Michelin-starred chef Akira Back reopens his restaurant for takeout

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5:49 pm

Toronto’s takeout options keep getting better and better, with Michelin-starred chef Akira Back’s restaurant Dasha launching pick-up and delivery this week.

The splashy King West restaurant is known for its inventive Chinese fare and private karaoke rooms.

The takeout menu gives diners a bit of the Dasha experience at home (and who’s to say you can’t throw your own physically distanced karaoke party in your living room to complete the package?).

Like numerous Toronto restaurants that had never offered meals to-go prior to the pandemic, Dasha initially chose not to launch takeout after dining rooms were forced to shut down.

As closures persist, however, many restaurants are gradually entering the takeout game for the first time, including notable spots like Lee Restaurant, Babel, and Giulietta, which have all debuted to-go menus over the past few weeks.

Ontario began phase one of their reopening plan on May 19, but guidelines and a timeframe for restaurants to reopen have yet to be announced.

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A post shared by DASHA (@dashatoronto) on May 28, 2020 at 9:04am PDT

Available starting today through Skip the Dishes and Tock, Dasha’s takeout menu is a pared-down version of its dine-in offerings.

Highlights include the restaurant’s signature Angry Chicken with Szechuan chili ($14) and the popular wasabi prawns with black and red tobiko ($13).

Drink options include splurgy bubbles and bottles like MOD Reserve Selection Champagne ($450) and Don Julio 1942 Anejo Tequila 750ml ($280), as well as more affordable wine, beer, sake, and shochu.

Dasha is currently offering takeout from Wednesday to Sunday, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Lambretta Pizzeria gets resurrected thanks to community support

By

Jessica Huras

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3:19 pm

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When Lambretta Pizzeria announced its permanent closure at the end of April, it looked like the pandemic had claimed another neighbourhood favourite.

Now, largely thanks to community support, the Roncesvalles pizzeria is coming back to life.

Owner Celina Blanchard says she felt like she had no choice but to shut down the restaurant after she was unsuccessful in negotiating rent relief with her landlord.

The closure became widely publicized and Blanchard, in part, credits this for helping to motivate her landlord to return to the negotiating table.

“I did go public and I did get a lot of media attention, which was wonderful,” says Blanchard. “I got a lot of support from the neighborhood. I had people emailing me directly, asking how they could help and I gave them the landlord’s email address. I know that he did receive quite a few,” she adds.

Blanchard says the two were able to come to an agreement on reduced rent. With the new terms in place, she was able to reopen Lambretta for pick-up and delivery this week.

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WE’RE BACK!!! It’s official & we will be reopening this Thursday May 28th for takeout and delivery from 4pm to 8pm. Thank you to everyone who took time to write to city officials, MP’s and who sent direct messages to my landlord to help save us. We closed earlier this month and didn’t think anything would check but luckily the landlord came to his senses and we’re now back in business. #grateful #COVID19ON #supportyourneighbourhood #shoplocal #RestaurantRelief #RENTRELIEF #savehospitalityca @roncesvillage @cp24breakingnews @blogto @karonliu @torontosunonline @sueann.levy @thetorontostar @newstalk1010 #lambrettapizzeria #lambretta #pizzaislife #pizza #ilovefood #torontofood

A post shared by Lambretta Pizzeria (@lambrettapizzeria) on May 24, 2020 at 12:08pm PDT

She says they’re using their own online platform and executing deliveries in-house rather than using a third-party provider, which has allowed her to bring some of her staff back on part-time.

“We’re all very happy to be back and the neighbourhood is too,” she says. “We have so many customers that sent us emails congratulating us and telling us they’re going to be out this week.”

As with all restaurants across the city, continuing to rely on takeout revenue until dining rooms are able to reopen will come with its own challenges.

“I’d love to say that restaurants will go back to normal hopefully later in the fall, but we really don’t know what the situation will be for us and it is scary,” Blanchard says.

But she adds she’s staying positive and optimistic about the future. “I am grateful in the sense that I’m in a position where I was able to negotiate with my landlord but I know a lot of people that are not,” she says. “ I have a second chance here.”

Toronto designer Jane Lockhart on how to optimize your space for the perfect at-home workout area

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Samantha Peksa

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2:56 pm

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Jane Lockhart is an award-winning designer, TV personality and author. She is also the principal designer of the Toronto firm she founded in 1997, Jane Lockhart Interior Design.

As life continues to roll forward and our world copes with a new normal, for many of us this means daily activities will remain at home. Even if you haven’t been a gym-loving, yoga-worshipping participant in the past, the desire for physical activity has increased with too many weeks cooped up. Added to this, oncoming nice weather has moved some of us to reconsider the concept of exercise at home.

I live in a condo apartment, where space is limited. But, some forms of workout in your house or apartment don’t require a big space despite the prevalence of massive big box gyms on nearly every corner. If you have space for a treadmill or Peloton bike that’s definitely a plus. As it turns out making a quiet space for simple movement using body weight, dumb bells or stretching is pretty simple.

To begin, this compact workout space can be created in a corner of a main room if you live in a smaller space, or if you are fortunate, in a dedicated room. You only require about six square feet when working out or stretching, maybe a tad more if taller.

A workout station would fit nicely on the right-hand side of this living room

Most gym or yoga items are compact or fold up–even a hula hoop comes in parts that you assemble. Find a drawer in a dresser or shelf in a closet where you can store your items for use when you need them. If this isn’t available you can order larger decorative boxes online into which you can keep small weights, straps, bands, even a weighted medicine ball. These boxes can be added to décor within a room while they hide your stash of workout gear when not in use.

Yoga mats are pretty easy to manage if you purchase a bag that has a shoulder strap as it can be hung up and stored anywhere in the house. When you need the mat you can pull it out and return it at the end of your session. I would recommend using a small portable stand for an iPad/iPhone so you can view YouTube videos while working out or stretching. Small devices are portable so they don’t have to give away your workout nook. I like having a small fan nearby as well. Mine is a vintage style from Sunbeam with a retro look and black base so it fits my décor and remains out even when I’m not using it.

Some great exercises requires a hard armless chair and surprisingly many people don’t have one as dining rooms have disappeared from the condo environments. Consider purchasing a small foldable chair from IKEA or Staples and stash it under the sofa.

Free weights can be rolled under the sofa, too or racked if you prefer. Tossing a well-placed throw over the weights when not in use can actually disguise them quite well. An ottoman with interior storage on wheels is also an ideal place to store free weights. It’s not too difficult to add wheels to ottomans if the one you have doesn’t have them, but they are important for moving the ottoman when its loaded with your equipment.

Creating a space to work out or stretch really can be fairly simple and doesn’t require much overall area if you keep it simple. Creative hiding spots allow even small space living rooms to be the hub for not only binge watching, but activity at the same time!

Toronto teen is creating superhero face shields for frontline health-care workers

By

Nikki Gill

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1:59 pm

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A north Toronto student has been using the 3D printing skills he learned in school to create face shields for frontline health-care workers — with a twist.

When 13-year-old Upper Canada College student Warren Richmond-Kalaci saw that the company of the 3D printer he owned, Prusa, had put out a design guide for printing face shields, he decided to give it a try.

Richmond-Kalaci started learning about 3D printing in a design class in Grade 6 and loved it so much that he asked his parents for a 3D printer as a graduation gift. As he began printing the face shields, he was thinking about the kinds of patients who would be interacting with the health-care workers wearing these shields daily, in particular at SickKids Hospital.

“I was trying to empathize with the kids at the hospitals and figured it would be very scary to see one of those large masks,” he says. “So that’s when I started designing the novelty masks.”

These novelty face shields use fun and colourful designs, some with sports logos or superhero symbols, along the bottom and the top of the shield.

mcmaster hospital face shields — Staff at McMaster Children’s Hospital wearing the face shields

To come up with the different designs, Richmond-Kalaci used a design technique he learned in school called “crazy eights” that helped him generate as many ideas as he could in a short amount of time.

“My first design was a crown, but we haven’t been using that much because it uses a lot of filament,” he says, referring to the material he uses to build the design parts that attach to the shield.

“My mom is obsessed with unicorns and wanted me to make a unicorn one, but then SickKids said they couldn’t accept it because it was too sharp,” he laughs.

Kaydee Richmond, Richmond-Kalaci’s mom, says she and his dad didn’t really pick up on the theme Richmond-Kalaci was going for right away.

“It sort of dawned on us that he was doing superheroes for the heroes! But we didn’t really understand that until the day before when we were assembling them in the kitchen,” she says.

Richmond-Kalaci had come up with designs such as the Batman symbol and the Avengers logo for that purpose.

He says he’s been fortunate to have a lot of support from friends and family, including one of his hockey coaches, Dave Kennedy. When his coach heard what he was doing, he set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for Richmond-Kalaci to be able to buy enough material to keep making the shields.

“When he set up the page, he made it where if you donated, you would be sent the link to a goalie training class,” Richmond-Kalaci says.

The GoFundMe page raised over $6,500, and so $1,500 went to Richmond-Kalaci for production costs, and then Kennedy wrote a cheque for $5,000 to go to SickKids Hospital.

Not only has Richmond-Kalaci been able to help those working on the front lines to fight COVID-19, but he says this experience has really improved his 3D printing skills. He even received some files from one of his teachers at the start of the process to use with the 3D printer.

Richmond-Kalaci says his process for the project has been pretty simple so far. “Just set a reasonable goal and shoot for it, and then just keep going,” he says.

Order burgers by Mitch Marner and other celebs at your fave Toronto eateries for COVID-19 relief

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Nikki Gill

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11:27 am

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rudy-burger — Burgers at Rudy in Toronto

The Burger Showdown kicks off today — National Burger Day — at some of the best burger joints across North America. Here in Toronto, local restaurants teamed up with local celebs to create new burger recipes for fans to enjoy. Options include Mitch Marner’s pick at Burger’s Priest, Jason Priestley’s concoction at Rudy and Katheryn Winnick’s choice at Cherry Street Bar-B-Que.

Each celebrity teamed up with the chefs and owners of each burger joint and created an online episode of them making the burger for the Burger Showdown. Viewers can watch the episodes and order the burger creations from Uber Eats if they are in the delivery zone.

The whole concept was created by Lawrence Longo who is commonly known as the “Burger King of L.A.” after he ate a burger a day for an entire year. Longo was born and raised in Toronto and wanted to make sure our burger-loving city was involved in this project.

“It is great to bring The Burger Showdown to my hometown with so many great restaurants and celebrities participating in support of the Marner Assist Fund,” says Longo, founder and CEO of Off The Menu, the company that created the series in partnership with Uber Eats. “Toronto’s food scene and these burgers are close to my heart and to my stomach; may the best burger win!”

The celebrities have been working with their local restaurants virtually to create their burger submissions. The Toronto pairings are:

Mitch Marner with Burger’s Priest
Max Domi with Holy Chuck
Katheryn Winnick with Cherry Street Bar-B-Que
Jason Priestley with Rudy
Katharine McPhee with Planta
Kevin Wendt and Astrid Lochand with Dublin Calling
Catherine Bell with Burger Drops

Starting today, Torontonians can watch the chef-celebrity cooking segments and order the burgers from Uber Eats until May 31. Viewers are encouraged to vote for their favourite and the team behind the winning burger will choose a charity to receive a donation from Off The Menu. In Canada, The Burger Showdown is supporting the COVID-19 relief efforts by the Marner Assist Fund which has been supporting Second Harvest in addition to supplying frontline workers with PPE and meals.

Toronto is the only Canadian city in the project and will be competing against cities such as New York, L.A., Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and many more.

“The Burger Showdown features some of North America’s best chefs and restaurants as well as an unparalleled lineup of celebrity collaborators all working together to support restaurants and frontline workers,” says Longo.

Other celebrities competing for the American cities are Paris Hilton, Matthew McConaughey, Shay Mitchell, Dwyane Wade and Melissa McCarthy.

How to maintain a positive company culture while working remotely

By

Jarrod Daley

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9:00 am

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See all posts by Diamond and Diamond Lawyers

While working from home can be a privilege under normal circumstances, during uncertain times like these, it can come with some challenges. Learning how to work from home while balancing the responsibility you have for your job with the needs of your family can be difficult.

Diamond & Diamond Lawyers is a personal injury law firm that has seen its team grow to 40+ lawyers and hundreds of support staff across Canada in the last 7 years. Many of their staff members choose to work remotely full-time. Husband and wife team, Sandra Zisckind and Jeremy Diamond, the owners and operators of Diamond & Diamond Lawyers, have worked through the complexities of managing a remote team.

Sandra and Jeremy share their best tips to operate remotely, foster a workplace culture and strong camaraderie amongst their team across Canada.

Create a Schedule

Encouraging your remote employees to develop a weekday schedule is important, allowing them time to walk their dogs, prepare meals for themselves and their families, and more. Plus, many workers may be juggling their workday responsibilities with the challenges of homeschooling their children. Creating a realistic schedule helps set expectations and keep workers focused.

Understand That Kids and Pets Are at Home

Make sure that your team understands that kids may be at home, and might need a parent during office hours. Interruptions during calls or video conferencing will happen, so it’s important to be understanding of your team members who are in this position. “Any time a kid interrupts a call, we pause for 5 minutes if it’s our own child, or we encourage our team member to take 5 minutes to address the issue, no questions asked” shares Jeremy Diamond.

Determine “On” and “Off” Times

Working remotely gives online access 24-7, and can cause your employees’ personal and professional boundaries to blur. Encourage your staff to use calendars to set their “online” vs “offline” hours of availability. Being accessible online all the time can lead to burn-out, so it’s important to dedicate time to your personal life, and communicate this to your team. “My team knows that I am offline every day from 5-8 pm to spend time with my kids. If someone tries to book a meeting with me during this time, my online calendar automatically declines the invite” shares Sandra Zisckind.

Keep your Home Clean and Organized

You wouldn’t want to work in a messy office, would you? Ensuring your home is clean, tidy and pest-free will help to ensure you can work effectively. Clutter — whether it’s on your desk or on the floor – will distract you, so it’s best to ensure everything is tidy before starting your work day.

Maintain Professional Communication

Your remote team may be communicating on many different platforms, including video conferencing, email, phone calls, and other online communication. When you’re setting up remote communications, establish guidelines and boundaries, so that our entire team knows which methods of communication to use and when. “For anything urgent, my team knows to text me directly. Everything else goes through email” shares Sandra Zisckind.

Don’t Forget The Fun!

Social distancing can lead to people feeling isolated. “Employees want to feel values and intrinsically motivated” shares Jeremy Diamond. Encourage weekly virtual met-ups or happy hours to replace the “water cooler” moments your team may be missing. Keep a calendar of your employees’ birthdays and have virtual celebrations for them. Celebrate milestones that your team accomplishes, whether it’s a new business opportunity, successful completion of a phase of a project, or a satisfied client.

Invest In Quality Video Conferencing

It is paramount to invest in a good quality, safe video conferencing platform for group meetings. Lags and skips in video chatting can quickly become distracting and irritating, making it harder for your team to meet face-to-face and focus. Additionally, depending on the private nature of your needs, make sure you use a tool with advanced privacy settings, to ensure your communications don’t get hacked.

Ask Your Team For Feedback

Solicit bi-weekly feedback from your team, and ask them what’s working and what isn’t. Many companies are having to figure out how to transition from the office to working from home and not every strategy will work for each team. Ask your employees if they need certain supplies to be productive from home. Jeremy suggests, “Setup an anonymous suggestions box where employees can leave messages without fear of repercussions.”

About Sandra Zisckind

Sandra Zisckind is a lawyer who was called to the Bar in 2003 and practices in the area of Plaintiff personal injury litigation in Toronto.

About Jeremy Diamond

Jeremy Diamond is a lawyer and member of both Ontario and Florida Bars. Jeremy practices in the area of Plaintiff personal injury litigation. Click here to learn more about Jeremy Diamond.

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Toronto billboards to showcase massive COVID-19 art installation

By

Samantha Peksa

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5:50 pm

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A new public project is covering the city with art depicting real-life experiences and feelings during the COVID-19 crisis in Toronto.

The team behind the Bentway, an innovative public space beneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, launched the public art initiative on May 25.

The new project, called “It’s All Right Now,” will run until the end of June and will feature work from over 20 Toronto artists. The art will appear on donated digital billboards and wild-posting spaces, as well as on streets, civic landmarks, and online at ItsAllRightNow.ca. Passersby can spot entries at Yonge-Dundas Square, on the Gardiner Expressway, along the waterfront, and at the Bentway.

“Public art is powerful,” says Ilana Altman, co-executive director at the Bentway. “In the best of times it brings people together for unforgettable experiences, driving civic dialogue and social cohesion. In difficult times like these, when people are struggling to feel connected, public art is more important than ever.”

The project will also include mobile exhibitions on select weekends through June 7. A video truck featuring artwork will circle Toronto’s waterfront and neighbouring communities on May 30 and 31, and on June 6 and 7. The truck’s routes will be posted on ItsAllRightNow.ca.

Some of the artists participating in the project include Albert Moritz, Hiba Abdallah, and Bekah Brown.

It’s All Right Now will also allow Torontonians to participate in the project. People can share their experiences on social media, or can email their digital projects to the Bentway. Submissions will be presented in a collection next year, so that the city will be able to reflect on this uncertain time.

So, if you’re looking for an artistic way to express your feelings about COVID-19, this new venture may be a good fit for you.

Toronto residents can submit their works of art to the Bentway via social media using the hashtag #ItsAllRightNow, or by emailing digital art to [email protected].

How to make celebrity chef Massimo Capra’s red beet risotto

By

lindsaylow

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5:31 pm

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As many of us find ourselves cooking at home instead of dining out, we’re sharing recipes from some of Toronto’s top chefs and restaurants.

When celebrity chef Massimo Capra (of Capra’s Kitchen, Top Chef Canada and Wall of Chefs) started experimenting with red beets and risotto years ago, he concedes the results were less than spectacular. “The first few times that we made it, it was awful,” he chuckles. Capra was outright ridiculed after entering the dish into a risotto contest in Italy. But after perfecting the recipe, Capra’s risotto has become a huge hit. “Now, everyone likes it!”

So without further ado, here is Capra’s red beet risotto recipe (serves 4 to 6):

Ingredients

1 lb Carnaroli rice
2 cups red beet juice, pure and from fresh beets
2 tbsp honey
4 oz white onions, finely chopped
2 bunches of red beets, with tops
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 cups vegetable stock (approximately)
4 oz white wine
3 oz butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) Pre-heat oven to 350°

2) Season the beet juice with the honey and a pinch of salt; boil for a few minutes and skim off the foam; strain and set aside until needed.

3) Wash the red beet bunches and cut the leaves off close to the bulb; finely chop the leaves and stems and set aside.

4) Place the beet bulbs in a pan and cover with tinfoil; bake in oven until tender; cool and then peel and cut into a small dice.

5) Sweat the onions in two-thirds of the butter and the oil; add the beet leaves and stems, roasted beets, the garlic; mix well until tender.

6) Add the rice and toast for a few seconds to make the rice warm.

7) Sprinkle the wine over the rice and let evaporate well.

8) Add all the beet juice and continue simmering, adding the vegetable stock as needed.

Chef’s Tips

Altogether this should take 16 to 18 minutes. Do not forget to stir to avoid sticking and to develop the necessary starches to make the risotto creamy.

Do not add too much stock toward the end; keep in mind that the risotto is not a soup.

When the rice is cooked, remove from the fire and add the remaining butter and the cheese and “whip” to make it fluffy. Serve immediately, topped with grated Parmigiano.

Dufflet permanently closes its Yonge and Eglinton location after nearly 20 years

By

Jessica Huras

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4:22 pm

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Long-running Toronto bakery Dufflet Pastries is permanently closing its location near Yonge and Eglinton after 18 years. The announcement, which was made on the Facebook pages of both Dufflet and the Uptown Yonge BIA, states that the bakery will not be reopening after the pandemic.

Best known for its small rectangular cakelets, the bakery’s original storefront on Queen West was founded by Dufflet Rosenberg in 1982. It was followed by the now-closed Dufflet Uptown in 2002. Their wholesale location in Etobicoke, which opened in 2009, supplies over 500 restaurants, shops, hotels, and caters in the area.

Fortunately for fans of Dufflet’s treats, the closure of the uptown outlet isn’t the end of the road for the mini-chain of bakeries.

After temporarily closing amid the pandemic, their Queen West store reopened for pick-up and delivery on May 20. In addition to their signature cakelets, they also offer a wide range of pies, cookies, tarts, and full-size cakes, including gluten-free and plant-based options.

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A post shared by Dufflet Pastries (@duffletpastries) on May 25, 2020 at 8:10am PDT

Dufflet Downtown is currently doing delivery through Uber Eats and specialty delivery service EJoyCity, as well as pick-ups for pre-order. They’re also offering limited takeout service for coffee and a rotating daily selection of small treats.

Dufflet Uptown is among the many Toronto businesses that have permanently shuttered in the wake of the pandemic, with other landmark food spots like Southern Accent and Vesuvio Pizzeria also announcing their closures in the months since the outbreak.

Many small business owners continue to lobby for more comprehensive government support as they struggle to recover revenue lost as a result of the pandemic.

How a Toronto mom is helping parents bring the camp experience to their backyards this summer

By

Nikki Gill

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2:42 pm

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When Erin Elfassy, mother to three children under the age of nine, heard that overnight camps would not be happening this summer and possibly the same for day camps as well, she says it felt like her world had been flipped upside down.

“It was just this feeling of, ‘Oh no, how are we going to entertain them all day long?’” she says. “The usual places that we may go to, parks or Canada’s Wonderland, won’t even be available to us, so how do we keep these kids active and off their devices?”

Elfassy says this was a common refrain among the parents she spoke to about their worries for the summer.

“How do you keep them occupied when you’re at home and you need to be doing work, you need to be getting things done around the house? You can’t be the one to think of everything and entertain them all day long,” she says.

This was where the idea for Backyard Camp started — a daily newsletter that parents and caregivers can sign up for that will provide programming and activities to give kids a camp-like experience at home. Elfassy says they will be making the activities customizable depending on factors such as kids’ ages and whether a family has access to backyard space.

Currently, she is in the process of collecting as many ideas for activities as she can. Elfassy herself is an occupational therapist who has worked in pediatrics and has also grown up going to and working at camps, so she’s come up with quite a few activities already. She says they’re also working with teachers to help make the activities age-appropriate, along with reaching out to programmers across the city to help with sports and arts and crafts ideas. So far, they’ve partnered with Vibe Studio, who will be providing dance material for the newsletter.

“We’ve also got a challenge on our Facebook page asking parents to put out their suggestions, just to compile as many ideas as possible,” Elfassy says.

So far, she says the response from parents has been very positive.

“I think everyone’s feeling at a loss as to how they’re going to keep the kids busy. This is new for everyone, so it’s nice to have a resource and know that every day there’s going to be at least five activities in their mailbox that they can do with their children,” Elfassy says. “I think it’s sort of a sense of relief that I’m hearing.”

Elfassy recognizes that feeling, as it’s something she has been dealing with herself with her own kids.

“When I got the letters from the camps to say that they’re not happening, I had tears in my eyes because my kids are missing out on that experience,” she says. Her oldest was supposed to be experiencing his first full month at overnight camp, and her two youngest were going to be at day camps with some of their friends. “There’s just that social aspect there; they’re missing their friends so much.”

She says the idea of Backyard Camp has helped manage their sadness and give them something to look forward to in the summer.

“Even though they’re not getting on the bus and going to camp, we can bring camp home to them.”

Elfassy says Backyard Camp’s aim is to make this summer as positive as possible.

“The last couple of months have been really stressful for everybody, and kids live for summer, they want the school year to be over, and for that experience to be taken away from them is disappointing,” she says. “We want to be able to make parents feel a little less stressed and for kids to be happy because I think that’s the ultimate goal.”

Parents can sign up for the newsletter at backyardcamp.ca.

Why new Toronto restaurant Pompette decided to open in the middle of the pandemic

By

Jessica Huras

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9:15 am

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It might be one of the most challenging times in memory to take a chance on opening a new restaurant but Pompette, a new French restaurant in Little Italy, is finding a way to make it work.

Maxime Hoerth, co-owner of Pompette, says the restaurant, which opened on May 8, had been three years in the making.

After navigating numerous delays (including losing their first location choice on King West to condo development), Hoerth says they were eager to finally launch — even if that meant opening in the middle of the pandemic.

“Dealing with the creation of a company and with all the contractors is interesting, but managing the day-to-day operations and talking with people is what we love the most,” says Hoerth. “There is a super community here. We wanted to be part of it and we were ready for it.”

The idea was for Pompette to become a convivial neighbourhood restaurant. “We want to have good food, good wine, and good cocktails but not take it too seriously,” says Hoerth.

With dining rooms still shuttered for the foreseeable future, however, Hoerth and his partners have launched Pompette as a takeout-only venture. They had planned to open Pompette for dine-in service first and eventually add takeout, so they view the pandemic as simply spurring a reversal of that plan. “We always had the vision that we could open a pantry shop as well,” says Hoerth.

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A post shared by ℙ ? ? ℙ ? ? ? ? (@pompette_to) on May 7, 2020 at 1:40pm PDT

“Pompette To Go” offers heat-at-home meals, as well as French pantry items like fresh bread, marmalade, and terrine, much of which is made in house. Pompette’s prepared main courses include dishes like braised beef cheeks, confit lamb shank, and poached trout — all items Hoerth says they’re planning to serve on the dine-in menu. They’re also selling around 30 different global wines by the bottle, plus cocktails to-go and beers from local brewers like Left Field.

Hoerth is conscious that even once dining rooms get the go-ahead to reopen, it’s likely that not everyone will feel comfortable dining out right away. “This is also a reason for the shop,” says Hoerth, “we’ll have the restaurant where we can do what we love the most and then a backup solution for the people that want to stay at home.”

Although Hoerth admits there are some challenges to building a following without dine-in service, Pompette’s prominent location, at the corner of College and Clinton, is helping to drum up business. “A lot of people are just walking by, looking inside, and saying: ‘oh, it looks like it’s new!’” he says.

He adds that the Pompette team is grateful for how much the community has already welcomed them. “People come by and say: ‘we just want to buy a bottle of wine from you or a main course just to give you support…we feel very blessed about that,” he says.

“It’s been complicated,” he continues, “but I would say that opening a restaurant is always challenging. Would it have been easier without the virus? I don’t know.”

Liberty Entertainment Group is donating 5,000 meals a week to health-care workers in new initiative

By

Nikki Gill

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2:24 pm

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food to fight initiative — Liberty Group

Throughout the pandemic, many local restaurants and organizations have stepped up to give back to heath-care workers. Liberty Entertainment Group is now joining the call to support those who are putting their own health at risk to care for others. The company has launched the Food to Fight initiative and is donating 5,000 meals a week to health-care workers in Toronto.

“By providing meals to hard-working frontline workers, we are doing our part to show our sincere gratitude and appreciation to those on the front lines in the battle against COVID-19,” said Nick Di Donato, president and CEO of Liberty Entertainment Group. “It’s times like these where we have a responsibility to give back however we can.”

Each day, Liberty Entertainment Group is donating 500 meals from its Cibo Wine Bar restaurants to frontline health-care workers at Mount Sinai Hospital and Bridgepoint Active Healthcare as part of its Food to Fight initiative. Toronto General Hospital will begin receiving 500 meals on June 1, bringing the total number of donated meals to 5,000 a week.

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A post shared by Liberty Entertainment Group (@libertygroup) on May 25, 2020 at 10:54am PDT

“Day in and day out during this pandemic, our health-care workers on the front lines continue to be our true champions of care, and we feel the greatest need is in supporting them — taking care of them as they take care of us,” said Louis de Melo, CEO of Sinai Health Foundation.

The Food to Fight initiative was created with the help from partners such as Eventscape, Gib-San Pool and Landscape Creations, and the Schneider Family Foundation.

“We are happy to have teamed up with our good friends at Liberty Group to make a genuine effort to help frontline staff at Mount Sinai Hospital,” said Gareth Brennan, president and founder of Eventscape. “We are proud to be able to make this gesture to say thank you.”

The company is following all physical distancing protocols in both the preparation of the meals at Cibo Wine Bar, as well as during the delivery of the meals to the health-care workers to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

“If we look out for one another, we will get through this together,” said Di Donato.