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Jamie Kennedy Kitchens

Digiri
First Reviewer
4 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
1
Review
Editor Pick

Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar

  • March 13, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Digiri from Vancouver, British Columbia
Jamie Kennedy is the local 'hot' chef and has three restaurants in Toronto (www.jkkitchens.com) - one located in the Gardiner museum (fancy schmancy!) and two (a wine bar and a restaurant) in the same location downtown. I love tastings and tapas so we chose the wine bar. The space is essentially two long bars - one long straight bar fronting the alcohol bar and one L shaped bar fronting an open kitchen. It is a place to see and be seen.

There are no reservations but there is a lounge where you can wait with a drink and a nibble (recommendation 1: warmed olives). Kat and I waited less than fifteen minutes on a busy Friday night and were seated on the edge of the kitchen bar - perfect for people-watching and kitchen watching (my personal favourite hobby).

Funny-story-about-the-type-of-people-who-frequent-tony-Toronto-restaurants. As we were being seated, the woman sitting on the corner of the L bar is chatting away on her cell phone (ignoring her date) and bumps her purse pushing her wine glass over the edge of the bar into the kitchen. Thus began the pre-dinner show of the kitchen throwing away food, sweeping floors and picking bits of glass out of their fingers while the woman continued chatting on her phone ignoring the chaos she had caused (and her date). You could tell she knew exactly what she had done but she refused to acknowledge (or apologize). Kat and I muttered to the sous-chef working in front of us that we were black belts and could take her outside and get an apology for him. The sous chef sadly shook his head. He knew her type - fake hair, fake lips, fake boobs, too much money - and admitted that an apology would never be had. She continued with other bad behaviors (too many to recount) and I have to admit that she was entertaining to watch as a dinner show.

Back to the food and the wine! Every plate has a wine pairing. Wine is available in 3oz (a taste), 6oz (a normal glass) or by the bottle. I was in heaven because for every plate we ordered I had the recommended taster!

The menu is changed every day but we had and enjoyed:

Beef short rib poutine with Yukon gold fries (a truly Canadian concoction).
Chicken liver pate with walnut tulles
Grilled octopus with preserved lemon, olives, and chermoula
Beer battered smelts with chipolte yogurt
Duck confit with smoky beans (my favourite)
Artisanal cheeses (all local Canadian cheese - to die for!)
Crème brulee with Scottish shortbread

This is where making friends with the sous-chef paid off. Kat made noises about the cheeses being amazing that he then provided her with a very healthy portion of a very stinky cheese. Not my type of offering, but she was in love!

The bill came to about C$200 but note that it included six 3oz glasses of wine and six vodka martinis.

From journal A Weekend Dodging Falling Ice & Drunken Men

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