The Narnia of Toronto restaurants
Chabrol
(out of 4) Address: 90 Yorkville Ave., 416-4286641, chabrolrestaurant.com Chef: Doug Penfold Hours: Daily, noon to 10 p.m.
Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: No Price: Lunch for two with wine, tax and tip: $100
The tiny restaurant is there, past the rack of $145 T-shirts.
Chabrol, open since last November, shares space with La Boutique Noire, a Yorkville clothing store that replaced Le Trou Normand. The clothier asked Cava’s Doug Penfold and Niall McCotter to take over the small café in the back.
“He was thinking New York-café-meets-fancy store. We saw something different,” says Penfold.
The result is the Narnia of Toronto restaurants, a closet-size space that opens up to a wider, more wonderful world.
Blast from the past With its Art Deco esthetic and jaunty ’30s soundtrack, Chabrol feels like an old-fashioned Parisian café, the kind where cabaret singer Max Raabe would hang out. Instead businessmen and chic shoppers murmur conversations.
There’s a hint of formality in Chabrol’s gilded china and staff in suits. This is echoed in the careful service. It’s intimate with only 10 seats, plus another 10 at the bar.
The sound of chef Penfold whisking eggs for a sabayon occasionally floats out of the open kitchen. For him, Chabrol pays tribute to his French cooking mentors.
Great gratins I can’t stress enough the excellence of the food Chabrol turns out with just two induction burners and a small convection oven. Even the bread baking is done on the premises.
It’s classic with a twist, nothing too crazy. Penfold pairs lovely poached foie gras ($19) with black currants and salsify, the so-called oyster plant. Equally creative are the gently pickled turnips harmonizing with pork liver mousse ($14) and the unusual chopped walnut-and-dandelion salad matched with very ripe goat cheese ($7.50).
Gratins ($12) are a treat: celeriac layered with cream and breadcrumbs or the see-through potato slices stacked with buttery cantal. Be sure to pick off the crust sticking to the cast-iron casserole. Yum.
Shoulder to shoulder Beet and lentil salad ($12) seems almost too simple — until you hit the vein of smoked parsnip purée.
Penfold unites spring artichokes and autumn chanterelles in garlicky harmony ($27); ask for more baguette to sop up the broth. Ditto the homey lamb ($28), a good chunk of braised shoulder meat partnered with Savoy cabbage and pearl onions.
Chabrol, the server tells us, translates as the act of adding wine to the dregs of a dish. He demonstrates by tipping a glug of Corbières into the remaining spoonfuls of “ttoro” ($29), a bouillabaisse variant pronounced “tore-ROW.”
“It’s a whole new dish,” he promises.
It’s no exaggeration. The wine’s acidity reveals the earthiness of green pepper and tomato in the rich fish stock.
Amoment of Proust Please consider waiting 20 minutes for the apple tart ($13), a whole caramelized Matsu atop a puff pastry disc. The real thrill is the pitcher of calvados sabayon the server pours out in pale yellow ribbons. This is the sauce you hear being whisked from eggs and sugar, so good the pitcher should come with a straw. Compared to this old-school effort, crème brûlée ($9) seems dull.
But it’s the calissons that make the sweetest impression. The iced marzipan ovals are delivered on a salver with the bill.
“It takes me back to my grandmother’s,” the Frenchman at the next table marvels out loud.
Hard to imagine finding a Proustian moment at any other clothing store. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki