New Chip off the old block…

There’s a surge, a small but significant one, in the neighbourhood bistros in Toronto. Usually the bistro adheres to the French model, onion soup, seafood bisque, escargots, mussels, steak frites, apple tart. But now young Torontonians are refashioning the genre in their own image, adding and subtracting ingredients at will, putting their own spin on familiar dishes. The price is good, coming in under $100 for two - as long as you forget the wine (the albatross around Toronto’s neck) which can easily double the food bill.

If you go west along freeforall College, you’ll spot the neat, orderly black and white façade of Alice’s Restaurant among the eclectic storefronts between Ossington and Dovercourt. No, it’s not a protest resto, a throwback to Arlo Guthrie’s anti Viet nam war song. This Alice is named for the small daughter of the owner-chef John Pekka Woods and the resto’s mission is pacific, food meant to please not to dominate. Atleast that’s what the website says. A little disingenuous because Woods is challenging convention in several ways.

The room is charming, deep grey walls, French doors to the street, ceiling halogens, little chandeliers over the bar, comfortable seats, most of all it is spacious – and quiet! There is music but nobody has to shout above it; instead there’s a pleasant buzz on this Saturday night. Tonight I’m meeting the Toronto Gourmand, a savvy judge of a new place -  because he has to eat out more often than I do and needs to be tempted. He immediately cottons to Alice as the kind of oldfashioned neighbourhood place with every age represented. This isn’t an age ghetto like so many new restaurants.

The menu contains surprises. I’ve never loved a parsnip before but I could get addicted to the dehydrated parsnip chips that dot the huge arugula salad. I can’t embrace sour weeds the same way but the TG gobbles them up with self-congratulary virtue. Atleast a half hour added to life.

Two little crab cakes are creamily delicious, none of the precious lumps however, and elegantly presented with cornichons, capers and parsley oil.  I wasn’t so happy with the shrimp risotto. Something about pale pink rice turns me off, reminds me of rice pudding which I love in the right time and place - Sunday lunch in the nursery. Risotto must be a profound experience, rich in flavour and stern in gravitas. This risotto is borderline serious, creeping toward sloppy with bland shrimps.

The TG orders roast black cod ($23). Then he spots rare roast rack of lamb going to another table. “How I wish…” he shakes his head, but when his order comes, he is totally vindicated. Superb is the verdict on the black cod with sweet potato galette and pea shoots with some black bean broth messing about. Now why did I order grilled Cornish Hen ($22)? My teeth ache in memory of Cornish hens past. The Cornish hen is a fowl aberration bred for the resto market and it is notoriously dry. A test for Woods. I’m rewarded by a fragrant side of Cornish Hen  surrounded by a an array of veggies as exquisite as a Mantegna garland. Woods must have a dehydrator in the back because the plate is dotted with Jerusalem artichokes chips. Lovely little artichoke halves,  pearl onions, parsley and lemon salsa, yup the ingredients are all there, but oh, the treacherous fowl. It’s tough.

The vegetarian option is a napoleon, layers of potato and mushrooms with tomato sauce. I can’t but think how beef stock could have improved the taste.

We study desserts. A cheese plate! Another innovation of the past few years – artisanal cheese as dessert. Five years ago who knew sheep’s cheese? A nice little story. Sheep’s milk cheese kinda crept up before the Ontario government - busy banning raw milk - could seize control of it and regulate it to death. Result, there’s arguably more good sheep’s milk cheese in Ontario than cheese made from cow and goat milk. Sheep cheese isn’t assertive: at first it tastes like a wrung out dish rag but if you persevere you’ll begin to savour subtle intriguing flavours. Tonight three cheeses are offered, a softish Paradiso, an ambitious Bandaged cheddar, and what was for me the most rewarding, Toscana, semi-hard and bland at first then a twist like lemon in a martini.

The cheeses are all from Monforte Dairy which is showing a Kraftlike grip on the market. Monforte’s good but so are others.  Where’s Back Forty’s Highland blue and Ramembert? And what happened to Stephanie Diamant’s Violet Hill?

A decade ago, a fellow diner asked for cornichons at a Yorkville restaurant and the waiter said “I’ll send the wine waiter.”

Hard to find a server today who doesn’t know Carmeniere from Arcanum. Even a small restaurant like Alice has a longish list at modest prices, no bottle above $70. And another innovation. Alice serves only wines from Niagara. I can think of only one other restaurant so brave – JK at the Gardiner where only Ontario wines are served.  On advice, we drink a Baco Noir from Henry Pelham ($22 half litre) which goes fine with the cheese. Earlier however, the wine pairing for the risotto, Peninsula Ridge’s Viognier was far too sweet.

Alternatively you can bring your own bottle – the corkage is $20.

The finale is winter citrus meringue tower. “Memories of meringue” says the TG as a large confused plate arrives with a meringue stranded among raw apple slices. With the skin on. The TG’s better half who saves herself for summing up has the last word “Gauche.”

But that’s the only false note of the evening. Hit or Miss, Woods is saphappy chip off an old familiar block.

**Alice’s Restaurant 856 College St. 416-534.7500. Wheelchair accessible. Huge patio for summer.Conversation-friendly. BYOB $20. Food for two plus tax: $95.