Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
There are subtle changes that distinguish Briscola from its predecessor, Cinq 01: lace café curtains, plush dining-chair cushions, slate-grey walls to break up the expanse of creamy white.
And then there are more noticeable ones: arrivederci, DJ booth; buona sera, pizza station.
The pommel horse, an offbeat décor element that punctuated Cinq 01's main dining room, is also gone; now, there's a communal table.
But the biggest change of all is the arrival of a new, albeit familiar, face: Charles Khabouth. The man whose roster of venues stretches longer than melted mozzarella (the Guvernment, Ultra, Tattoo Rock Parlour) has joined owner Toufik Sarwa (Amber) with the shared objective of bringing somewhere "cool" and Italian to College Street.
Briscola, which officially opened last night, is the latest restaurant on the strip west of Bathurst to undergo a reinvention (although most changeovers also involve entirely new owners).
Where Cinq 01 was a restaurant under the guise of a scenester sanctuary, Mr. Sarwa and Mr. Khabouth see Briscola as an accessible destination for pizza, pasta and eggplant parmigiana.
"The idea is to do nice Italian comfort food," says Mr. Khabouth during a recent sit-down interview with Mr. Sarwa. "Whether it's northern or southern, I don't really care. I don't want to be that specific."
Pizzeria Libretto has little reason to worry; Briscola, named after the beloved Italian card game, doesn't even have a wood-burning oven. But the guys hint about their intention to take a slice out of the Terroni pie (they stop shy of mentioning the mini empire by name).
Their coming together suggests an olive-oil-and-balsamic relationship: an obvious pairing of two distinct individuals. Mr. Khabouth has already demonstrated that competitors can make good comrades: In 2007, he teamed up with Nick Di Donato, the chief executive officer of Liberty Entertainment Group, to open Spice Route and Tattoo Rock Parlour.
"I think if you are professional enough to compete in a very civil manner, you stay friends, because I wouldn't expect someone not to have a business and compete," says Mr. Khabouth, who opened his first nightspot in 1983.
"We've never competed," maintains Mr. Sarwa. "I do my thing and he does his thing."
When Cinq 01, a nod to its address at 501 College St., opened last fall, it signalled a big leap for Mr. Sarwa, who enlisted local design firm Commute Home to create a Wallpaper-worthy space and developed a menu of items more ambitious than Amber's glorified snack food.
But he concedes that his beautiful boîte may not have been as suited to College Street as he had hoped. "Maybe it wasn't accessible," he says. Indeed, it proved a more likely destination for fashion after-parties than three-course meals.
The duo says they had discussed collaborating for years. Repositioning Cinq 01 proved the ideal opportunity.
"The whole dynamic makes sense … Charles has the resources," explains Mr. Sarwa, referring not only to financial wherewithal but the ability to summon up hospitality reinforcements.
"It's an extension of what we do on a daily basis rather than this whole massive start," adds Mr. Khabouth.
Long recognized as Toronto's club king, he says the Italian trattoria concept has always been a compelling one (he's got Japanese covered with Ame and his French brasserie on Bloor Street will open this summer).
With Briscola he gets a cozier project than his existing venues. "The College Street spaces are too small for me," says Mr. Khabouth. "If Toufik wasn't here, I wouldn't have been here."
Earlier this week, a few dozen schmoozers and shakers (including jazz crooner Matt Dusk and Team Canada Olympic hockey player Tessa Bonhomme) were invited to sample executive chef Sean Reeve's fare. While this is his first time at the helm, his background includes studying at ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine in Colorno, Italy, a stage cooking under Chef Giambattista Manzini in Bergamo, Italy and stints at Cioppino's in Vancouver and Toronto's Via Allegro.
Most dishes are classic crowd-pleasers: osso bucco, linguine and clams, mushroom risotto. Gooseberries complement the veal Milanese and the tuna carpaccio is dressed with kumquats. There's the requisite wall of Italian pantry items that double as decoration. It all amounts to a familiar formula that is very mangia-friendly.
The businessmen share ownership 50-50 and they insist they have similar taste in almost everything. Except tiramisu. When presented with two variations on the dessert, they could not reach an agreement. So which one appears on the menu? With a laugh, Mr. Sarwa answers, "They'll rotate."
Amy Verner