Food & Drink

Introducing: Bar Raval, Grant van Gameren’s much-hyped Spanish pinchos bar

Introducing: Bar Raval, Grant van Gameren’s much-hyped Spanish pinchos bar

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By |  

(Image: Jackie Pal)

Name: Bar Raval
Contact Info: 505 College St., thisisbarraval.com, @bar_raval
Neighbourhood: Little Italy
Owners: Grant Van Gameren (Bar Isabel), Mike Webster (Momofuku and Bar Isabel) and Robin Goodfellow (Ursa)
Chefs: Van Gameren and former Bar Isabel sous chefs Ryan Baddeley and Keenan Mcvey

The Food: Guests at van Gameren’s new pinchos place dine shoulder-to-shoulder, eating from a tapas menu that doesn’t bother much with fanciness: small bites like steamed leeks on romesco, morcilla sausage with quail eggs and salty boquerón—quintessential casual northern-Spanish snacks—are eaten with toothpicks. The canned seafood, some of it imported, some house-made, includes preserved mussels, smoked mackerel with rosemary, as well as berberechos—small, saltwater clams from Conservas de Campados that are steamed in the can they come in, then served with a side of chips and a house aperitivo sauce. Embuditos (cured meat), and plancha-grilled seafood, meats and cheeses round out the snacks. And at Bar Raval, anytime is tapas time: it’s open every day, from 8 a.m.–2 a.m.

The Drinks: Bar Raval’s low-octane tipples, like the Jack Knife made with Tio Pepe, promote day drinking (as well as afternoon functioning). A long list of fortified wine, vermouth and sherry is available all day, too. The bar itself is built for speed and functionality: it boasts a sunken, angled gutter that keeps the team’s mise en place out of the way.

The Place: A tin roof is all that’s left of what used to be Teatro. Intricate, Antoni Gaudí-inspired woodwork (completed by design team Partisan for a price tag of $200,000) melts mahogany into swooping curves, with few right angles in sight, making the bar feel like a warm and super-stylish grotto.

Topics: Bar Isabel Bar Raval Grant van Gameren Little Italy Mike Webster Openings Robin Goodfellow Toronto Restaurants

10 thoughts on “Introducing: Bar Raval, Grant van Gameren’s much-hyped Spanish pinchos bar”

  2. We originally wrote that patterns in Bar Raval’s woodwork were meant to reflect the three inked owners; while the designs look a little like tattoos, that’s not what they were intended to be. We’ve corrected that mistake by removing that sentence.

  3. The design is very ‘Gaudi’ esque. Gaudi is a famous designer best known for his architectural works in Barcelona. Raval is also a neighborhood in BCN….so that could be the link between the bar design?

  4. Bloated egos, bloated if tiny space, ridiculous hype machine that must have Goebbels touching himself in whatever corner of hell he’s in. You come out with very little steak for the sizzle, only a headache–not so much from drinks imbibed as from the queasy, nauseating sense that something about the place is just not right.

  8. We have removed the phone number previously listed on this posting, as Bar Raval does not currently have one.

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