Chantecler’s Jonathan Poon: “Toronto can’t sustain fine dining restaurants.”

“Toronto can’t sustain fine dining restaurants.”

—Controversial words from Jonathan Poon, the chef and co-owner of Parkdale restaurant Chantecler, as quoted in a recent profile by Post City. Poon, whose Queen West restaurant employs a two-tiered menu system (affordable snacks during the week; refined tasting menu on the weekends), is soon to open his second neighbourhood business, a low-key snack bar called (sarcastically, it seems) Bar Fancy. Poon isn’t the only big-name chef to speak out lately about Toronto’s disintegrating fancy-food scene.