Photos by Jennifer Roberts for The Globe and Mail. Read Chris Nuttall-Smith's review of Parcae here.
The chef
Danny Hassell, who is 37, grew up in Montreal and Hamilton, the grandson of Pugliese immigrants. Everyone in his family cooked; by the age of 13 he decided he wanted to make a career of it, he said. After a long run in Hamilton restaurants, he moved up through the ranks at Mark McEwan’s ONE, in Yorkville, and then through the Buca company; his last post there was an extremely impressive turn as Bar Buca’s opening chef de cuisine. You can see that training on his plates.
The room
The place is hidden behind an unmarked metal door at the back of the Templar Hotel’s lobby. It’s down the candlelit stairs in a dark and windowless basement space with hard steel tables and a muddy-sounding stereo system, which booms Depeche Mode and trip hop off the textured concrete walls. Parcae’s decorating theme is best described as “high-class Berlin sex dungeon.”
The food
Most puzzling, though, are the prices on Mr. Hassell’s food menu. It’s as though he poured so much love and energy into perfecting his dishes that he lost all sight of what they’re actually worth. The only reason any of this matters is because Mr. Hassell is an excellent chef. If you can look beyond Parcae’s many annoyances, there’s some truly brilliant food.
