Imagine waking down a bustling Toronto street when something catches your eye. Large windows, sleek white decor, and a room full of laughing, beautiful people. All of the sudden, you realize that you're a laughing, beautiful person and you should be the one inside of a place such as this. And, more than that - you could use a drink. We could all use a drink.
Welcome to Grey Gardens, one of Toronto's hottest new spots to wine and dine, and the most recent culinary brainchild of Canadian restaurant legend and all around awesome woman, Jen Agg. If you don't know her - you should.
"Every restaurant I've ever made, I've made for me, and where I've been in my life. Grey Gardens is no different, I've just learned a lot (and have a slightly bigger budget)."
Her first restaurant, The Black Hoof and the Rhum Corner, currently has horse tar-tar on the menu. Her second restaurant, Agrikol, was co-founded with Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Yes, of Arcade Fire. Last but not least, she recently wrote her first memoir titled 'I Hear She's a Real Bitch', which speaks for its glorious self. But, this isn't about us swooning over Jen Agg. This is about us swooning over Grey Gardens.
Opened in early 2017, Grey Gardens is already making a huge stir in the Toronto restaurant scene, and anyone who's anyone is checking it out. Chefs Mitch Bates and Peter Jensen are crafting exquisite large and small bites such as the menu's dry-aged New York strip steak served with onions, onions, and onions, and the king oyster mushroom. But, the true calling of this joint isn't the food, nor is it the shabby-chic flat-meets-chateau decor (both of which are worth stopping in for anyways), it's the bar.
Wine and cider. Cider and wine - flowing like honey is a renaissance painting. Serving everything from Italy's Terre Nere, Etna Rosato rosé to amazing, local West Avenue Cider's 'Bizarre Love Quadrangle' sour cherry cider, Grey Gardens seriously knows how to cater to the hip crowd. And, if you're the kind of person who thinks a wine bar isn't a wine bar without a sommelier on staff - fear not friend, Jake Skakun is here for you.
Pricing is a little on the high side - but nothing out of the ordinary for a Toronto restaurant such as this. A glass of wine will run you about $15, where plates range from $10-40 depending on the size. The food menu is fairly small, easy to browse through while you're sipping one of one hundred (minor exaggeration) different types of drink.
Regardless of your tastes, this is the kind of dinner date you want to come to prepared, because just about everything on the menu is going to look like an enticing little treat to accompany the bright atmosphere and good folk you'll find there.
Grey Gardens
199 Augusta Ave
Toronto, Ontario
1 (647) 351-1552
greygardens.ca
