Nikolaou Restaurant Equipment
629 Queen Street West
416-504-6411

It’s easy to walk past Nikolaou at Queen and Bathurst and not give it a second glance. The sign is faded, the door is filthy, and the windows imply that the store is filled with dusty, run-of-the-mill pepper grinders. However, that’s just Nikolaou’s humble facade. Inside this restaurant supply store are thousands of kitchen gems waiting to be dusted-off.

This store is clearly geared toward caterers and restaurateurs. Impressing the everyday consumers with well-organized stock and pretty displays is not their market. This may make any home cook feel intimidated or overwhelmed, but those feelings fade quickly when greeted by the friendly staff behind the front desk. They are happy to help customers track-down down specific items, but they’re also well aware that a slow and peaceful wander of discover through the aisles is necessary for many, and will leave their visitors with plenty of time and space.

Continue reading Dusting Off Nikolaou »

The Amsterdam Brewery
21 Bathurst Street
416-504-1040

When a beer is good enough to be loved the world over, the fame of the city where it originated is often boosted. Dublin benefits greatly from the popularity of Guinness, the Heineken brewery is a major tourist attract in Amsterdam, the small town of Pilzen was put on the map by its celebrated Pilsner Urquell beer, and the breweries of Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, Blatz are widely accredited for making Milwaukee famous.

Continue reading Toronto’s Friendly Neighbourhood Brewery »

The Kitchen Table
705 King Street West (and others)
416-703-0893

At first glance The Kitchen Table may seem like just another downtown convenience store, but upon further examination it’s clearly so much more. When looking for a good “cup of joe”, a quick and healthy lunch, some local produce, or a bouquet of flowers, this place delivers in a way that is uniquely Toronto.

As a convenience store it serves up the customary TTC passes, lottery tickets, newspapers and snack food. And, snack food it has aplenty! Every imaginable type of jujube, nut, chip, bar, and beverage can be found. But their selection goes beyond the usual convenience store fare. The Kitchen Table sells produce, flowers, dairy and bread at prices comparable to mainstream grocery stores, which is a godsend for Toronto’s urban dwellers that are hard-pressed to find full-sized grocery stores in their neighbourhoods. While it’s not the place to regularly shop for dry goods like cereal or laundry detergent, items like this can be found at a premium price when in a pinch.

Continue reading Torontonians Around the Kitchen Table »

It’s hard to walk into the cooking section of your neighbourhood bookstore these days and not be inundated by the sheer volume available to you. Celebrity chefs, regional cuisines, diets plans, travel and food memoirs, food culture - name a subject and you’ll find plenty of beautifully bound books to match. It’s overwhelming to say the least.

But what we sometimes forgot is that reading books doesn’t mean we have to own them. In the City of Toronto we are lucky to have the largest public library system in Canada. The only thing standing between Toronto residents and a library card granting them access to 11 million books are two pieces of official identification.

The library might not be the first place you think of when considering where to find food related books, but when you consider that they have 2929 cookery books reflecting Toronto’s multiculturalism, 312 diet books ranging from the grapefruit diets of the 80’s to Hollywood’s latest craze, 1409 nutrition books for ages 3 to 103, plus many more books on topics like food history, food style, and food science, the library really is the one stop shop for all things gastronomical.

Continue reading Food Inspiration in the Stacks »