstract cut-outs in a wall at Oru (Vancouver). Next year: chef-as-welder?
5 Edison bulbs
Literally everywhere. So flattering and yet so overexposed.
6 Ye Olde Time WC
Bathrooms and vintage fixtures: not usually a dream pairing. But the pedal-operated faucets (Pourhouse) and repurposed washing machine sinks (Dominion Square Tavern, Montreal) actually work – in all senses of the word.
7 Branded staff T-shirts
Chefs at Charcut display their logo where their heart is. The sky-blue Lacostes on the servers at F Bar (Montreal) work swimmingly, as long as you don’t happen to be wearing one.
8 Smiles
The interaction between servers and cooks at Origin (Toronto) is better than any decoration, and it can’t be bought or sold.
