Black George and TOOK: The Remake of the Modern Ontario Restaurant
Black George
and TOOK: The
Remake of the Modern Ontario Restaurant
BY BRYAN LAVERY
Fine dining isn't disappearing. It
is transforming into something fresh, as self-determining restaurateurs just
keep changing and redefining it with new concepts and interactive experiences. But
what is driving the change?
As independent restaurant
concepts continue to evolve, changing demand creates the need for new ways to
enhance the customer experience. Restaurants that continue to grow and even prosper
are usually the ones that are most willing and readily able to adapt to
changing trends. Today’s modern restaurants are about feasting, sharing,
authenticity, quality ingredients and celebrating the craft and tradition of
farmers, chefs, winemakers and brewers. We are living in an age when pioneering
chefs wield unprecedented influence, and some of the most innovative among them
are finding original ways to utilize unfamiliar and largely neglected
ingredients.
To stay at the top of their game savvy
restaurateurs revamp and rethink their whole approach to their restaurant on a
continuing basis. This is the story of two independent restaurants with big
reputations on a similar trajectory. On the surface they may seem dissimilar.
Yet they have a lot in common, appealing to both food enthusiasts and
connoisseurs who enjoy participating in their own culinary experiences.
The Only on King recently went through a brief refurbishment
and relaunched under the acronym TOOK.
The relaunch included a makeover, rebranding, unveiling new menus, expanding
the business hours, offering lunch Tuesday through Friday, and adding take-away
options including coffee and fresh pastries. The updated interior is striking with lots of farm-to-table touches and
handcrafted accents by local artisans.
TOOK, with its fully realized farm-to-table philosophy, dedicated
acknowledgement of the local terroir and support of local farmers and
producers, remains in the vanguard of the righteous modern Ontario restaurant.
Chef/owner Paul Harding brings many years of
experience to this new venture. His commitment to using locally sourced
ingredients on his menu hasn’t changed and the restaurant continues to serve
some of its classic signature dishes. Chef is known for traditional farmstead
practices such as pickling, brining, curing and ageing. There are antipasto,
truffles, organic beef, organic pork, black cod and sheep’s milk ricotta
together with more modest ingredients that are conferred equal reverence, and
multi-cultural culinary treatments. TOOK is now open late into the evening with an expanded cocktail and
beer menu to coincide with the fresh approach to casual late night dining.
TOOK’s dinner service focuses on a well-chosen
but limited selection of bigger plates and an assortment of smaller tapas-style
offerings divided into categories which include snacks, soil, sea, land
and sweet stuff. This menu style proves to be infinitely versatile by
accommodating almost every culinary tradition and the shareable plates allow
diners to eat communally and sample a variety of items. It also allows diners
the opportunity to curate their own tasting experience, either by ordering a
selection of dishes to share, or enjoying their appetizers as entrées and vice versa.
Some of the recent menu items include sheep’s
milk ricotta gundi (gnocchi-like dumplings) with red sauce and fresh basil;
miso marinated black cod with pickled mushrooms and a kimchi burger with
organic pork and beef patty with cilantro lime mayo. These types of modern menus
remain important tools for chefs to communicate their ethos to their customers.
The other relaunch in downtown
London is an updated, re-imagined Kantina — which has, after more than five years, evolved and morphed into Black George. The vibe at Black George is hip and edgy while
the food is modern, rustic and playful. Owner Miljan Karac built the former Kantina’s
stellar reputation on innovative Balkan-inspired cuisine, prepared from scratch
with farm-to-table ideals.
The newly refurbished space has a clean, minimal style with whitewashed
bricks and higher ceilings with dangling red cords and bare bulbs. The updated interior is even more casual, with
less formal service than the former incarnation. It is the natural evolution
and maturing of Karac as an innovator and restaurateur.
Black George similarly showcases original cuisine with small, shareable
plates — tapas-style. In order to
fully experience the concept, your dishes are served as they are prepared, with
understated confidence by Chef Courtney Noble. The Stratford Chef School alumna
runs a focused kitchen and all items are made in-house and bear her stamp. Her personalized
dishes underscore a passion for big flavours and a respect for farm fresh, seasonally
appropriate foods.
The restaurant’s most
popular dish, and its namesake, comes with its own symbolic narrative. Legend
has it when Serbia was under Soviet rule a high ranking official visited a
local restaurant and ordered Chicken Kiev. The chef dared not disappoint but
didn’t have all the ingredients to prepare the dish. Instead, he created a
rolled, fried schnitzel and called it the Karađorđe (Black George) after the first elected leader of the First Serbian Uprising that liberated
Serbia from the Ottoman Empire, and who became a national hero.
On a recent visit,
the deep-fried Black George
arrived at the table cut in half, with its creamy filling oozing out onto the
plate. I tasted it and admired how the combination of flavours — the buttery clotted
cream-like kaymak, the tenderized pork and the melt-in- your-mouth ham blend so
perfectly. The dish was served with roasted potatoes, baby heirloom carrots
and cubes of knobby kohlrabi, that suddenly ubiquitous cultivar of cabbage.
The new menu combines old favourites with some inspired recent additions.
We love the house-made duck sausage with kale pesto and
risotto. In Noble’s hands, warm feta and lemon dip with olive oil and chickpea flatbread
tastes like a deconstructed version of the Greek fried cheese appetizer
saganaki. An appetizer of kataifi-wrapped (phyllo pastry that looks like shredded
wheat) tiger shrimp with cocktail sauce and avocado purée remains the perfect
amalgam of flavours and textures. There is a chilled, layered and luxurious
lemon meringue parfait served in a mason jar which has both sweet and savoury
components. The salted caramel pot au crème becomes a hedonistic experience
after the first spoonful.
Black George and TOOK are independent businesses that thrive on creativity,
dedication and commitment enhanced by well-honed and sophisticated culinary
points of view. Both restaurants continue to be meccas for serious food
enthusiasts. Karac and Harding seem to be directing their attention to growing
successful, sustainable businesses — based on renewed strategies for winning
customers by staying on top of evolving trends while remaining true to their
strengths and culinary philosophies.
Many new restaurant concepts are shedding everything that is superfluous
and ingrained about guests’ fine dining perceptions. What’s left is understated
and confident, genuinely hospitable and fueled with the life blood of culinary
skill, craftsmanship and authenticity.
BLACK GEORGE
349 Talbot Street
London, ON
London, ON
519-672-5862
TUESDAY – THURSDAY – 5:30 – 9 PM
FRIDAY & SATURDAY – 5:30–10:30 PM
FRIDAY & SATURDAY – 5:30–10:30 PM
Available for
private bookings SUNDAY & MONDAY
TOOK (The Only on
King)
172 King Street
London, ON
519-936-2064
TUESDAY – THURSDAY – 11AM - 10PM
FRIDAY – 11 AM - 1 AM
SATURDAY – 5 PM - 1 AM
BRYAN LAVERY is
eatdrink’s Food Writer at Large.
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