| The Moment

This winter, dining out has a whole new meaning

It happened this month

When the province announced our return to a modified Stage 2, closing all indoor dining, thoughts turned to the potentially fatal impact it could have on the virus-ravaged restaurant industry. Doug Ford made $300 million available to businesses hit by closures, sure, but our savviest restaurateurs didn’t wait around for a government handout. Instead, in the face of culinary catastrophe, restaurants like Actinolite (shown above) launched an entirely new dining experience, complete with fire pits, heat lamps, thermal blankets, ski leggings, wool caps and cozy sweaters. Now that the city has extended CaféTO until the spring of 2021, Torontonians will be bundling up to dine out for the foreseeable future.