Foodie Fortnight: the top seven food events for February 4–18

Foodie Fortnight: the top seven food events for February 4–18

Rock Lobster’s famous lobster-topped poutine (Image: Renée Suen)

In this edition of Foodie Fortnight: an ice wine festival, a Basque-inspired feast, and an entire week devoted to poutine.

Toronto Poutine Week
Throughout the week, 23 restaurants across Toronto are serving up unconventional variations on the fries-curds-gravy equation. Each dish costs $10 or less.
Feb. 1-7. Various Locations, lapoutineweek.com

Brunch with Giada de Laurentiis
Guests at this fundraising brunch for Mt. Sinai Hospital will get to meet (or at least admire) celeb chef Giada de Laurentiis while sampling recipes from her new cookbook, Giada’s Feel Good Food. The ticket price includes a signed copy of the book.
Feb. 8. $150. Toronto Convention Centre, 650 Dixon Rd., 416-586-4800, ext. 4681

Group Love Dinner at Luma
Lovey-dovey couples are excluded from the King West restaurant’s unconventional V-Day feast, which is reserved for groups of three or more (solo diners can pay $25 to join a special singles table). If that doesn’t sound right for you, click here to browse our roundup of more traditional Valentine’s dinners.
Feb. 14-15. $25-50. Luma, 350 King St. W., 647-288-4715, oliverbonacini.com

Ice Wine Fest
This second edition of iYellow Wine Club’s annual ice wine event is an excuse to head to Liberty Village for a boozy afternoon of tastings, snacks and live music.
Feb. 8. $60. Liberty Market Building Galleria, 171 East Liberty St., iyellowwineclub.com

Grand Electric Calendar Party
The Parkdale taco shop is launching its new “women of Grand Electric” calendar with an open-bar bash. Twenty bucks buys unlimited Great Lakes beer and Wild Turkey bourbon, plus a copy of the sexy product (all proceeds go to ReThink Breast Cancer).
Feb 15. $20. The Baitshop, 358 Dufferin St., 416-536-6000, facebook.com

Edulis + Café Boulud Dinner
Two of Toronto’s top restaurateurs are uniting to serve this five-course Basque feast. An extra $55 buys wine pairings from Spain and Southern France.
Feb. 18. $95. Café Boulud, 60 Yorkville Ave., cafeboulud.com

Brewmaster’s Dinner at The Saint
Amsterdam Brewery’s Iain McOustra joins chef Jesse Vallins for a five-course tasting menu with beer pairings. Tax and tip are included.
Feb. 20. $75. The Saint, 227 Ossington Ave., 647-350-2100, twitter.com