Wonderful crazy patio madness in Toronto

It doesn’t matter whether a delivery truck’s engine is vibrating in your ear, or whether a tapocketapocketa is going on next door, or the wind comes up a storm, or lightning strikes… I may have enjoyed my dinner under Boba’s purple and yellow striped canopy MORE because of the thudding downpour.
Come summer, Torontonians HAVE to eat outside. Eating alfresco changes the rhythm, the tempo, the mood of Toronto dining. The word is unbuttoned. People who usually hurry through lunch are now drowsing under an umbrella as they sip pernod – and staying up later than usual to just absorb the warm inky night vibes.

I’m off to one of the most charming patios in the city -- Provence  in Cabbagetown. The  restaurant looks perpetually sundrenched as if it was sent over whole in a container from the South of France and settled on Amelia Street. If I ignore the gas station across the road I can imagine I’m in a little hill town smelling the lavendar fields.
Down to earth with a bump. I ‘d forgotten. This is the first night of Summerlicious when restos offer modest prix fixes to drum up summer business.  I’m all for it – until now.
Only the Summerlicious menu and wines are available. Too bad. I’d been so looking forward to tasting Elie Benchitrit’s fish soup. But it isn’t on offer.
Still the Summerlicious menu is not to be sniffed at. Value is good. Three courses each with two choices for thirty bucks. The pate de foie gras, which I like better than fresh foie gras, is a great starter, and so is the carpaccio of sea bream. The grilled sardines are sensational, sardines being one of the few fish with an identifiable taste.  Environmentalists don’t have to nag me about choosing fish carefully, I find most fish aren’t worth eating. Let the sea keep ‘em.

I order cassoulet with  my fingers crossed.  Cassoulet is comfort food supreme, a dish from the southwest of France that - like all regional dishes - may be made many ways. Essentially it is a white bean stew with meat, spicy sausage and a breadcrumb crust. Cassoulet needs to mature to taste good. The 19th-century writer Anatole France claimed that his favourite restaurant had kept the same cassoulet pot simmering on the stove, with new ingredients periodically added, for 20 years!

Can you imagine what a Toronto health inspector would say when confronted by such an ancient stew! Still I’d have liked a cassoulet older than say a day. The white beans seem a little hard, the duck confit is dry—roasted duck would have been juicier - the spicy sausage is good, the pork ok but – there is no deep dark aged taste or the crunchy breadcrumb crust (broken or not) so essential to full enjoyment.

Desserts are expert, the fresh fruit tart and a rich tarte tatin, upside down apple tart. And the house red is just fine.

But the experience is torpedoed by the Summerlicious effect: overworked waiters. When I ask a question about the food, our waiter replies over his shoulder as he walks away from me. “motelly” sniffs my companion. But at least the motel is in the South of France.
**Provence 12 Amelia street,  416.924.9901   

This year, there’s a spate of new  patios. The hot ones:
**  1/2 The  Harbord Room. 89 Harbord st. 416-962 8989 .  Elegantly minimalist with umbrellas poised over the tables, this is the smartest new outdoor space this year.  Very buzzy.  Cory Vitiello’s kitchen is off the beaten track with interesting flavours.   Go for the olive and citrus roasted lamb or a burger.

**Sidecar 577 College, at Clinton, 416-536-7000.Casey Bee and Bill Sweete have the kind of restaurant that you can sink into when you can’t face building a sandwich at home. Caesar Salad, steak frites, a cocktail. Patio is enchanting and woodsy, a sell out with the $22 prix fixe in middle of week.

** 1/2 JAMcafe 195 Carlton St. Toronto M5A 2K7 416-921-1255
Mussels with roast corn, lime leaf, ginger, fresh red chilies, coconut milk can’t be beat in this little clubby restaurant with a picturesque backyard patio.

**Tati Bistro Tati Bistro 124 Harbord, at Major, 416-962-8284. Eat your fresh veggies, the best in the city,  on Tati’s rural rooftop patio, now fully renovated from its shaky Kensington Kitchen Days.

**One in the  Haze1ton Hotel 116 Yorkville Ave. (416) 961-9600
The bold name sidewalk café on Yorkville.  Grand fun to lounge on a sofa under a black umbrella and watch the world dash by. Nobody saunters. Food is overpriced humdrum, a club sandwich made without passion costs $24. George Smitherman who arrives in a hybrid SUV eats salad, I see. Service once terrible is now excellent.
**Olivia's @ 53 53 Clinton, at College, 416-533-3989
The city’s only microwinery offers food and tastings in the comfy backyard - like barley risotto in a below fifty three chardonnay sauce with sauteed wild leeks and honey roasted butternut squash_Suggested wine: Below Fifty Three micro winery Chardonnay (grapes from Maipo Valley, Chile)

Plus a couple of familiar grandees….

 ***The Fifth 225 Richmond St W. 416-979 3005

Forget helicoptering to St. Joe, just grab a cab and go to Toronto’s Muskoka cottage in the sky at the Fifth. Here you can eat oysters, caviare, steak without inhaling all that smoke. Service is as suave as butter.

***George 111C  Queen E. 416 863 6006
 

Lorenzo Loseto’s mom raises the great tomatoes served in this little secret garden off George’s main dining room. Quiet and delicious. George does lunches, so go for the veal foie burger with pear slaw and aged cheddar.