Introducing: Hawthorne Food and Drink, a new downtown restaurant with a social mission

By Karolyne Ellacott | December 5, 2012

By Karolyne Ellacott | 12/05/2012

Introducing: Hawthorne Food and Drink — (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)

When the bold new 60 Richmond Street East co-op building was completed in 2010, the builders left open a medium-sized space on the ground floor for a restaurant, hopefully one with a social mission that would complement that of Unite Here, the hospitality industry union that runs the co-up. More than two years later, chef Eric Wood, fresh off launching Fabarnak at the 519 community centre, has opened up Hawthorne in that space. Wood serves an ever-changing menu of dishes with flavours inspired by Toronto’s vast assortment of ethnic cuisines—and runs a three-month paid training program for young cooks fresh out of school and hoping to learn the ropes.

The restaurant, whose name is both a literary (Nathaniel) and botanical (the hawthorn plant) allusion, was designed by Squarefoot and features warm woods, shelves of jarred preserves and floor-to-ceiling windows. The focal point of the menu is the cheekily named #FourSquare meal ($16), a carry-over from Fabarnak’s Square Peg bento box (a one in four chance that something will “blow you away,” Wood quips). When we stopped in, the geometric lunch featured a whole grain salad with toasted squash and black walnuts; chestnut gnocchi with charred kale, onion fondue, bee pollen and vanilla-poached tomato; nam pla barbecue ribs; and chocolate oatmeal torte with dark chocolate gelato. Sandwiches, sharing plates and proper main courses round out the menu. For drinks, there’s an all-Ontario beer list and a short selection of wines; a cocktail menu is still in the works (we’re told their house-made sodas will play a starring role). Though Hawthorne is currently only open for lunch, the New Year will mark the introduction of a dinner menu too.

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Hawthorne, 60 Richmond St. E., 647-930-9517, Facebook page, @HawthorneTO

3 thoughts on “Introducing: Hawthorne Food and Drink, a new downtown restaurant with a social mission”

Corina says:

December 5, 2012 at 3:59 pm

Hahaha, you captured my backside while I was chatting up Chef Eric Wood! A delicious spot, recommended :)
foodnetworklowersstandards says:

December 6, 2012 at 6:07 am

if they could only retrain the current members of unite here to actually work for the customer instead of the themselves…have you eaten at unionized hotel? service is shit.
Eric Wood says:

January 7, 2013 at 10:27 am

I think, In a way, this is what we are all about. Not to agree that the service provided by members of the union is to your observation, but there is definitely a gap in between the restaurant experience, and hotel dining, for a multitude of reasons. the hospitality industry can forget about developing its grass roots sometimes, and we created the training opportunities for this reason.