What’s on the menu at Hot Pork, a new deli counter serving sandwiches and house-made charcuterie

Name: Hot Pork Contact: 932 Dundas St. W., @hotpork.to
Neighbourhood: Trinity Bellwoods Chef-owner: Michael Synowicki Accessibility: Step at entrance

By 2020, Michael Synowicki had been working his way through the ranks of the country’s high-end hotel kitchens for nearly two decades. He most recently held the position of sous-chef at the King Edward, where he had free creative reign to build menus and employ recipes that were far from your standard hotel fare. Then the pandemic hit. “I was on a defined career path of becoming an executive chef,” says Synowicki. “But then Covid happened, and all I was doing was executive-cheffing for my wife and roommate.”

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About a year into the pandemic, Synowicki was running out of money, but he still had a mortgage to pay, so he knew he had to pivot. He turned to his childhood for inspiration. “When I was growing up, my dad owned a fine foods store on Yonge Street. I used to help him and my grandma make all kinds of sausages over the holidays and for special occasions. It occurred to me that—at a time when people were looking for special items to eat at home because restaurants were closed—I could start a business making and selling my own nitrate-free, filler-free and uniquely flavoured sausages.”

Synowicki named his business Chef Michael’s Gourmet and took to social media to peddle his house-made and -smoked sausages, brisket and salmon. In the beginning, he also delivered all the orders himself. As his business took off, he started running pop-ups at places including Tulip Variety and Escape Goat (both now closed, unfortunately), where he would grill meat and make sandwiches to order. But it wasn’t until he landed a regular stall at the Junction Farmers Market last summer that he knew he had something special. “I had lineups every week,” he says. “Eventually, I decided I needed a permanent store to build a menu around my products.” And Hot Pork—the only business on its Trinity Bellwoods block with an industrial smoker in the laneway—is just that.

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The food

An expansive to-go menu of raw sausages and various other house-made meats in globally influenced flavours (like the Korean gochujang sausage burger or the Maltese sausage) as well as jarred soup, pâtés, pickles and pickled eggs. The hot menu includes fast food–inspired (but very much elevated) sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, plus decadent poutine made using drippings from the smoker parked outside.

The drinks

Synowicki is working on a liquor licence so he can serve local craft beer and wine (selected by his father, who owns a wine distribution company). For now, there’s a range of Coca-Cola and San Pellegrino products as well as Ting, a nostalgic favourite for Synowicki, who grew up drinking it on Friday nights when his family would get West Indian takeout for dinner.

The space

The whitewashed and light-filled space is outfitted with a refrigerated display case and a freezer full of goods, plus a few tables for anyone who can’t wait to get home to eat their sandwich. Decorating the walls: a faux-magnetic menu board and some framed slow-exposure photos taken by Synowicki’s artist wife, Jennie Suddick.