We all need some Bunny to lean on
Bunny’s (out of 4)
Address: 912 Queen St. E. (at Logan Ave.), 647-340-6439, http://somebunnylovesyou.ca/ Chef: Rodney Bowers
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: Yes Price: Brunch for two with coffee, tax and tip: $50
Rodney Bowers is one wascally wabbit.
The 42-year-old chef went to ground earlier this year after closing his east-end Italian restaurant Hey Meatball.
The hiatus was not unexpected. In Bowers’s 23-year cooking career, he has opened (and closed) Toronto’s the Rosebud, the Citizen and three Hey locations, as well as landed a gig as a cooking expert on daytime television’s The Marilyn Denis Show.
“I struggled with closing Hey Meatball for months. I wasn’t happy and I needed time to think,” Bowers says.
He concluded he needed to run a 30-seat restaurant like Rosebud again. So last month, Bowers pulled a rabbit out of the hat by finding two investors “at the 11th hour” and opening Bunny’s in Leslieville.
The all-day restaurant is a welcome return to form for Bowers, with good food and friendly service in a cosy room.
Bunny’s opened to the public Aug. 9, with John FitzGerald Jay and Chris Barton as co-owners.
The trio turned the Hey Meatball space into a low-key room that feels as snug as an English country pub on a rainy fall day. The decor combines elements from Bowers’s previous restaurants: stained-glass panels from the Citizen, wainscotting from Rosebud and a sign from Hey on Roncesvalles Ave. New are the red booths and tables from a failed Yonge St. steakhouse, bought at auction.
Bowers’s children, 7-year-old Abby and 5-year-old Will, came up with the restaurant’s name. Their father calls them his “two little bunnies.”
But there is nothing cuddly about the rabbit art hanging on the distressed walls.
In one picture, a giant rabbit looms over fleeing humans. A white rabbit scowls in another.
Even the neon rabbit logo on the website flickers ominously.
“That’s what we went for. No Playboy bunnies, nothing cute. Some of the bunnies are scary,” says Barton, who designed the logo.
Bunny’s serves brunch throughout the week, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Now, some might say opening a brunch spot in Leslieville is like carrying coals to Newcastle. But with neighbourhood stalwart Lady Marmalade moving to 265 Broadview Ave. in the spring, the competition is thinning out somewhat.
Besides, Bunny’s $15 benny is better. Tranches of glorious sourdough from Blackbird Baking Co. are so much nicer underneath optimally poached eggs than a mass-produced English muffin. The hollandaise is on point and if the green salad alongside were any fresher, you’d slap it. Even the French-press coffee ($4) is a cut above, dark and smooth.
The menu will be changing in a few weeks.
Until then, the carbonara ($26) is available for brunch. Do avail yourselves of these perfectly al dente noodles sheathed in a creamy matrix of beaten eggs, parmesan, pecorino, black pepper and starchy cooking water. A bowl at 10:30 a.m. will keep you going all day like the Energizer Bunny.
In the evening, the mood becomes even cosier as lamps glow on every table and Johnny Cash serenades diners.
The short menu contains some of Bowers’s greatest hits. Chicken liver parfait ($12) remains silky smooth. Schnitzel from the Citizen ($23) now substitutes brined chicken thighs, pounded flat, for the original pork. Cutting like scissors through the buttery breadcrumb coating is the Citizen’s topping of lemon juice, pickled shallots and a whack of capers.
Which leads to one question: Will there be rabbit on the menu?
“Never. It’s bad karma. Imagine all those bunny eyes on the wall looking at you,” Bowers says. apataki@thestar.ca, @amypataki