Local Kitchen, Yes Please!

As my first exploration of Toronto's local and slowfood restaurant community, tonight I had the incredible pleasure of dining at Local Kitchen Wine Bar & Restaurant in Parkdale. This cozy eatery has only been open for five weeks, but they're already making their mark on the Parkdale neighborhood and they are setting the bar high for my expectations of Toronto restaurants supporting local farmers.

Local Kitchen is a member and supporter of Slow Food Toronto, whose mission is to "create sustainable, local food economies that support just wages for producers while ensuring that we still provide access to good, clean, fair food at a reasonable price to all."

Keeping in line with these ideals, Local Kitchen cures all of their own locally sourced meats (mostly from just outside of Stratford); they acquire some incredible Ontario cheese and dairy products (such as Bufala Burrata - a non-churned version of butter that melts in your mouth); the chef selects fine cuts of meat from Kerr Farms which are prepared using seasonal ingredients; and the pasta is also made in house. The wine lists consists of what our server, Michael Sangregorio, describes as three levels of local: "truly local" Ontario; "almost local" British Colombia, and "local for our ancestors" Southern Italy. While they take creative liberties with this categorization, I can't deny that the glass I enjoyed from Puglia was worth the transatlantic journey.

Perhaps the most impressive elements of Local Kitchen's approach to supporting local farmers are their efforts to serve local all year long through the wonders of canning and preserving, and their willingness to get their hands dirty -- they have a plot of land north of the city where they cultivate their own produce. The arugula salad with Niagara peaches brought my taste buds to life with delicately preserved peaches that were far from the mushy over sweetened canned peaches I was accustomed to. And the fact that my server was possibly responsible for growing that arugula made the salad twice as delightful to enjoy.

Overall, if my impending foray into local eating tastes and smells as good as my meal this evening at Local Kitchen, then I say sign me up as a locavore!

Local Kitchen is located at 1710 Queen Street West, just east of Roncesvalles Avenue. They're open Tues-Sunday for dinner, which I have to add is reasonably priced for the quality of food and service they provide.