Posted by Greg Clow in beverages, bistros, pubs and bars, restaurant profile, wine on September 15, 2008 at 8:20 am

Crush Wine Bar
455 King Street West
416-977-1234

Maybe it's the fact that we've all had one too many dinners featuring dry, grey roast beef, stodgy mashed potatoes, and mushy vegetables, but it seems to be hard for most North Americans to take British cuisine seriously. Over on its home turf, the efforts of chefs like Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have caused a bit of a revival of traditional English cooking, with flavourful dishes that emphasize fresh and local ingredients. But here in the colonies, British food seems to begin and end with low-end pub grub that possesses little flavour and lots of grease.

If Jamieson Kerr has his way, such opinions might soon be changing for the better. An English ex-pat and owner of Crush Wine Bar, Kerr has recently spearheaded a revamp of his restaurant's menus to give them a British bent, a change that might seem questionable for an establishment specialising in wine and the sort of food that goes with it. But perhaps the bigger question might be how an Englishman with a fondness for football, ales, and Sunday dinners ended up owning a high-end wine bar in the first place.

As it turns out, it sort of runs in the family, as Kerr's father was a fan of the grape, and passed his interest on to his son at a young age. He spent his teenage years working in hotels and restaurants in the UK, and after his family relocated to Canada, he took hospitality and tourism management at Ryerson. Post-graduation, he headed to Europe and lucked into a job at the legendary Willi's Wine Bar in Paris, where his love of wine really took hold. He moved on to spend five years working for a wine importer in London before coming back to Toronto in 1995 where he took on the position of wine buyer at Yorkville mainstay Prego Della Piazza.

Various stints on both the buying and selling side of the wine business followed, but all along, Kerr wanted to open a restaurant and wine bar in the spirit of Willi's. In 2002, he finally took the plunge and snagged a space in a former warehouse on King Street just west of Spadina, a strip that had barely started to gentrify into the dining destination it has since become. "I worked near here for a couple of years," he remembers, "and I just loved the neighbourhood. We were lucky to get in here when we did. Susur had been open for about a year and Rodney's had been open for about six months. We were the next place, and everything else is history."

With help from friend and Master Sommelier John Szabo, Kerr compiled a broad and adventurous wine list which has become one of the city's most lauded, while original chef Masayuki Tamaru oversaw a menu that drew heavily on French bistro classics. And so it remained for several years, until a couple of trips back home to England and the changing nature of the King West neighbourhood inspired Kerr to make some changes. "I didn't feel like there was a really good bar on this street," he says, "and it seemed that when people walked into Crush they felt that they were in this fine dining restaurant, and the bar was more of a holding area for people going into the dining room. I wanted to put in a nice wine bar where people could come, feel relaxed, have a nice glass of wine and a little something to eat. If they wanted to come in and have a nice dining experience in the main room, they could do that as well, but I wanted there to be options here."

To help make the bar area more inviting for casual drop-ins, designer Ralph Giannone was enlisted to give the space an upgrade. The formerly stand-up bar is now lined with custom leather bar stools, and retro-stylish Eames chairs sit alongside the tables in the bright and airy front section.

More importantly, chef Michael Wilson's bar menu features items that are perfect matches to a glass of wine or a pint of one of the three local craft beers that are available on tap. Fish & chips features two mini-fillets of beautifully fried fish alongside tangy homemade tartar sauce, vibrantly green and flavourful mushy peas, and crispy fries that rank amongst the best in town. Cornish pastie is a delicious folded meat pie based on those that were traditionally eaten by the miners in Cornwall, England, filled with tender shredded beef and slices of potato. Those with a sweet tooth will adore the Eccles cake, a round of puff pastry filled with currants and served with a generous chunk of Lincolnshire Poacher, a lightly smoked raw milk cheese from the UK. Other British faves on the bar card include bangers & mash, steak & chips and bacon sarnie, while more traditional wine bar cravings can be satiated with a charcuterie board and an assortment of cheeses.

In the main dining room, the style is a bit more formal but still comfortable, and the British influence on the dinner menu is more subtle. Bubble and squeak, the oddly named morning-after fry-up of leftover vegetables, is the inspiration and namesake for a creamy soup made with potato, leek and cabbage. Crumpets, usually enjoyed with jam or honey by British Grans whilst watching Corrie, are taken upmarket and served with a blueberry compote and seared foie gras. Arugula is referred to as the Brit-approved rocket in a salad with almonds and roasted pear vinaigrette. And while it may not be particularly British, the heirloom tomato salad is both pretty and delicious.

The main courses also tread a fine line between European dining and more homey English dishes, along with a touch of the Canadian East Coast and side trips into more exotic locales. Pork chops are cooked to a lovely medium, with a crisp exterior around a pink and juicy centre, and served atop of hill of baked beans laced with lardons - because what goes better with pork than more pork? Sustainably-raised cod from the Bay of Fundy is roasted and served with a smoked haddock chowder. Scallops and shrimp are also roasted, but given a spicier finish with a green Thai curry, while a Kerr Farms rib eye gets a more traditional red wine reduction. And the daily roast will satisfy those longing for a meal just like Mom used to make, except this one will probably be better than hers (sorry, Mom!).

After the variety offered by the main courses, the masterfully crafted desserts take us back to dear ol' Blighty. Crème brûlée is known here as Trinity burnt cream, a name it has held for over a century at Trinity College, Cambridge. White chocolate trifle is a gussied-up take on the classic layered dessert of custard, fruit and sponge cake. And while I've never been to England, I can't imagine trying sticky toffee pudding there or anywhere else that could rival the one at Crush.

Moving beyond traditional food and drink service, Kerr and the rest of the crew at Crush are looking to "foster a community of wine lovers" with a series of different wine tastings, courses and events that will be starting this week. Once a month, Kerr and his head sommelier Eric Gennaro will host a "Crush's Top Ten" night spotlighting some of their favourite wines. Also happening monthly will be "Brown Bag Tastings", where a half-dozen wines will be tasted blind and then revealed at the end of the night. And those looking for a bit of an education can enrol in a four evening "Introduction to Wine" course that will cover the basics of aromas, flavours, grapes and regions.

Add in the private rooms in the lower level and a side patio that is a big summer draw, and it becomes clear that Crush has been and remains an ambitious enterprise for Kerr and his team. But it's also obvious that they wouldn't have it any other way. Everyone there has a true passion for great food and fine wine, and wants to give others a comfortable place to enjoy them both, whether in the form of a full-on dinner or a more casual outing. If they can help change people's opinions of British food in the process, then that's just an added bonus.