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Restaurant makeover, by ‘act of God’
Our story in this week’s magazine about the troubles in the casual dining industry may have underestimated just how worried U.S. restaurant chains are these days. Take, for instance, Brinker...
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Tax Check, please
It’s been said the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. While there’s little technology can do to prevent the latter, Canadian restaurants are coming under increasing scrutiny for using it...
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The very rich poor man’s pudding
Photograph by Ian Barrett One should not confuse the Québécois confection pouding chômeur with the congealed chocolate and vanilla stuff sold in single-serving plastic pots at supermarkets. This is...
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Takeout aims for gross-out
Getty Images At Friendly’s, a U.S. restaurant chain, customers can now order a burger with grilled cheese sandwiches where the bun should be. The Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt (tipping the scales at an...
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Spring rolls with a side of doom, please
Photograph by Sandy Nicholson At first glance, diners might be forgiven for thinking Toronto’s Loving Hut is just another little vegetarian restaurant. But few other eateries are as devoted to...
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How to eat like an economist
That is to say, how to eat the most expensive foods for the least amount of money. This piece from the New York Times, offers some useful strategy for the salad bar, where the price of a meal is based...
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Feasting on Tofino
Photographs by Brian Howell The vast and forbidding expanse of Cox Bay, near Tofino on the western coast of Vancouver Island, is circumscribed by an impressively deep beachfront of cold, wet sand, as...
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Pest control for vegans. (It’s complicated.)
Getty Images/Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute Veganism is all about animal rights, but where do you draw the line if you’re a restaurant owner with a mouse problem, or a cook with cockroaches in the...
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Why are female executive chefs so rare?
Photograph by Chris Bolin In Calgary recently, catching up with star chefs Connie DeSousa and John Jackson over some small Latin plates (chorizo, gallina, oxtail empanadas, etc.) and drinks at Ox and...
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Data for dinner
Cali2Okie/Flickr Data-mining is hitting the restaurant business. Wired reports on tools like, Compeat, and Hotschedules, which provide managers with daily anaytics, breaking down what food and drink...
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Hands off! Breasts are my areas of expertise
Getty Images/Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute Did you read our magazine’s recent feature on the growing popularity of “breastaurants?” It described a new generation of Hooters-like “mammary-centric...
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REVIEW: The Art of the Restaurateur
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images The world has gone mad for celebrity chefs, but one man is campaigning against the tide. “Chefs, in my opinion,” says long-time Financial Times restaurant critic...
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Burger, please, and a glass of Beaujolais
Reena Newman At a Hardee’s restaurant in Champaign, Ill., two food psychologists recently did some redecorating. Half the seating area was left as-is—the strong lights, bright colours and hard metal...
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The restaurants that matter to politicians
Blair Gable In spite of its über-Canadian location at the corner of Rideau and Sussex, Métropolitain Brasserie’s management went for a belle époque brasserie brand, its tag line: “You’re closer to...
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Is it lunch or brunch? A continental divide over a midday meal
Photograph by Jenna Marie Wakani Sunday lunch versus Sunday brunch: the difference is only a few letters, but the two are opposite approaches to the midday meal. Brunch, a North American invention, was...
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Winnipeg foodies find a place to chill
Marianne Helm Last Thursday night, Winnipeg was in the grip of a vicious cold snap that faded streets into a silent filmstrip of grit teeth and shuffling, Sorel-booted feet. As the waxy winter daylight...
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‘It’s not what’s cooking but what’s fermenting’
Photograph by Jenna Marie Wakani In the Mission, where San Francisco’s trendiest new restaurants have been opening of late, I recently began a meal with a plate of a sort I have not yet experienced...
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The Cactus Club Café—a prickly franchise
Desy Cheng It was spring when the brown paper labelled with the Cactus Club Café logo was first plastered over the inside of a half-block stretch of street-level windows of Toronto’s First Canadian...
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Tim Hortons: The Canadian icon Canadians won’t work for
Peter Jones/Reuters Last week, the CEO of Tim Hortons laid out part of his case for why the chain needs to be able to hire temporary foreign workers. This is what Marc Caira told Bloomberg News: “If...
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Turning the tables on Instagram
Birds Eye/REX/CP Last year, American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain opened up to a tabloid about one of modern life’s most common social practices, or—depending on whom you’re talking to—one of its...
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The dragon from the west
Photograph by Brian Howell As he approaches 50, Vikram Vij is beginning to think of his legacy. While running one of Canada’s most celebrated restaurants—the eponymous Vij’s in Vancouver (the New York...
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It’s wintertime, so head to the…patio?
Photograph by Zach Slootsky Contrary to popular belief, Edmonton is not always -40° C in the winter. On balmier nights, when it’s, say, a mere -10° C, patrons at the Café Bicyclette, a short walk from...
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Why it’s time to push back against electronic tipping
Serge Krouglikoff/Getty Images The meal is done. Your server has been flagged down. The bill has finally arrived. Here comes the nudge. Settling a restaurant bill these days typically involves slipping...
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Why Canada’s fetish for big U.S. brands is fading
The Cheesecake Factory restaurant is seen in Old Pasadena Friday, Feb. 3, 2017. (AP Photo Damian Dovarganes) Drake’s 2016 song “Child’s Play” is both a tale of complicated love and an off-hand...
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How much do Canadians think they should tip?
The job of a restaurant server isn’t easy — bringing food, drinks and smiles. So how do we thank them? We tip. But how much should you tip? We asked 1,500 Canadians to chime in on what they leave for...
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Coronavirus: Where to donate and how to help Canada’s most vulnerable
The coronavirus pandemic is threatening everyone’s way of life but it is most harshly felt among some more than others—our frontline health care workers, the precariously employed and the most...
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Local restaurants are closing for good. Here’s what we’ll miss.
Every day I speak to restaurateurs who have closed their businesses. From Toronto to Montreal, San Francisco to Baltimore, the COVID narrative of restaurants is similarly grim: employers are not...
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How Michelin’s Bib Gourmand award turned a struggling restaurant around
Last month, Michelin revealed the results of its long-awaited inaugural survey of Toronto’s dining scene, making the city the first Michelin Guide destination in Canada. A total of 74 restaurants were...
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This Tofino duo turned a retro bus into a Japanese diner on wheels
Late last summer, Madi Greyson and her partner Kei Lowes found out that the ramen shop they were working at in Tofino, B.C., was closing. They immediately recognized an opportunity to combine their...
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The Best Places to Eat in Canada
Canada’sBest Placesto Eat Now The country’s 20 most magical restaurants, from the tip of Vancouver Island to the edge of Newfoundland By CHRIS NUTTALL-SMITHPhotography by JOHN CULLEN The List this...
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