Brothers restaurant has Big Apple feel
The subway rumbles deep below Brothers Food & Wine.
The restaurant sits above Bay Station. Vibrations from the Bloor-Danforth line travel up through the concrete floors.
The effect, entirely pleasant, makes the three-month-old restaurant feel like it’s in another city, New York maybe.
So does the inventive menu. Everyone serves beet salad. Brothers goes one further, throwing radicchio and red cabbage into the mix ($13).
Colourful juices stain the yogurt dressing a bewitching fuchsia. Golden croutons made from glorious sourdough add epic crunch.
For the cost of a TTC token, you can journey there, too.
Fraternal bonds Owners Chris White, 30, and Jon Nicolaou, 33, call their place “a fancy diner.”
It’s neither. Instead, the space is casual, simple and cheeky, like the owners.
They aren’t even brothers, just best friends from age 16.
Both are restaurant veterans. White served with wit at Dandylion and Hudson Kitchen. Nicolaou cooked at Bar Raval and Terroni, with an extended stage at London’s St. John’s.
Together, they remade a greasy spoon into an easygoing restaurant with lively wines and a straightforward, largely Mediterranean menu.
“Everything here is related to our experience,” White says.
Think pink A heavy front-door curtain keeps cold air out and patrons comfortable.
Pale pink, White’s favourite colour, accents the narrow room from the banquettes in back to the dishtowel napkins and coffee grinder. (“We’re heading for a genderless future.”)
The busy bar is lined in subway tiles, naturally. Jazz piano and the Jackson 5 play underneath animated conversations.
Day and night, the mostly female clientele congregates to share plates and quaff wine. One group orders pillowy gnocchi with wild mush- rooms for lunch ($21) but shuns the cream sauce to avoid the fat. For such dietary concerns, there’s Planta across the street.
Bar none Servers pay sufficient attention to customers but don’t try and keep them company, especially at the bar.
Sommelier Courtney Stebbings talks up the stony quality of the organic Zarate Rias Baixas Albariño ($12.50) she just got in from Spain, a good match for mackerel ($15).
Often oily and/or fishy, these fillets are blissfully fresh and nicely charred. They sit atop pickled baby eggplants, with fresh mint sauce tying everything together like The Big Lebowski’s area rug. Don’t expect the mackerel to be around for long — or at least in this incarnation. Nicolaou changes the menu frequently to reflect availability.
Clam-tastic Last month, a well-timed and simply seasoned half-Cornish hen ($23) was paired with plump raisins and pleasantly bitter radicchio.
Now, it’s accessorized with roast carrots. Clams ($17) similarly have gone from a buttery Provençal tarragon broth to Italian confit cherry tomatoes and romano beans.
A few changes are necessary. Squeaky artichokes are a turnoff with creamy sweet breads ($18).
Dull lemon potatoes ($7) are drier than their Greek diner relatives.
(Its name is close to the old The Brothers diner on Yonge St., but no relation.)
Just one dessert seems stingy, though I understand why.
“We’re two fat guys who wish they could eat healthier,” White says. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki