Toronto’s man of Conviction: Marc Thuet will open his fourth restaurant this Friday
Top T.O. chef Marc Thuet will be launching a new dining concept this Friday—and it will be staffed by 13 former inmates. Cheekily named Conviction, the restaurant, at the Bite Me! space (609 King Street West), will have seven ex-cons in the kitchen and six running the front-of-house, all under the watchful eye of Thuet’s life and business partner, Biana Zorich. Thuet, who himself has gone through addictions, says in a press release that the restaurant will give the new staff a second chance at life, by providing them with job security and a steady paycheque.
Naturally, this is the stuff reality television is made of. For two weeks now, the Montreal-based production company Cineflix has been documenting the drama of opening a new restaurant with untrained staff (whittled down from 22 former inmates) and will be turning the footage into eight one-hour episodes for CityTV this fall (the show’s working title is Criminal Dinners).
The Mediterranean-inspired menu contains such dishes as spaghetti with yellowfin tuna and marinated roe, a house-cured antipasto platter, and pizza with roasted peppers, pork belly and goat cheese. Conviction will be open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to midnight and for brunch on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reservations can be made at 416-603-2777, ext. 1.
