Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recap: The Ace edition

For the third Toronto instalment of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, Guy Fieri stopped in at The Ace, the old-school diner that re-launched in late 2011 on Roncesvalles (bonus points to Fieri for calling it “Roncey”). Fieri was his usual hammy self, helping himself to a sampling of grated cheddar from chef Peter McKnight’s mise-en-place and twirling a wooden spoon like a baton. After last week’s reticent sandwich-dipping performance, we were pleased to see Fieri dig right in to McKnight’s towering, gooey mac-and-cheese burger—after taking several bites, he emerged grinning sheepishly with cheese all over his face. Still, Fieri killed off any hope of truly endearing himself to Canadians  with a painfully lame quip about the origin of Canadian Thanksgiving: “What are you guys giving thanks for? Being next to us?”

The Place: The Ace
The Chef: Peter McKnight
The Food Porn: Deep-fried pork belly with potato salad, a mac-and-cheese burger and a Christmas burger (a turkey patty stuffed with stuffing and finished with a cranberry compote.)

Best Quotes (all from Fieri): 
• On the Christmas Burger: “If you took your whole Thanksgiving dinner, wadded it up into a ball, put a little crisp on the outside of it, that’s what this tastes like.”
• On his fantasy Easter burger: “Well you  guys gotta come down and try Easter here, that’s when he sticks a hard boiled egg that’s coloured inside of a burger.”
• On his eating habits: “I like to just shove it all in at one time.”
• Praising McKnight’s cooking: “This is the kind of food I want to find in f***ing funky little joints.”