Grace
503 College St., Toronto. 416-944-8884. Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip, $110.
Swatow
309 Spadina Ave. 416-977-0601. No credit cards. Unlicensed. Dinner for two including tax and tip, $60.
Chinese Traditional Bun
536 Dundas St. W. 416-299-9011. No credit cards. Unlicensed. Dinner for two including tax and tip, $20.
When Xacutti flamed out last November, it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Chef/partner Brad Moore was gone and Moore's former partner, Leslie Gibson, who might have been able to hold things together on the business side, was in Los Angeles, where she has been managing chi-chi restos since 2005.
Now, Gibson has moved back from L.A. and on May 6 she reopened Xacutti as Grace. And it is significantly more graceful than its predecessor. Grace is not merely Xacutti reincarnated: Its renovation has warmth, which Xacutti lacked. The walls are a gorgeous turquoise, the tables reclaimed Douglas fir, the sweet little dining courtyard framed in warm wood is ablaze with yellow begonias.
For chef, Gibson scooped Dustin Gallagher, who was sous under Susur Lee for six years. Gallagher shows remarkable restraint on his menu. A cook with a less-disciplined mind would try to replicate the complexities of Susur's art when he gets his own kitchen, but he restricts himself to basic cooking. He is clearly a chef who understands that it's preferable to do simple things well than complex things poorly.
Simple in his hands is a springtime treat. His asparagus salad is fat green asparagus in vinaigrette with unctuous soft-boiled egg, sweet baby potatoes, piquant black olives and tomatoes. The bitterness of barely wilted dandelion greens is balanced by the sweetness of orange juice and pine nuts in a dangerous butter sauce on al dente ricotta ravioli. Creamy corn chowder gets zing from crisp crab fritters on top.
Looking at the price of the mains further clarifies the intentions of Grace. Even roast lamb, which tends to clock in at $35 or more, is $23 here. Okay, so it's not the Tiffany of lamb legs - slightly less tender and red than the lamb sold at top-end restos. Still, this lamb leg is still nicely roasted, and it comes with a little spring stew of wild leeks, fresh fava beans and Jerusalem artichokes. The lamb's only serious shortcoming is a too-sweet and slightly gelatinous brown sauce, best left on the plate.
Cheaper cuts of meat are putty in Gallagher's hands. His barbecued short ribs recall the glory of Xacutti's pork ribs, thanks to their big flavour and fall-off-the-bone texture. By serving the fabulous ribs with sweet potatoes and coleslaw, chef does classic Southern American cooking that he renovates with technical precision. His sweet potatoes are small roasted cubes, almost caramelized and jazzed with mint leaves. His coleslaw has citric bounce and is about as far from tired mayo'd cole slaw as a Bymark burger is from McDonald's.
His work with fish is equally careful. He poaches halibut in oil and serves it with a creative salad of fennel with citrus. He sears sea bream and puts it atop fat asparagus and a purée of sweet potatoes and chive butter.
The retro theme continues with dessert. Here, Gallagher reinvents homespun classics, using impeccable technique learned in Susur's kitchen. His lemon tart is silken lemon curd in a fragile crust. He reinvents Philly cheesecake by making it lighter than is traditional and topping it with house-made fruit preserves rather than the usual red cornstarch topping. His carrot cake is ultra-moist and garnished with mascarpone ice cream and four little discs of ridiculously rich orange honey butter.
But it's the cookies 'n' milk collection that most exemplifies Grace's mission: Retro redone better. Soft, smooth peanut butter cookies, crispy chocolate chip cookies and not-Oreos: two thin chocolate wafers sandwiching good white icing (as opposed to the nasty industrial white filling that launched a thousand high school romances). This plate is the ultimate iconic home-style food, restated with good ingredients and technical skill. Grace by any standards.
Shabby/chic chinoiserie: Word on the street is that when spicemeister chef Greg Couillard isn't cooking, he likes the shrimp dumpling soup at Swatow on Spadina. This meal-in-a-bowl is brimful with fat shrimp dumplings and blessed with good chicken broth with sesame scent. Also marvellous is the so-called roast duck, which is really deep-fried, ungreasy salt-and-spice-crusted duck. We also like the fuk-kin fried rice with egg, shrimp, squid, mushrooms and peas and surprisingly tasty white sauce on top.
Even cheaper, and also delectable, are the dim sum and soups at Chinese Traditional Bun. Jellied bean curd is chili-spiked soup whose velvet tofu cubes provide an antidote to the fire of chili oil, raw garlic, salty dried shrimp and preserved vegetable pickle. There are also various excellent Chinese buns, both steamed and sautéed.