Nuts and bolts of dining on Geary Ave.
Destination eateries make home out of west-end industrial strip
Geary Ave. is the coolest restaurant strip you’ve never heard of.
The west-end industrial street, better known for its auto body shops, runs north of Dupont St. between Ossington Ave. and Dufferin St.
A few Portuguese restaurants have long catered to the neighbourhood. Now, though, Geary offers artisanal pasta at Famiglia Baldassarre, craft beer at Blood Brothers Brewing, modern Israeli food at Parallel and hand-thrown pizza at North of Brooklyn. This summer will see the launch of an ice cream shop/ factory by Bang Bang Ice Cream & Bakery co-owner Arthur Pezzelli.
“It’s a very interesting strip. We’re getting busier and busier each year,” says Josh Spatz, who opened North of Brooklyn in 2016.
From excellent steak to superlative falafel, here’s what to eat on Geary Ave.
Porta Nova
Porta Nova steakhouse is a recently redecorated gem with simple food at good value.
Named for an 18th-century ceremonial arch in the northern Portuguese city of Braga, Porta Nova delivers great steaks.
A nine-ounce New York strip ($19.47) tastes like beef and blood and salt. In other words, perfection.
But it’s the Francesinha, ($19.47) a towering hot sandwich that translates to “the Little Frenchie,” that will blow the minds of carnivorous first-timers.
Think of a croque monsieur times 10. Ham, steak and spicy chorizo are the filling; melted cheese and a fried egg coat the exterior. All around bubbles a pool of orange sauce that just begs for fries — served on a separate plate — to be dipped into it. The server admits two kinds of beer, whisky and tangy mustard go into the sauce but stops there.
“The recipe changes from restaurant to restaurant, but it’s always a secret,” the server says. 211 Geary Ave., 416-546-3328, portanovarestaurant.com. Open Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
Meta Dos Leitoes
Another fallback option is this tiredlooking cafe where you can get a meal of feijoada — beans cooked with pork and tripe — for $4, $5 if you include a can of Sumol passion fruit pop.
The namesake specialty of suckling pig is sold by the kilo, although bits of it seem to end up in the feijoada. 218 Geary Ave., 416-516-8119. Open Wednesday to Saturday plus Monday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
North of Brooklyn
Inside the Greater Good Bar lies independent pizza kiosk North of Brooklyn.
Diners order and pay at the kiosk, then drink beer while waiting for pizzeria staff to deliver the food.
“Our pizza works really well in that kind of bar environment,” says pizzeria owner Josh Spatz, who has a similar arrangement with Get Well Bar.
It’s all very low-key, especially at 5 p.m., when children sip pop at the bar while waiting for their family’s takeout pies. (Parents have a choice of 18 craft beers on tap, including delicious $8 sour pints from Blood Brothers.)
The $5 slices come on paper plates. There is a salad’s worth of arugula on a white pizza with mozzarella and ricotta; crisp kale is the green of note on a bacon-and-garlic slice. The crust is cracker-thin, but the dough puffs suitably when fashioned into garlic knots ($6). 229 Geary Ave., 647-927-5200, northofbrooklyn.com. Open Monday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 2 a.m.
Parallel
Picture an industrial cafeteria that grows its own herbs and grinds sesame seeds into tahini on site.
That’s Parallel, the newest dining option on Geary Ave., owned by brothers Guy, Alon and Aharon Ozery (Ozery Bakery).
Parallel is a modern Israeli kitchen rife with the flavours of Iraq, Iran, North Africa and the Levant. Chef Tomer Markowitz turns sabich ($12), the eggplant-and-hard-boiled egg sandwich, into a TV
Batman fight scene. Pow! go the preserved lemons. Wham! comes the green zhug hot paste.
All is excellent, light and healthy: The kale salad with goat cheese ($13). The chopped salad ($12) silky with tahini. The pickles. The hummus toppings — mushrooms and truffle oil ($13) or roasted fennel and beets ($14). The lamb ($14) stuffed into pita, then fried, the richness balanced by soft yam and spicy fresh tomatoes. The banana and chocolate halvah ($6.36). Leftover falafel ($9) even tastes good cold the next day. 217 Geary Ave., 416-516-7765, parallelbrothers.com. Open Tuesday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Nova Era Bakery & Pastry
The scent of sweet bread and the hum of Portuguese conversation fills this double-width bakery.
As head office and production facility for an eight-location chain, Nova Era also does brisk business at breakfast and lunch.
One draw is the bifana sandwich ($6.99), pork layered with caramelized onions and ballpark mustard. The first bite tastes like a hotdog on steroids. Everything is amped up, even the crusty sourdough mafra bun with more holes in it than Swiss cheese. Red pepper paste glazes the thin pork cutlets inside.
It’s a messy, satisfying mouthful. Bring on the napkins. 200 Geary Ave., 416-538-8200, novaera.ca. Open Monday to Saturday, 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Dark Horse Espresso Bar
Line-up too long at Baldassarre next door? In a pinch, there’s Dark Horse.
This branch of the six-member coffee chain serves lunch, some of the time. Tuesday and Wednesday are pizza days. The snowshoe-sized pies ($8 for a half, $15 for a whole), thin of crust and generous of sauce, are nothing special. Thursdays and Fridays might mean meat pies, depending on staffing. 120 Geary Ave., 647-347-3131, darkhorseespresso.com. Open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Amy Pataki is a Toronto-based restaurant critic and reporter covering all things hospitality. Follow her on Twitter: @amypataki