Introducing: The Guild, a new contemporary Canadian restaurant on Dundas West
Name: The Guild
Contact info: 1442 Dundas St. W., 647-343-7288, guildresto.com
Owner and chef: Mani Binelli (Centro, Auberge du Pommier)
Neighbourhood: Little Portugal
The food: Contemporary Canadian cuisine using local products and modern culinary techniques.
Lunch dishes include confit Ontario pork belly on collard greens ($16) and Yukon gold gnocchi with braised Ontario wild boar ($14), and for brunch there’s a lobster benny on a blini ($16) with eggs that are poached sous vide. The Guild launches a dinner service later this week, and Binelli has plans to bring in guest chefs for an industry night on Mondays.
The drinks: Bartender Alex James’s cocktail menu features drinks like a lobster Caesar ($11) that’s topped with pickled asparagus and butter “air.”
The place: The former flower shop has been entirely gutted and outfitted with tin ceilings and birch bark accents. Little terrariums adorn each of the reclaimed barn board tables, and the chairs are upholstered with old coffee bags.
By the numbers: • 97 seats • 3 layers of corrugated walls dismantled in the renovation process • 2, number of years The Guild’s been in the works • 1 Larousse Gastronomique used to plaster the bathroom walls • 1 name change (Dundas West watchers might remember the place was long billed as NoNo’s Pastaria)
