Hoof Café
923 Dundas St. W., Toronto
416-551-8854 or 416-792-7511
$80 for dinner for two with wine, tax and tip; no credit cards
For a bar that wasn't meant to be more than a holding tank for its big-sister restaurant across the street, the buzz surrounding Hoof Café is deafening. Its main function – to provide people waiting for a table at the Black Hoof with a place to nurse a cocktail and maybe nosh lightly before being directed across Dundas – is well served, but the café, which has 14 dining seats and 12 bar stools, has taken on an irresistible life of its own.
The city's best mixologist, Jen Agg, crafts zingy cocktails such as figgy caipirinhas (fig and lime with a killer punch) and bacon old-fashioneds (wherein rye is infused with house-smoked cured bacon and mixed with cherry syrup, bitters and orange zest). The café's eats go down easy with these fab libations. What crazed epicurean mind thought to overcook navy beans till the skins split, deep fry them and then toss them with olive oil, arugula, chili and fresh mint? Or to fill butter-gilded perogies with caramelized milk and onions masquerading as velvet? Everybody does raw tuna, but the Hoof does it better, adding both bitter (preserved lemon) and sweet (Serrano ham).
Crown bacon, the server tells us, is cut not from the pig's face but farther back. It's then fried delectably crisp, rolled up in sweet melting pig fat and served with lightly stewed quince and slightly porcine quince sauce – heaven for carnivores. When the server explains – with gestures - precisely where on the pig's head this bacon originates, he is earnest, knowledgeable and cute. Which makes him the typical Hoof server.
Hoof partners Agg and Grant Van Gameren (the chef) have a counterculture vibe that ought not to fool anyone. Their staff training and supervision are better than most high-end spots, as is evidenced by their knowledgeable, affable servers. Ask anything about the complex dishes and they answer with delight and true food wisdom. And though the clientele tends more toward the girl sitting next to us – she has blue hair and is wearing purple and turquoise high-tops – they are unbearably nice to everybody, from vegetarians to the middle-aged unhip.
When our server brings us ribs with smoked mayonnaise, I wonder aloud about how exactly you smoke mayo. “Leave the oil in the smoker a while before you make the mayo,” quoth he.
The ribs are boneless, dry-rubbed in sweet hot spice and uber meaty.
And if all this fabulous meat wasn't sufficient, Hoof Café also does a great dessert: a tasty tease called the Malteser, which combines a salted caramel base with moist stout cake, soft unctuous dark chocolate, malt ice cream and shards of retro Malteser candies.
The room, too, is lovely, a cross between Queen Street artsy and French country farmhouse. Picture old leaded windows on the cabinets behind the bar, lemon yellow floral wallpaper and an elaborate, shiny pressed-tin ceiling.
The folksy sign outside features a hand-painted white pig on old barn board. You'll probably be standing under it a while if you try to get a table for weekend brunch any time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. – it's among the yummiest in town.
The suckling-pig benny consists of a buttery homemade short dough biscuit with rather a lot of tender pulled pork under a perfect poached egg with lemony hollandaise sauce spiked with house-pickled jalapeno. The buckwheat pancakes are topped with house-cured bacon and moist chunks of rabbit sandwiching slices of gossamer house-made ricotta under fresh blueberry sauce. Underneath the pancakes is some celery jam (also house-made) to extend the sweet/savoury theme.
To wash down your brunch, try the Hoof Caesar: Agg mixes vodka that she has infused with pink peppercorns with lemon, Marmite syrup, a dash of Clamato and her own piri piri sauce. The glass is rimmed with rock salt, pepper and freshly grated horseradish that Agg has dehydrated. Need I say more?
For a glimpse of how it's all done, peek into the kitchen on your way out the door: You'll see up to five guys moving fast. What Hoof Café puts out is labour-intensive cooking. They do everything the old way: from scratch. Every bite gives the lie to industrial cooking.
In other words, Hoof Café may look modern and casual and cool, but it's relentlessly traditional when it comes to how everything is cooked.
Scaramouche, which has been facing the end of its longtime lease for months now, has just had it extended to the end of 2016, so lift a glass of champagne to six more years for Toronto's best restaurant.
