Introducing: Buonanotte, Charles Khabouth’s Toronto version of the Montreal night-life fixture
Introducing: Buonanotte, Charles Khabouth’s Toronto version of the Montreal night-life fixture
After 21 years on Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal supper club Buonanotte has expanded to Toronto courtesy of Charles Khabouth, who licensed the name and recipes from the restaurant’s owners (they remain in charge of the management). Executive chef Davide Ianacci serves a menu of Italian comfort food in Ame’s former space, which has been outfitted with tufted white banquettes, a copper grid ceiling and a huge black-and-white photo of an Italian street scene. The food from the original Montreal restaurant has been adapted for Toronto palates, with dishes like potato gnocchi with Bolognese ragu ($21) and Cotoletta alla Milanese, a fried 16-ounce veal chop ($37) (more house-made pastas and wood-oven pizzas will join the menu as equipment arrives). The wine list focusses on bottles from Italy—the majority are private imports—and includes some big-spender options like the 2006 Madonna del Piano Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, which sells for $1,000. The restaurant is currently serving dinner only, but will launch a lunch menu in the coming weeks.
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- 186024
- Profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce ($12)
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- 186023
- Chocolate budino with peanut butter cream and caramelized bananas topped with hazelnuts ($12)
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Cotoletta alla Milanese ($37): breaded veal chop fried in clarified butter and served with mache, tomato and rosemary potatoes
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Beef tenderloin with crushed potatoes, tomato chips, grainy mustard and roasted red pepper sauce ($34)
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Halibut with lemon caper sauce, sautéed kale and fennel and garlic chips ($32)
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- 186020
- Gnocchi di patate alla Bolognese ($21): house-made potato gnocchi with Bolognese ragu
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Handmade agnolotti filled with beef, pork and rabbit with butter, sage and Parmigiano-Reggiano ($23)
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Soft polenta with wild mushrooms and artisanal Italian sausage ($15)
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- 186022
- Fresh house-made burratta on prosciutto with olive oil and sea salt (special, $45)<br />
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- 186021
- Salmon tartare topped with candied lemon, dried capers, curls of red onion and avocado coulis ($16)
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Salumi misti di Paganelli ($27): charcuterie board with speck, pancetta, coppa, salame gentile, prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano and house-made breadsticks
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- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- Executive chef Davide Ianacci
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
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- 186025
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Introducing: Buonanotte
- Introducing: Buonanotte
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Buonanotte, 19 Mercer St., 416-599-7246, buonanotte.com
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/buonanotte/&title=Introducing: Buonanotte, Charles Khabouth’s Toronto version of the Montreal night-life fixture&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan13-buonanotte-intro-624x399.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_186025" align="aligncenter" width="656"] (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)[/caption]
After 21 years on Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal supper club Buonanotte has expanded to Toronto courtesy of Charles Khabouth, who licensed the name and recipes from the restaurant’s owners (they remain in charge of the management). Executive chef Davide Ianacci serves a menu of Italian comfort food in Ame’s former space, which has been outfitted with tufted white banquettes, a copper grid ceiling and a huge black-and-white photo of an Italian street scene. The food from the original Montreal restaurant has been adapted for Toronto palates, with dishes like potato gnocchi with Bolognese ragu ($21) and Cotoletta alla Milanese, a fried 16-ounce veal chop ($37) (more house-made pastas and wood-oven pizzas will join the menu as equipment arrives). The wine list focusses on bottles from Italy—the majority are private imports—and includes some big-spender options like the 2006 Madonna del Piano Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, which sells for $1,000. The restaurant is currently serving dinner only, but will launch a lunch menu in the coming weeks.
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Buonanotte, 19 Mercer St., 416-599-7246, buonanotte.com){kind=link}
The food in Montreal is okay and the wine list quite good, and it’s another of those big dimly lit places where it’s too loud to have a conversation, but everybody knows it’s the incomparable prettiness of the servers in their tight little black dresses that draws the clientele and provides the evening’s entertainment. That will be the standard for Toronto’s branch plant to meet.