Posted by Greg Clow in in the papers, news and media on September 29, 2007 at 4:36 pm
It's only been a couple of months since Cluck, Grunt & Low opened, but that's like an eternity in "hot today, not tomorrow" restaurant scene. So it's almost a blast from the past to see them reviewed in the Globe & Mail today, although the delay can be chalked up to the fact that Joanne Kates was on hiatus back when they opened.
As far as the food goes, Kates is generally impressed. However, she seems to have a hard time understanding why a classically trained chef like Marc Thuet would be spending his time in a BBQ joint, and she uses some seriously tenuous logic to try and make sense of it:
I question the very premise of Cluck, Grunt & Low. A restaurant dedicated to meat? On Bloor Street West in the heart of the student ghetto where progressive values hold sway? How come? We know Marc Thuet has a love affair with matters carnivorous, but Chef Thuet is such a consummate cook that he hardly needs to limit himself to flesh.
The prospect of a classic French chef like Marc Thuet doing southern barbecue is not as surprising as it sounds. Thuet is Alsatian; Alsace is the part of France that most resembles Germany, and Germans love meat. Southern barbecue and Alsace go together like pulled pork and buns.
Uh... sure, Joanne, whatever you say.
Also in the Globe:
- Beppi Crosariol recommends some bubbly from New Zealand, sauvignon blanc from California, and a few other highlights from today's Vintages release.
- Lucy Waverman dishes up a hearty fall menu of chowder, roast pork, and plum clafouti.
- Karen von Hahn wonders how food - like salt, chocolate, coffee and wine - has become the latest big thing in high-end skin care.
- Sasha Chapman digs in to a big basket of concord grapes, and previews a couple of events in the Alphabet City FOOD Festival, including the street food cart design exhibiton at the Design Exchange.
Over in the Toronto Star, Amy Pataki gives two stars ("fair") to One, Mark McEwan's new high-end hot spot in Yorkville. And frankly, based on the actual review, I think those two stars might've been a bit generous:
Drew Ellerby, 36, who keeps four kinds of butter plus McEwan's signature pickled-jalapeno beurre blanc at the ready, runs the kitchen at One. Mushroom papardelle ($20) would be much more elegant if it weren't so greasy. When a dish lacks in butter, the kitchen makes it up in salt, like the vaunted frites ($8) showered in enough kosher grains to hurt the tongue.
No question the food at One is rich. There's brandied chicken liver crostini ($7), butter- and vermouth-braised lobster ($23) ill-served by ponzu sauce, slightly overcooked veal sweetbreads ($32), greasy tempura onion rings ($8) and a high-end take on a banquet burger that's a grainy $29 waste of USDA Prime ground strip loin.
Pataki also asks McEwan about what she describes as the "preposterously sub-par staff" during a post-visit interview. He confesses he opened the place with 60 inexperienced servers - a dozen of whom have already been fired - and he suggests that "In four months, I'll have an excellent team." Too bad for the suckers who are dropping over 100 bucks per person on poorly served meals in the meantime, I guess.
Also in the Star:
- Gordon Stimmell ignores the French wines that are the main theme of today's Vintages release, and instead suggests an assortment of five wines from around the world.
- Sarah Sampson seems to be digging through some very old promo packages, as she reviews Retro Breakfast, a cookbook published in 2004.
- David Rider checks out several suppliers of catered Thanksgiving meals, including Summerhill Market, Whole Foods, and the King Edward Hotel.
In the National Post, Gina Mallet imagines College Street to be the Silk Road as she travels to The Pomegranate, a Persian restaurant that I've been meaning to check out for a while. Her glowing review gives me extra encouragement to do so, and soon:
The first mouthful of kashk-bademjaan - charred eggplant, Persian whey, garlic and walnuts topped with crispy onion - is an entirely new taste sensation to me, sourly irresistibly smokey. A bracing antidote to our own diet, which grows more sugary every day.
The charred eggplant is matched - no, surpassed - by zeitoon parvardeh, or vegetarian caviar. The tapenade of green olives marinated in a pomegranate-walnut sauce with fresh garlic has the consistency of tiny crunchy eggs and, once again, the piquancy of the bitter pomegranates give the dip a tart nuttiness. How easily I could make a meal from these dips scooped with wedges of flatbread.
Also in the Post:
- Michael Vaughan is predictably critical of the lack of good quality "best buy" wines in this week's Vintages release, but he does manage to find a few moderately priced bottles that are worth investigating.
- Jon Bricker and Kate Swoger head to Richmond Hill for a so-so meal at Restoran Malaysia.
- Jason Chow previews the Alphabet City FOOD Festival.
- Bonnie Stern offers some recipes from Pork Marketing Canada, a newly formed pork promotion alliance who held their launch party at Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner with a feast that used all the parts of the world's most wonderful, magical animal.
