Black Hoof: A little Bit of Brooklyn in Toronto

House made Charcuterie and an order of house made pickles.  I love this place.  The Black Hoof is a small store front restaurant in Toronto's uber hip west side.  It's the kind of casual, locavore, food centered place with a laid back, funky vibe that has taken over Williamsburg.

Located at 928 Dundas street in Toronto, The Black Hoof doesn't take reservations, are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but thankfully (for me) are open on Monday.  My advice is get there early and sit at the bar where you can watch the action happen. 

Or if you prefer there is a small dinner room at the back and in the summer a little outside space.

This was the mixologist (above) and our waiter the night we went.  He was great, he made great recommendations and from what I could tell made an awesome cocktail as well (we were drinking beer).  My brother lives with a fishaterian and I live with a guy who keeps kosher so this was our night to go hog wild on all things pork!    

The locally sourced house made Charcuterie (pictured above) was all amazing.  The platter is served with a selection of 6 Charcuterie, 2 dollops of grain mustard and a small bowl filled with lavender whipped lard to smear on your bread.  I wish the lard had been served melted on grilled bread - but it certainly didn't prevent us from eating it all up.

We then had roasted bone marrow served with Maldon salt and Chimichurri, the herb garlic wonderfulness of the Chimichurri served as a perfect foil for the fatty marrow.  

The marrow was from a cow, so we did take a short detour from pig.  My brother David and I drank local beers until the bar keep suggested a Belgium beer made from Hibiscus - it was like drinking a funky rosé wine, I liked it, it was refreshing and a perfect foil to the meal, but I preferred my IPA.

For a main course we split an order of pork tacos with pico de gallo and creamy guacamole, they are usually served as 3 to a plate, but the waiter knew we were splitting them so he had the kitchen make us four.  They were brilliant, unctuous meat, perfectly cooked, topped with the citric salsa and all smoothed out by the creamy avocado. Perfect.

For dessert we went down to Queen street and sat on the rooftop of the hipper than can be Drake Hotel.

All in all a perfect last night in Toronto.

The Cosmopolitan Hotel Toronto

Exterior of the St Lawrence Market

This is the area around the market and the hotel that we stayed in (The Cosmopolitan)

Photo's by David Owen

The above picture is from our mini-balcony and is what passes for a "city view" at the Cosmo.
To me a view of a building isn't a "city view" it's a building view. A city view would have a vista of well in this case, the city? Maybe I'm being to literal, but somehow I don't think you can have a vista of a building, and I'm not so sure why they don't just call it a deluxe room with separate bedroom. Not a big deal for me but I'd be pissed if I was counting on a view and this is what I got.

I've staid at the Cosmo 4 times now I believe (3 or 4). I like it. The rooms are suites that resemble mini apartments. It makes entertainer at your hotel much more comfortable than just a hotel room with a bed in it. The aesthetic is very much Ikea meets West Elm.

It was great to have a deluxe room with a separate bedroom (and no view) with an awesome bed.

The fridge is very small and they fill it with mini bar shit, so you have a kitchen, but with limited fridge access. There is no stove, but a fully functioning electric stop top with 4 burners, a microwave and a small dishwasher. There is a nice bar that you can sit at with two stools, a coffee maker (but no filters you have to ask for them - even though coffee and tea are provided) a toaster and a water boiler thingy.

The view and the fridge are minor when compared to all you get here for a very reasonable price - the room was about 170 a night USD.

Two things bugged me this trip. The very perky woman who checked us in was friendly enough and quick, but when we got to the room it was a superior open concept room, a room that costs 20 or 30 dollars less then the one that I had booked. I called her and she immediately sent someone up and took us to the correct room. I'm not sure if this was a mistake or if it was intentional, I mean she must know that there are basically 5 rooms on a floor (with the exception of the two very fancy and expensive penthouses) and that the only deluxe room on each floor ends in "4". It left a lingering bad taste in my mouth, it seems to me that her intention was to rip us off by offering us a room that was cheaper. Or she is really not paying attention to what she is doing, either way it was a major minus for me.

The biggest minus to me is that as a customer who has stayed at a hotel 3 or 4 times I find it mind boggling that upon returning to the Cosmopolitan, never once did anyone say: "welcome back Mr. Owen"

I've yet to hear that in a Toronto hotel, although I suspect that if I staid at the Four Seasons it might be different.

The Cosmopolitan isn't the only hotel that I fault for this. I've staid many times at the much more expensive and posher (Le Germain) over the years as well, and every time I arrive at the front desk a stranger.

Danny Meyer the owner of Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, 11 Madison Park and many other first rate restaurants in NYC have spoilt me. Every time I go to one of his restaurants I am welcomed back and in many instance someone after we have been seated will say to us: "I see Mr. Owen that the last time you were here you ordered this wine..." in many cases I only will eat at these special occasion restaurants once or twice a year.

This is hospitality in the computer age. It's called a data base. It's a no-brainer, you want your customers to feel welcome - right? You have a computer, right? So get your act together.
Make your guests feel welcome, by um, welcoming them back! Duh!

The Cosmopolitan has a nice vibe to it, I mostly like the design of the rooms (well except the light switches in the bathroom - is there a reason they aren't by the door, but rather in a corner by the sink?) and it is reasonably priced. Which is why I will stay there again and recommend it, something I can't do for the posher Le Germain, when you spend that much money on a hotel room and they can't even remember their repeat guests, then to me that says they aren't interested in having repeat guest.

Lastly, as this is a food blog, I have to give the F&B at the Cosmo a zero. "Eight" is the name of their wine bar restaurant that also, I believe, is the kitchen that provides room service. Eight is a poured concrete windowless bunker with the ugliest light fixtures I've ever seen, sort of modern arty colored glass - which is also used on the walls as "art'' (throat clearing, long uncomfortable pause). In the morning they are on super high bright so as to lind you with their ugly glare before you have even had a chance to get a coffee. There are windows but they are all blocked by a very elaborate structural type blind. There are many design elements going on in the room and even though some of them are interesting the collective affect is not, to my eye, very inviting.

The thing to really look at, the thing that might be able to allow one to over come the grim surroundings is the food, I only had breakfast, which was included in our room but if you decided for kicks you wanted to come and have say a business breakfast it would cost you 13 bucks. What do you get for that? During the week: two kinds of cereal, coffee/tea, bagels (plain and cinnamon raisin) a typical fruit salad (you know the one with lots of out of season imported cantaloupe and honey dew) a selection of mini pastries. On the weekends, for an additional 6 bucks!!!!! you can get eggs or omelets. No organic or local or anything like that. I mean come on, you hire some poor guy to stand behind a stove-top to make eggs and no one takes them because it's so friggin' expensive.

Hint to F&B manager - if you make good food people will come. If you make really good food people will come back and if you offer value and quality - you will be a hit. Right now I feel like you need to close it down and start from scratch.

On an up note I will say that the room service menu was filled with intriguing items that potentially sounded great, although very upscale and mostly in the upper twenty dollar range. Again it seems incongruous in this setting to have such fancy expensive food for room service in a moderately priced hotel where every room has a kitchen. Good french fries, a pizza, a healthy stir fry with brown rice, pannini. a few tasty salads...some good simple deserts, maybe a killer brownie or a selection of tasty cookies? Just a thought.

If you need a good restaurant consultant let me know.

I would gladly stay here again and would heartily recommend it to friends who are heading to Toronto and need a place to stay. The staff are friendly and helpful, the suites are well designed, quiet and feature lovely beds with wifi and flat screen tvs and all the other luxuries you crave when on the road.

An ideal place to stay for people who like a modern aesthetic and who appreciate staying in a hotel room that offers the comforts of home, including a kitchen.

Belated New Years from Toronto

St Lawrence Market

Happy New Year.

I hope everyone rang in the new year with some wonderful home cooked food, either at home or at your favorite restaurant. Neil and I spent it with my brother David and his significant other Kim. We made a communal meal, I made a wild mushroom ragout with thyme and white wine, it was served as a side with a traditional fondue made with Gruyere and Emmenthaler, white wine and kirsch (and some corn starch to bind). We ate it with some delightful baguette that Kim brought and some California organic Granny Smith apples I got at the St. Lawrence Market.

Then Kim made black truffle spaghetti, butter, fine Tuscan olive oil, shaved truffle and a little sea salt. Perfection. I inhaled mine and ended the savory part of the meal with a salad of endive,frisee, pear and lightly-dipped-in-honey Pecans that Kim whipped up.

I went to school and lived a total of 8 years here in Toronto. The beige and gray concrete provincial city of my early twenties is barely visible now. I couldn't wait to leave and now I really enjoy it and think it makes for a wonderfully close, easy to get away to city.
The snow and the cold are just all the more excuse to sleep in and have long extended lunches, coffee/snacks and dinners.

We're staying at a suite hotel, which is just a fancy way of saying it comes with a kitchen and a washer and dryer. As a New Yorker I've never lived in an apartment with a washer and dryer. It's just so unusual to have laundry any where but downstairs or across the street and around the block.

We're just a few blocks away from the St Lawrence market. A venerable institution here that I have visited several times since it's close by and I love it but the second times was to re-visit Buster's Sea Cove Seafood.

OMG. Please tell me this is what heaven is like! A button down, fry place that does it well and has a huge selection. Besides the excellent fry selection they also do really fresh simple salads, grilled fish, onion rings and on and on.

The Octopus was grilled as were the sardines, both looked succulent and tempting, but I went for the local favorite, smelts, breaded and deep fried on a bed of spiral fries and some awesome coleslaw. Malt Vinegar is in spray bottles on the counter along with sea salt ketchup and hot sauce. The lobster bisque was rich and sweet and pink mostly smooth with small bits of lobster. The fish and chips made Neil very happy, there is Boston Blue or Halibut. I love any place where everything comes served o a big bed of fries.

All of this takes place at a counter that you order from, four or five guys run around behind it, manning the grill and deep frier in skillfull ease and sync, the dance of the fish guys.

There are some bar stools but scattered around are plastic picnic type tables mixed equally plastic chairs. The view facing south is the entire great hall of the market. The first night was new years eve, as we ate we watched the market close down, as vendors hurried to get home to start celebrating.

It was a great way to be welcomed to Toronto.

More Toronto tomorrow!

(and some pictures soon,David's working on it).