It’s no surprise, many Canadians have been waiting decades for Panera Breads to finally make their way north of the border.  In fact, there’s a website dedicated solely to the cause of having the sandwich chain open up on Canadian soil. Well recently, their wishes came true and Panera Breads opened up a few places around the GTA, with one located right in downtown Toronto, sitting a block north of Yonge and Dundas Square.  In January, Tom Gumpel, Panera’s head baker and former associate Dean of baking at the Culinary Institute of America, prepared some yummy food at an event at the George Brown Food Innovation Studio.  Tom started out with an homage to bread and a history of the baguette.  He was a very interesting and engaging speaker, who was incredibly knowledgeable about bread!

There was also a lot of standard media commentary from the staff in the room like “we’re in love” with the product. They talked about a shift back to bread with whole grains, and spoke about a strategy of the use of bread being related to telling a story as a way of engaging people and building interest with food pairings.  Tom noted a disconnect between what is served in a restaurant and what many people remember fondly of bread from our childhoods, such as bread pudding. Cue an odd disclosure by one of the media reps in attendance – I have to admit that I found it bizarre that some members of the food media experience guilt when eating food.  I’m pretty keen on food as sustenance and pleasure. Tom then made 2 items which are NOT available in Panera, a bread pudding and a Panzanella (which is basically a bread based salad). He spoke about bread with a focus on choice and range of both health and decadent options, stating “imagine the possibilities of what you could do with those breads”.

All the bread there was lovely. He had us break oven loaves to smell and look at them – they were delish, but basically did not get eaten and it was a pity to see so much bread go to waste. So, first was the Bread pudding/strata. He had some very interesting comments about cooking such as how chefs sometimes throw ingredients around and their measures do not appear to be exact, but the reality is that chefs actually know exactly how much is in their hand.  Cool!  The bread pudding was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.  It was incredibly flavourful, warm, and eggy.  It was beyond delicious, and I had a second wee helping.  YUM! Just typing this makes me want to pick up the ingredients so I can make the strata later – I’ve never been a fan of bread pudding before but this was so good!  It’s the perfect comfort food for a cold night.

Tom Gumpel - Image Source: Toronto Star (who was also at the event)

The Bread salad was next, made with ingredients from the Family Food Market at St. Lawrence Market. The insights continued with a notation that what people say they care about in their food does not reflect their buying habits.  So these breads are baked in the cafe and they are working on their own distribution system. For example, they grow their own lettuce and get it to stores sooner then they would other wise be able to from a distributer.  In Canada, Panara locally sources 50% of the produce they use although they noted that they are still assessing regional variations.

The Pananella had a lovely aroma, it was pretty and colourful and the bread was delicious. While each flavour was fine on its own, I think it might have been better if there had been time for the dish to sit for a bit so the flavours could meld better.  This is an odd review though, because the food I ate is not actually available in Panera stores!  However, based on Tom Gumpel’s incredibly solid skills, I’m very interested to try the food they do serve and see if it is as delicious as what he made at the event.

Usually I am way more critical of things, but I really enjoyed this event.  I know it was for media, and therefore probably tightly controlled and designed, and I did roll my eyes a bit at some of the over the top comments by some of Panera’s media people, but Chef Gumpel came across as incredibly skilled, the food was tasty, everyone was friendly and I just genuinely enjoyed myself.

**I did actually stop by Panera tonight for some bread and am about to make the bread pudding myself.  I cannot wait!

I love buffets. Even the really bad ones.  I love that you can try out so many different things, get your food at your own pace, and eat til your buttons pop off your shirt.  There are, however, two major downsides to buffets: The food is made in huge batches and spends a while sitting under a hot lamp diminishing the quality, and I can never really eat enough food to justify the price tag of most buffets.  And, at $25 a head for sunday brunch, the Boiler House is a bit on the steep side.

However, the quality of the food is so superb that even at only eating one and a half plates, I felt satisfied at having spent my money at such an establishment.

There is a pretty wide variety of foods to consume at the buffet.  You have all your continental staples – fresh fruit, croissants, french toast, home fries, scrambled eggs.  But you also have some excellent additional choices such as shrimp cocktail, fresh slices of ham and roast, custom made omelettes, and fresh made belgian waffles.  All the food is kept warm (or cold) and is constantly replenished and kept fresh.

Service was excellent and even though we were located on the second floor tucked away in a corner, our servers were still quick to refill our coffee and collect our plates. To top everything else off, they had a live band performing during brunch too which really help to set the atmosphere.

On the downside, the condiments were tricky to find.  There aren’t any bottles of ketchup or syrup on your table and they’re way down by the other end of the buffet (no where near the french toast or home fries).  For some strange reason, when they’d refill our coffee, they’d only fill it 2/3rds of the way and we had to tell them to top it off.  I understand the need for space to add cream but it was a bit ridiculous.  The final downside is this place rarely ever accepts walkins for Sunday brunch.  You almost always have to book ahead a week in advance.

Over all, the Boiler House had been an excellent experience – one that has further whet my appetite for finer brunch buffets which I plan on scouting around for.

Yes, it’s worth it, but with the Church street location being so close to various coffee shops and Eatons Centre, I hardly see why anyone would wait around outside, especially when Guu will give you a courtesy call 15 minutes before your table is ready.

When you first enter Guu, nearly all the staff stop in their tracks and greet you with a really loud “irasshaimase!” Get used to the volume now because they’re going to be shouting it every time someone else walks in the door.

Our party ordered around 9 tapas (which came to about $70.. pretty cheap) and I’ve got almost no complaints about any of them. The food came instant and was fresh and hot.  The service was amazing with the waitress constantly checking on us to see if we needed anything else or wanted to order more.  They also gave you nice lemon scented warm hand cloths to wipe your hands before you eat – a really thoughtful touch.

Since I’m sure most people have already heard countless times how amazing Guu is, I’m going to forgo describing everything in my usual great detail and instead present you with a bunch of food photos and their description. So here goes…

Okonomiyaki, Beef short ribs, and smoked salmon

Fried Brie with blueberry sauce, tofu salad, mushroom and cheese bibimbap

Deepfried pumpkin with egg in the middle (eat it while it's hot!), black cod, nasu dengaku (eggplant)

My low light iPhone photos do the food no justice.  Guu is good, really good.  However, waiting nearly 2 hours to eat said food isn’t fun unless you plan your evening around it.  Guu doesn’t take reservations so if you don’t want to wait, you should go pretty early around 4pm when the place is starting to open.

For one reason or another, I’m very hesitant to review anything that’s either a chain or a franchise unless it’s local.  I feel like my time is best dedicated towards reviewing locally based restaurants.  I have made a few minor exceptions in the past and I’m about to make one now with The 3 Brewers.  Though, technically, there is only one place in the world called “The 3 Brewers” because all the other locations are all in Quebec and are known as “Les 3 Brasseurs.”

there be beer in there!

Much like the name says, The 3 Brewers centers around the creation and presentation of beer.  The reason why they’re called a microbrewery is because, low and behold, they make their own beer there.  You can even request to take a tour of the place and see all their lovely beer vats.

However, I’m not here for the beer (for the most part), I’m here for the food!  T3B has your standard pub fare.  Burgers, sandwiches, pizza, salads, and even sauerkraut.  But given that this is a micro-brewery, it’s their beer selection that really shines -they have an interesting menu full of different types of beers (white, blonde, amber, brown, and the special brew) and a colourful assortment of different beer cocktails.  We ended up going with the beer cocktails: a monaco and a titi du quartier.  The monaco is a mix of blonde beer, sprite, and grenadine while the titi has creme de cassis instead of grenadine.  Both were decent but I personally preferred the titi du quartier since I’ve come to realize that I don’t like grenadine that much.

For food we ordered the Royal Sauerkraut and a Pulled-Pork Sandwich.  In an astounding 8 minutes after placing our order with the waitress, one of the kitchen staff had our food promptly in front of our faces! A wise foodie friend once told me that food which is served directly by the kitchen staff is good service since you know your food isn’t waiting under a hot lamp for the waitress to eventually pick it up.

The Monaco and the Titi du Quartier

The Royal Sauerkraut was amazing.  It had a combination of sausage, grilled ham, and a pork shank.  The sausage was really thick and incredibly flavourful, the grilled ham was really juicy and nice, and the pork shank was exceptionally well made, nice and tender.  There was also enough sauerkraut on the plate to feed you for a week.

The pulled pork sandwich was full of flavour and sauce.  The pork literally just melted in your mouth!  The topping of onions and swiss cheese were the cherry on top.  The bun that it was in was nicely baked and quite crispy.  This is probably one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I have had.

the yummiest pulled pork sandwich and the royal sauerkraut

As long as you don’t mind waiting up to an hour for your table and congregating with the mass of toursits to be seated, then I would highly recommend that you go check out T3B.  The place has great food, prompt and friendly service and, above all else, excellent beer.  Given the amount of negativity that a lot of my fellow locals and “whiners” seem to give this place, I’d like to add that when I went the place wasn’t that packed (it was a cold and rainy Monday evening).  We didn’t have to wait for a table and our service was prompt.  I can see having a different experience if the place is packed to the brim and the food is being rushed out even faster.  But 8 minutes from order to fork on a slow day is still pretty amazing.

Le Petit Dejeuner (LPD) is tucked in right next to Gabby’s making it pretty easy to miss amidst the countless number of furniture stores adorning King street east.  But if you do happen to be near George Brown College’s downtown campus, be sure to check this little Belgian brunch spot out.

LPD has a very interesting brunch menu with such delights as an apple and brie panino, caramelized french toast, and authentic belgian waffles.  We decided to go with what we assumed most people would order; the Hungry Gal breakfast.  It comes with two eggs, toast, apple coleslaw, home fries (though the menu says potato rosti) and comes with a choice of bacon, sausage terrine, fishcakes, fruit salad, or peameal bacon.

One of ours was ordered with the fishcake, and the other with sausage terrine.  The food came relatively quickly, but I was a bit worried that there was no rosti.  Low and behold, underneath my toast was a sprinkling of home fries.  Is this their version of rosti?  Because if so, they’re not even close.  I sort of wish that the potatoes weren’t underneath my toast as it made my toast really soggy within a matter of minutes.  My second complaint was that the dishes never came with condiments as a default.  Ketchup and jam had to be requested and were put into mini side-bowls.

Back to the potatoes which aren’t rosti –  they were a little undercooked in the middle. but otherwise weren’t too bad. They could have be cooked for a little longer though to give them more of a crisp (and cook the middle).  The fishcakes weren’t too bad, but be warned, they do taste pretty fishy.  Sausage terrine, if you’ve never had it, looks like a cross between meatloaf and spam.  It wasn’t too bad, nice and flavourful, but a little on the dry side.  The apple coleslaw wasn’t all too bad though I couldn’t seem to find any apples in mine.  Perhaps the name was referring to the dressing?  It’s interesting to have a salad with a breakfast dish since they’re usually accompanied by fruit rather than vegetables.  The toast, like I mentioned earlier, was soggy.  Quite possibly from sitting atop the potatoes.  One thing we noted that the waitress never asked if he wanted brown, rye, or white.  I’m guessing brown is the default for this place (or possibly the only type of toast they have).

I would have like to have tried a few more things there.  Mainly the apple and brie panino.  I’m slightly indifferent as to how I feel about LPD.  There were some flaws with their food, but they weren’t bad enough to deter me from ever coming back.

Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve posted a Foodventures.  I’ve been saving a huge collection of photos and writings from my  foodventure travels in hopes that some day I’d be have enough time to compile them all into a book.  Also, I’m hesitant to post them on a website that’s called T.O.bites.  T.O. meaning Toronto.  But I felt I had to share this one with my fellow Canucks since it was just too interesting to leave in the vault.

The first Starbucks at Pike Place.

Seattle, the wet city on the American west coast is home to the Space Needle, the Mariners (which had their asses handed to them by the Jays when I was there – woohoo!) and the first Starbucks.  The first Starbucks sits alongside another historic attraction, the Pike Place Market, right by the bay.

The first Starbucks as a free tourist attraction is great, but the first Starbucks as a first Starbucks is a little disappointing.  Decorated with the original brown logo and a wall full of nothing but Starbucks paraphernalia, the first Starbucks is nothing more than a tourist trap designed to pull you in and get you to buy a bunch of mugs.  Honestly, could you expect less from a giant coffee chain?

I might be a little harsh as it does offer the usual Starbucks items such as coffee and teas.  The staff are also incredibly chipper and highly knowledgeable about locations around the world.  While I was nosing through the cups, I heard the barrista chirping at the tourists various things about their home cities like “Wow you’re from Austin?  I love that Austin prides on being weird.  I can’t wait until I get to go to Eyeore’s Birthday Party.”, “How is Calgary?  It must be great getting all that nice cool air from the Rockies.  I’ve always wanted to go to the Calgary Stampede.”

I'm told it's usually a lot more busy then this. That's why there's no chairs here.

An unusually quiet day at the first Starbucks

When it came time for me to go up and buy a mug and have her ask me about my own city, her response was, “How is the weather in Toronto?  It must be a bit cooler than here.  I hear that Toronto is the most multicultural city on the planet!”  Good for her that she didn’t mention the CN Tower or the fact that Rogers is taking over our city, street-by-street.  That would have been far too easy.

During my wandering around Seattle, I happened to come upon something more unique than the first Starbucks itself; a Starbucks that serves wine!  Yes, you heard me, wine.  I don’t really drink much wine, let alone any alcohol, but none-the-less, I was excited to find this gem of a place.  Oh and did I mention they served beer too?  I only happened to find this place because I misheard the directions to Capital Hill, and went wandering up Olive Way.  Getting lost, I saw a really swanky looking Starbucks up the street and decided to hop inside quickly to use the free wi-fi and find out just how lost I was.

On top of all the booze that comes from this place, they also serve full meals at this place.  Nothing too exciting though but more of an expansion of what they already served at most Starbucks.  I’m sort of regretting that I went all the way to Seattle, found a Starbucks that serves alcohol, and didn’t even have a drink!  Though I did enjoy soaking in the atmosphere of caffeine and booze consumption.  By the way, wine service starts at 2pm.  The clever signage around the place is pretty clear about this.

See what happens... after 2pm when the wine starts flowing!