Come for the irony, stay for the food
Superpoint K (out of 4) GOOD
Address: 184 Ossington Ave. (near Dundas St. W.), 416-519-6996, superpoint.ca Chef: Meghan Robbins
Hours: Takeout pizza window, Sunday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to midnight. Dinner, Sunday to Thursday, 6 to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. to midnight. Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: No Price: Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip: $85
The pizza cook stands in the window tossing dough in the air.
Above him a sign says “Vo Vogue” but it’s actually Superpoint restaurant on Ossington Ave.
Superpoint serves whole pies each night in the dining room and sells $5 slices throughout the day from the cash-only takeout window.
The pizzas are gloriously cheesy throwbacks, just like the wood panelling and yellowed menu board in the entrance. The restaurant is only a year old yet evokes the ’80s of my youth so completely I have to check my watch. Yup, it’s still 2017.
Superpoint was built by, and for, millennials who appreciate the irony of suburban tackiness even if they didn’t live it. Yet Superpoint balances the tacky with the tasteful. In the end, sincerity wins.
Co-owners Jesse Fader and Jonathan Poon (Bar Fancy) wanted a casual, energetic, “slightly trashy” place, Poon says, 31.
The restaurant has a shipping container-turned-bar out back where bearded adults hold birthday parties. Nigerian funk plays loudly. Poon’s old skateboards hang outside the cramped bathrooms; his girlfriend’s vintage Hulk Hogan poster is nearby.
Even the Italian sharing menu is sardonic with its tight spring rolls ($11), a Poon family recipe.
“We’re not supposed to be authentic or artisanal,” Poon says.
Hence the pre-grated cheese, anathema to serious chefs. But Poon unapologetically uses a sawdusty mix of parmesan and pecorino in homage to his weekly childhood dinners at Olive Garden in Richmond Hill. The mix goes on nodini ($8) — knot-shaped Olive Garden bread sticks, essentially — and atop rice balls ($8) sitting in a sour tomato sauce that tastes like a liquid burp.
“That taste really sticks in my mind,” Poon says of the sauce.
The pizza, at least, is delicious. Co- owner Fader was a pizza cook under Mark McEwan. The thin crust is cracker-crisp. Dusted with sesame seeds, it’s the star of a pie that reinvents cream of mushroom soup with bland results ($18). I prefer the lively Hawaiian version topped with a peck’s worth of pickled banana peppers ($18).
There are other highlights. Caesar salad ($15) drops the bacon and croutons, substituting Hickory Sticks for smoky crunchiness. The garlicky dressing is not at all subtle, but it’s good.
So is the house-made pasta. Casarecce ($19) comes with a whole lot of pork and clams. Reginette ($21) are ridged ribbons in a rich tomato sauce infinitely better than the one on the rice balls. Don’t be fooled by the menu suggestion to add meatballs ($10). They’re not that special. Neither is brocccolini ($12) awash in anchovy oil, sloppy in execution and to eat. At least the cheese here is freshly grated parmesan.
Doughnuts, the only dessert, show the serious side of Superpoint.
Sanded with sugar like a white Caribbean beach, the puffy doughnuts ($5 for two) are Top 10 contenders. Poon says he uses a Chinese method to add hot water and milk to the flour; the dough’s extreme wetness makes the finished product so light. On the side, a ramekin of grapefruit custard introduces the right amount of bitterness to balance the oil.
The owners recently hired Meghan Robbins (ex-P&L Catering) as chef de cuisine, stepping back to concentrate on their new pizza delivery location in Parkdale and two more places under construction. (I put my money on at least one Chinese food restaurant from the pair.)
“We’re not just trying to be ironic,” Poon says.
“For us, it’s not about making the craziest dish or using the most inventive techniques. It’s planning a menu that everyone can enjoy.” apataki@thestar.ca, @amypataki
“For us, it’s not about making the craziest dish . . . It’s planning a menu that everyone can enjoy.” JONATHAN POON SUPERPOINT CO-OWNER