What’s on the menu at Bar Bossanova, a nerdy new wine bar on Roncesvalles

Including fancy chips, conservas, cheese plates and a long list of by-the-glass options

By Kate Dingwall| Photography by Shlomi Amiga

| September 27, 2024

What's on the menu at Bar Bossanova, a nerdy new wine bar on Roncesvalles

Name: Bar Bossanova Contact: 101 Roncesvalles Ave., bossanova.bar
Neighbourhood: Roncesvalles
Owners: Dan Grant and Ben Plisky-Somers (Bossanova Bottle Shop) Accessibility: Ramp at entrance; washroom is wheelchair-accessible but the door is not automatic

Just six months ago, Bar Bossanova was a law office, complete with desks, faux-wood-panelled cubicles and a dreary drop ceiling. “We found a newspaper from 1967 stuck in the walls—that’s the last time they had changed anything,” says co-owner Dan Grant.

Two men clink glasses while looking at each other — Ben Plisky-Somers (left), the wine guy, and Dan Grant, the resident beer geek

It took Grant, a Prud’homme Beer Sommelier, and his long-time friend Ben Plisky-Somers, a WSET-certified sommelier, a few months and a lot of hard work to gussy it up. They ripped out the desks and all the fake wood (“We could do it with our bare fingers—it wasn’t exactly up to code,” says Grant) and put up a tin ceiling that they got second-hand from their neighbours, Village Juicery. Then they installed a bar and a little kitchen suite in the back, and boom—a charming wine bar.

The new space is the sister venue to Bossanova Bottle Shop, which is right next door and was one of the city’s first independent bottle shops. (Thanks, Covid!)

The exterior of Bar Bossanova, a new wine and snack bar in Toronto's west end

The Drinks

The wine selection will rotate at the whim of Plinsky-Somers. The current list includes Cota 45 (a salty, almond-y unfortified wine from the sherry-producing region of Spain), a white wine from Piedmont (a region better known for its reds) and deep cherry rosés from Niagara’s Therianthropy. For the less adventurous, there are always cult classics on the menu: crisp rosés, sangioveses from Chianti Classico and rich chenin blancs.

Curious about something cool? There are often open bottles of new or unusual varietals on offer. “We keep margins low, so we can open really crazy stuff at great prices,” says Plisky-Somers. “There’s a couple that lives around the corner, and they had never had barolo before. We offered them some by the glass for a great price.”

The beer selection is equally nerdy. There are over a dozen on the menu, plus an additional list of cellared and imported brews. From Ontario, there’s Rorschach’s lime rice lager, Lovebird’s smoked wheat lager and Third Moon’s hazy IPA. Roncy already has a lot of places to grab a cold pint, so Grant focuses on deep cuts from his favourite breweries.

A person holds a bottle of Champagne — The seemingly namesake Champagne Bossa Nova is actually a coincidence—an agent brought it by one day, and Plisky-Somers bought the whole lot. It’s a blanc de noir from a Premier Cru vineyard in Montagne de Reims (and it pairs particularly well with the bar’s Spanish chips—more on those below)

A person holds a glass of beer — Roncesvalles Village Lager is Bar Bossanova’s house beer. A quarter from each sale goes to Parkdale Community Legal Services

The Food

It’s a cold menu of Mediterranean-inspired drinking snacks: bowls of olives, Marcona almonds, patés and Spanish chips (including wasabi, Himalayan salt and black truffle flavours). Every second week, they host a champagne-and-oysters night, where they open bottles of nice bubbles and shuck bivalves. There will also be rotating food pop-ups. In a few weeks’ time, chef Hamza Aidrus from Alimentari is stopping by to serve fresh pasta.

A bowl of tomato confit, sided by slices of baguette — This chunky tomato confit spread is made by Pinot Foods. It’s served with slices of baguette. $9

A bowl of chips topped with conservas — A bowl of conservas (in this case, mussels in Galician sauce) is served Catalan style—that’s over Himalayan salt chips and topped with olives. $30

A plate of hard cheeses, bread, crackers and pickles — The cheese board features selections from Thin Blue Line Cheese down the street. It’s served with fresh baguette and pickles. $18

A plate of soft cheeses, bread and pickles sits on a table next to a glass of red wine — For the vegans: an entirely plant-based cheese board. It includes products like Better Brie, an aged cashew cheese; VegNature, a cashew-tomato-and-basil “goat’s” cheese; and Green Goddess Fromagerie’s wine-infused whipped cashew chèvre. Pickles and bread accompany everything (or gluten-free crackers by request). $18

The menu for Bar Bossanova sits on a table next to a candle and a vase filled with dried flowers

The Space

The issue with the original bottle shop was that it was getting packed. People would stop in to browse, then linger over a glass of wine and end up elbow-to-elbow with a room full of shoppers. So, when the law practice next door was ready to retire, they jumped on the space. Now, there’s plenty of room to hang out and grab a glass over lunch or a happy-hour pint. Note the absence of TV screens—Roncy has enough places to watch the big game.

Inside Bar Bossanova, a new wine bar in Toronto's west end

A back room with a communal table will one day play host to educational classes for budding sommeliers. The bottle shop already hosts wine education nights. “It’s a very non-snobby way to educate folks and help them make more informed choices,” says Plisky-Somers. Some classes in the fall lineup: Understanding Orange Wine, Wines of the Atlantic, Wine 101 and Ontario Wines versus the World.