Snack bar finds comfort in Dutch cuisine
Borrel (out of 4) Address: 1333 Danforth Ave. (at Linsmore Cr.), 647-349-5722, borrel.ca Chef: Justin Go Hours: Wednesday to Friday, 5 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 3 to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 2 to 9 p.m. Reservations: No Wheelchair access: No Price: Dinner for two with cocktails, tax and tip: $75
No one ever called Dutch food sexy.
Comforting? Yes. Fine use of potatoes and cabbages? Yes.
Sensual? Nooit. (That’s Dutch for “never.”)
When it comes to hearty cooking, however, the Dutch deliver satisfaction the way their speedskaters dominate the Olympics. For proof, I point to the homey snacks and simple meals at Borrel.
Justin Go and Alison Broverman opened their East Danforth snack bar on Nov. 1. The married journalists — he a former copy editor, she with CBC Radio — ran Borrel as a pop-up for three years until committing to a bricks-and-mortar location. (They bought the building and live upstairs.)
“I don’t want to raise anyone’s expectations too high,” says Go, 40, a self-taught cook born in Canada to Dutch parents.
“We come from outside the restaurant industry. Our goals are pretty humble.”
One goal is to popularize Dutch food. Expatriates flooded the place at the beginning; now half the clientele is curious locals.
Behind its handsome blue façade, Borrel is warm and welcoming. The cosy wooden space is modelled on Holland’s brown cafés, so-called because of their dark interiors.
The Dutch theme is consistent but not overwrought. It’s there in the unhopped kuyt beer ($7.25) from Oast House Brewers in Niagara-on-theLake, brewed from a 500-year-old recipe, and in the refreshing Orange Bicycle ($14) cocktail.
It’s there in the KLM Delft Blue miniature canal houses lining the bookshelves near the bar. Artist Nanna Koekoek’s Dutch Wall of Fame downstairs includes triple Olympic gold medallist and speed skater Yvonne van Gennip.
Conversation, not music, dominates the full room. Low prices are a draw — nothing over $15 — as is the lack of formality. This is a place where diners use toothpicks as often as forks. (For a more formal Dutch dining experience, there’s Noorden in midtown.) Service is quick and friendly.
The small, descriptive menu di- vides the food into snacks, comfort food and dessert.
Under the snack category fall lightly brined fillets of matjes herring ($8). Bitterballen ($7.75) are deepfried spheres of shredded beef bound by milk-and-flour roux. The balls are crisp and creamy, boosted by a swoop through grainy mustard. Frites are coming in the spring.
Then there’s the kaassoufflé ($6.50), which translates as cheese soufflé though it’s traditionally made to be as flat as a Pop-Tart. Pickled green beans and onions balance the richness of deep-fried Gouda wrapped in puff pastry. It is Dutch fast food done well.
The larger, less-shareable plates fall under “comfort food.” This means multiple variations on potatoes and smoked pork.
First up is boerenkool ($10.50), potatoes mashed with kale and ringed by smoked rookworst, best described as Dutch kielbasa. This is the dish that launched Borrel years ago, when Go made it for a house party to rave reviews. I’m less impressed. The lumpy green mixture tastes like sea- weed. Critiquing it is almost like dissing your mother’s cooking. Except Borrel is charging money.
The famed Dutch pea soup (a.k.a. erwtensoep or snert) comes in a pretty footed bowl that somewhat offsets the unattractive brownness inside. The soup ($10) is basically a bowl of lightly moistened shredded meat, chewy in a good way. With sliced pumpernickel rye from Harbord Bakery on the side, it’s a full meal.
Hachée shepherd’s pie ($10.50) showcases Holland’s deep roots in the spice trade. Underneath piped mashed potatoes lies beef stew subtly seasoned with cloves, peppercorns, tart apples and molasses. Red cabbage tickled with nutmeg and vinegar sits on the bottom. Together or separately, the three layers work.
So does the two-item dessert list. Speculaas, crunchy Dutch spice cookies, form the basis of an ice cream custom-made by Ed’s Real Scoop. The serving is humongous ($6.50). Borrel plans to introduce a flavour based on stroop-waffles (caramel waffles).
Poffertjes ($7) are tiny, fluffy buckwheat pancakes made in a special dimpled cast-iron pan. More than a dozen bump up against each other under a slowly melting blanket of butter and icing sugar. By the end, which comes too soon, our lips glisten with butter and sugar dusts the table. It’s tempting to order another round.
Dinner at Borrel is fun and fast, another of the owners’ goals. Sexy, no, but nicely done for a snack bar run by newbie restaurateurs. Amy Pataki’s restaurant reviews are published Fridays online and Wednesdays in print. Read more at thestar.com. Reach her at apataki@thestar.ca or on Twitter @amypataki.