Globe Bistro
124 Danforth Ave., Toronto. 416-466-2000. Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $150.
Putting provenance front row centre is a radical act for a restaurant, almost a sign of humility -- but hardly a new idea. Thirty years ago in Berkley, Calif., Alice Waters opened a restaurant with a forager on staff! Many restaurants in the United States have followed Chez Panisse down the provenance path -- few in Canada.
Putting top priority on sourcing ingredients that are local and preferably organic and/or produced using artisanal methods is difficult here because the economies of scale are absent and also the climate obviously does not favour year-round production of food.
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But it's still the best idea going in food -- because it's better for the environment not to truck things thousands of miles, because food grown organically and shipped at its prime tastes better and because, why not support our local farmers?
It has been difficult for Toronto restaurants to follow the provenance path because, beyond David Cohlmeyer's superb Cookstown greens and other vegetables, there has been precious little artisanal product available in this province to chefs. Ontario's artisanal food output was so low (until recently) that Michael Stadtlander had to move to a farm and start raising his own meat for the table.
It's a chicken and egg conundrum: Not enough local producers offering farmhouse products, and not enough restaurants wanting to spend the extra money to buy those products. No market, no production. But today we stand on the brink of a magnificent explosion of farmhouse food production, and the restaurants that support it deserve support. Which is why the new Globe Bistro is important.
Globe renovated the defunct Café Brussel. It was the grand dame of the Danforth. But Brussel declined in its later years and lost business. The building has been completely renovated and is now a pale, light space. Ephemeral black and white blow-ups of human forms seem ready to fly off huge fabric panels mounted on the two-storey wall. It remains a quirky building -- long and narrow, in memory of its first pre-restaurant incarnation as a bowling alley. It's the oldest building on the Danforth.
Globe chef Ben Heaton (formerly of Centro and Far Niente) shows his passion for provenance on the menu: Black cod from B.C., Yarmouth lobster, Cumbrae Farms beef, caribou from Nunavut, heirloom beets with Niagara prosciutto and Ewenity Ontario sheep's milk cheese, La Ferme (Quebec) chicken, and Cumbrae Berkshire pork.
Berkshire pork is a heritage breed of pig originally from Berkshire in the United Kingdom. Now bred in Ontario, they are celebrated for their rich taste and texture, marbling and tenderness. Unlike industrially raised hogs that subsist on corn and soybeans, Berkshire pigs often dine on oats, molasses, fresh vegetables and fruits.
Chef's enthusiasm goes a long way. His Berkshire pork belly with scallops is a clever play on surf 'n' turf, one perfect gilded scallop with a hunk of crisp pork belly and a scoop of what he calls mustard foam, which is really a yummy mustard mousse. Chef's technique lags somewhat behind his ideas, but not far enough to disappoint terribly. It's just that Susur, Jamie and Mark don't need to worry yet.
The roasted beet salad reads somewhat better than it eats, thanks to too-salty Niagara prosciutto and that local sheep's cheese, which resembles a pool of sharp crème fraîche. Ricotta gnocchi sit in a wonderful earthy broth based on truffled wild mushrooms, but they've been browned and have toughened up. Dungeness crab empanadas are filled with the real thing, gorgeously garnished with tiny killer circlets of red-hot chilies, cute little coriander seedlings and zingy jalapeno/cumin cream. But the empanada's pastry is heavy.
Chef's technique is more masterful on mains: His Nunavut caribou is moist and gamey; its accompanying goat cheese soufflé is ultralight and loaded with chèvre. He poaches a small lobster in butter, to fine effect, and sits it on tarragon-scented lobster sauce, with braised baby fennel and what he calls a "potato cloud."
This, like the mustard business with the pork 'n' scallops, is nominally foam but not the cloud-like, barely there bubbly foam. Yukon gold potato mousse is a clever and wonderful confection.
B.C. black cod sits on green-apple inflected cream, with lentils and barely wilted spinach, but the fish itself is underpowered in the flavour department. The house frites also need work: They're overcooked, but it's a charming idea to serve them with both aioli and veal jus.
Heaton's Farmer's Plate is his ever-shifting attempt to feature the bounty from one local farm. He almost gets there one evening with fabulous moist Ontario lamb chops and a cornucopia of root veg from Cookstown Greens. Under it all are swirls of orange and brown -- the former a silken purée of carrot and horseradish, the latter a hearty lamb jus.
Aficionados of the savoury are not always masters of the sweet. Globe's kitchen suffers from this fate, hence my preference for their post-prandial cheeses, which are all impeccable artisanal products from Quebec and Europe. Banana cream tart will appeal to butterfat addicts thanks to thick sweet cream, but its pastry is not flaky, not buttery and not crisp. Assassination by chocolate is run-of-the-mill chocolate mousse cake, and shoo-fly cake, while inventive , is less than exciting.
When I was young, I hated older people telling me what I ought to do to improve. Now that I am older, my imperfections have become almost pleasurable: Needing to do it better is a compelling reason to get up in the morning.
Note to chef: The glass is not half-empty, it's on the road to full. You've made a marvellous start.
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