Name: Louix Louis
Contact: 325 Bay St., 416-637-5550, louixlouis.com, @louixlouis Neighbourhood: Financial District
Previously: America
Owner: St. Regis Toronto
Chefs: Guillaume Robin (Ritz-Carlton Naples) and pastry chef Heather Mordue (Arowhon Pines)
The food
As the name suggests, Louix Louis is a little bit French, a little bit American—equal parts regal and fun. “The menu is based on my American experiences, as well as where I come from,” says Robin, a French import who worked his way through five-starred U.S. hotel kitchens before ending up in Toronto. “It’s casual elegance: simple, well-presented food that is indulgent at the same time.” Louix Louis serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, and while the food isn’t over-complicated, there are moments of indulgence, especially at dinner, where Italian black truffles, Ostera caviar, Nova Scotian lobster and foie gras punctuate the menu.
The lunch menu includes salads, like this one made with farro, purple kale, blueberries, mint, avocado, spinach, spiced hazelnuts and house made smoked ricotta. $18.
The wedge salad is heartier and healthier than most. It comes with a side salad of sherry-dressed barley, black olives and radishes (that’s right, a salad with a salad). The iceberg portion is lashed with buttermilk dressing and crowned with a strip of maple bacon. $16.
These B.C. scallops are cold-smoked, then seared and served with cauliflower purée and a beetroot tartare. Some smoked caviar sauce and watercress tie the plate together. $21.
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Another heavy hitting seafood appetizer tops Ontario burrata with Nova Scotian Lobster. The plate is finished with green goddess dressing, pickled tomato and spiced pumpkin seeds. $21.
This steak tartare is mixed with grainy mustard, chives, gherkins and house-whipped mayo, then garnished with pickled hon shimeji mushrooms, sunchoke chips and some spicy, smoked tomato jam. $16.
Here, even the humble burger gets a royal makeover with a branded brioche bun, triple-cream brie, foie gras torchon and a side of triple-fried fries accompanied by some house-made harissa-spiced ketchup. $29.
The Dover Sole Meunière is presented whole and then deboned table-side. It comes with a side of seaweed butter. Market price.
This whole chicken is cooked sous-vide for six hours in a truffle butter, before being quartered. The breast meat hits the plate after a quick stint in the oven to crisp up the skin, while the dark stuff is dredged and deep-fried. Some shavings of Italian black truffle and charred baby leeks complete the dish. $75.
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Seared Quebec duck breast comes with a lobe of foie gras, pickled ramps, a few dollops of tomatillo salsa, butternut squash purée and puffed wild rice. $36.
Caviar comes in two varieties: Ostera ($320) and Acadian ($170, pictured here). Both come in a special ice bowl that sits on a purple velvet pillow. Served with blini, shaved egg yolk, chives, escabeche vegetables and crème fraiche.
The Grand Plateau comes with Alaskan king crab legs, gargantuan Pacific poached shrimp, Malpeque oysters, mussels escabeche, and a Mediterranean octopus salad with black olives, capers, tomato, cilantro and splash of citrus. $190.
Here’s a close-up of the oysters.
And the mussels.
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This tarte au citron gets an extra sweet-sour kick form raspberry coulis and raspberry sorbet. $12.
“Chamomile is something you have after a meal to wind down the evening; I wanted to put that experience into a dessert,” says Mordue, about her Tea and Honey treat. The milk-chocolate mousse, made with chamomile-steeped cream, is glazed with a bee pollen–Zéphyr caramel, and served with honey ice cream and a gold-painted, honeycomb-shaped milk chocolate. $14.
To achieve architectural stability with this 13-layer cake, Mordue bakes each layer in its own pan, then flips them while still warm. The praline paste in the 64 per cent guayaquil ganache icing also helps to bind the cake and keep it standing tall and regal. $26.
The drinks
“We were inspired by Toronto’s history,” says marketing manager Alex Marconi. “At the turn of the century, Toronto was one of the largest whiskey distillers in the world.” And the focus here is on the brown-liquor, with 500 different types currently on offer, many displayed on the 18-foot-tall bronze bar shelves. According to Marconi, the plan is to grow the collection past 700 bottles. The cocktails focus on lesser-known booze-forward classics, and the informative menu is peppered with historical facts.
The champagne cocktail is one of the storied cocktails on offer, dating back to 1876. The drink combines bubbles with sugar, bitters and lemon oil. $24.
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The New York Sour is made with bourbon lemon, sugar and red wine. $18.
The space
Located on the 31st floor of the new St. Regis Hotel, Louix Louis was inspired by the turn-of-the-century hotel bars of New York and Paris (think Bar Hemingway at the Ritz meets Palm Court at The Plaza). DesignAgency ran with a whiskey theme when outfitting the 130-seat, two-storey room: the bevelled mirrors and curved oak walls are meant to make diners feel like they’re inside an etched crystal whiskey glass. Look up and you’ll see a Madison Van Rijn mural that adds to the effect: swirls of amber and gold look like the dark spirit swirling above, while the sculptural chandeliers add to the illusion.
The 30-foot-long bar is made from Roma Imperial marble. Behind the bar, there’s a secret garden terrace.
Upstairs, there’s a 600-square foot private dining mezzanine.
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Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.
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