Cora Pizza reopens, Joanne Kates picks her top restaurants, the fooderati’s top Twitterers

Cora Pizza reopens, Joanne Kates picks her top restaurants, the fooderati’s top Twitterers

Ratted out: Cora Pizza reopens after health inspectors discovered rats on the premises (Photo by The Pizza Review)

• U of T students, rejoice: Cora Pizza reopened its doors last week. The restaurant, a long-standing refuge of drunken university students, was closed due to unsanitary conditions (including, apparently, several dead rats and rat feces on the premises). With a history like this, we’re sure the customers will come flocking back. [CBC

• Joanne Kates counts down Toronto’s top new restaurants of 2009, with fairly predictable results. Among her favourites are Buca, Black Hoof, the revamped Splendido, Osteria Ciceri e Tria and Mildred’s Temple Kitchen. The one wild card is Ba Shu Ren Jia, a Szechuan spot with a four-figure Steeles Avenue address. [Globe and Mail]

• The Star’s Josh Rubin recounts Toronto’s best and worst beer news from ’09. Topping the list are the new beers flowing into the city (10 Bitter Years, Mike Duggan IPA No. 9), tastings at beer bistros and new offerings at the Toronto Festival of Beer. Lime beer, especially Bud Light Lime, gets a justifiable thumbs-down. [Toronto Star]

• As if we needed another reason to avoid McDonald’s, Markham resident Tommy Lam reportedly discovered dozens of dead ants in his Mickey D’s sausage and egg burrito. The unfortunate fast foodie had already eaten one of the two burritos he purchased before noticing the ants in the second wrap. Guess Lam will be getting his breakfast from Burger King now. [Toronto Sun]

• BlogTO rounds up its favourite foodie Twitterati, including many of this year’s favourite restaurants, like Caplansky’s, Black Hoof and Pizzeria Libretto. Zane Caplansky tweets about which celebs (local, we imagine) drop by, Grant van Gameren and Jen Agg tweet about how hungover the brunch service cooks are (just like the patrons), and the folks at Libretto stoke the appetite with twitpics of food to come. [BlogTO]