Where Maven chef Shauna Godfrey eats in Dovercourt Village

When her Harbord Village restaurant, Maven, attracted droves of customers upon opening in 2024, chef-owner Shauna Godfrey was surprised and delighted that people loved her food: finessed but unpretentious takes on the Polish Jewish dishes Godfrey grew up cooking and eating with her grandmother Rose.

Godfrey’s next project, a shop called Rose’s Pantry opening inside Maven this spring, will extend a new set of comfort-food offerings: coffee, breakfast sandwiches, prepared salads and soup will join hearty mains to heat and serve at home. Restaurant staples, including everything-bagel cashews and the house coleslaw, will round out the grab-and-go selection. “I’m going for a very Barefoot Contessa vibe,” says Godfrey. “I’m an Ina Garten girl. I just want to wear button-down denim shirts.”

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Given that Godfrey spent years working in the fine-dining kitchens of Toronto and New York, her humility is refreshing. “I worked in a two-star Michelin restaurant where the raison d’être was just trying to get the next star,” she says. “I learned a lot, but at the end of the day, working for a star doesn’t do it for me. Knowing that someone may have saved up to come to my restaurant, or that this might be the best dinner of their life, that’s what motivates me.”

Somewhere between recipe testing, leading the kitchen and working the front of house, where she also greets and serves guests at Maven, Godfrey likes to make the most of her mornings off. “When I first met my wife, I was a line cook, and we would go on breakfast dates in the east end,” she says. “She didn’t think we were dating, though, because it was always just breakfast. Working in restaurants, it’s hard to carve out time for a social life, so mornings are the way.”

Here are three spots Godfrey frequents in her neighbourhood, Dovercourt Village, for deli-inspired breakfast sandwiches, fresh banh mi and massive dosas.

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Masa Deli

985 Dovercourt Rd., masa-deli.square.site

“I love the area around Dovercourt and Hallam. It’s always been cool, and it’s changing a lot. I also love a good breakfast sandwich. Masa Deli is a 10-minute walk from my house. It’s a place I have to actively try not to visit weekly, but I think about it all the time. On weekends, I don’t have to be at the restaurant until noon, so that’s when I’ll try to schedule hangouts with friends. I love a morning plan, a morning date, and it just feels special to have a breakfast sandwich. It’s my go-to.”

Go-to dish #1: Sausage-and-egg breakfast sandwich with chicken sausage, chive omelette, white cheddar, pickles, aïoli and salsa on an English muffin

“The breakfast sandwich is simple, but if it’s done really nicely, like it is here, everything is balanced and perfect. I love eggs, and these are fluffy and nicely seasoned. There are pickles too, which is like the Gold Standard vibe. You can also get this sandwich with kale, or on a gluten-free bun; there are lots of different options. And the hot sauce is delicious.

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“Growing up, my dad, Myer, was our weekend breakfast cook. He’d make breakfast sandwiches and call them Egg McMyers. That was his thing. So I grew up eating breakfast sandwiches most weekends. They’d always be on toasted challah we had left over from Friday night Shabbat, with some eggs and Heinz chili sauce, which is like chunky ketchup with pieces of onions and peppers—it’s tangy and great. Then you could either go the meat or the cheese route, because my parents kept kosher at home. If it was meat, it would be either turkey or beef salami. If it was cheese, it would have been swiss or something like that. We’re going to do a version of the Egg McMyer at Rose’s Pantry.”

Go-to dish #2: Chorizo breakfast burrito with cheesy chive scrambled eggs, chicken chorizo, tallow-fried tater tots, beans, guacamole, corn crema and pickled jalapeños on a flour tortilla

“There are crispy pieces of tater tots cooked in beef tallow, and the chorizo is made with chicken, which is kind of cool. You get different pockets with different stuff in each bite. There’s the tanginess of the pickled jalapeño, then the chorizo brings that richness. Sometimes it’s a little too much for me for breakfast, but I’ll have it for lunch. I love a breakfast sandwich any time of day, but it’s definitely hard to finish one of these and then have a productive day. Sometimes I’ll get this with an iced dirty horchata in the summer.”

Go-to dish #3: Tangerine juice

“They freshly squeeze the tangerine juice every day. I don’t think I’d ever had tangerine juice until I tried it here. I’ve had plenty of freshly squeezed orange juice, but the tangerine is just so good. It’s citrus season now—the best part of winter.”

Madras Masala

796 Bloor St. W., unit 1, madrasmasalatoronto.com

“Madras Masala has a big menu, and I’ve been through most of it. Each time I come, I’ll try to get one thing I haven’t ordered before. My dad would tell me stories of my grandfather going to restaurants, walking around, looking at what everyone’s eating, then pointing to tables—that’s how he would order. I do the same here. I’ll look to see what other diners are eating and order that. It’s the way to go.”

Go-to dish #1: Idli

“Idli are freshly steamed rice cakes, and they’re best when they’re super hot. I have chef hands, so I can’t feel much, but these are really hot, even for me. You just pull them apart and dip around—there’s sambar, a coconut chutney, a tomato achar and this nutty brown sauce. You can choose your own adventure. The idli is just a vessel to absorb it all. South Indian food is very different from north Indian cuisine. In the south, there are a lot more cashew-based things and less dairy. When I’m not working, I like to eat food I don’t know how to cook at home. I crave flavours I’m not consuming regularly. When you go, I have no idea what’s in this—I love that.

“They use the same batter—rice and black lentils fermented with fenugreek—for an idli as they do for a dosa, but the consistency is different. The fact that fenugreek jump-starts the fermentation of these batters is so interesting to me. The late Indian chef Floyd Cardoz, who had restaurants in New York, would talk a lot about the variety of breads in Indian cuisine. I listened to him on a podcast and wanted to learn more, because it’s a whole world of bread culture that we don’t know much about here.”

Go-to dish #2: Chettinad biryani with mutton, basmati, ground chettinad spices, mint leaves and yogurt

“This is the biryani with mutton, an older lamb, which is stewed and mixed together with the rice, cashews and whole spices like cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, then finished with crispy onions. The mutton has such a distinct flavour that can compete with the spices, so everything’s balanced. I’ve also had it with chicken, with veggies and with fish, but I like the mutton the best. Then there’s this cooling yogurt sauce. It’s such a layered, fully composed dish. Occasionally, I’ll crunch into and find whole spices, and I love that they leave them in there for you to deal with. Our cook, Nayeem, who’s from Hyderabad, a city known for biryani, made a beautiful version for our staff meal a little while ago.”

Go-to dish #3: Masala dosa with potato and onion

“This enormous dosa is the thinned-out batter of an idli, cooked on a griddle with ghee, and it comes with the same sauces. In the centre of it is the masala, which has potato in it. It’s meant to be eaten with your hands, and you do the same dipping as you do with an idli. The texture is softer in the middle and really crispy toward the ends. There are different dosas with chilis or onions inside, or you can get them plain. You shouldn’t order this as takeout—you have to eat it in the restaurant while it’s still hot and crispy.”

Lamhan Banh Mi

733 Bloor St. W., lamhan.ca

“I think Vietnamese cuisine is my favourite. What I like about this place is that every element feels fresh—the vegetables, the herbs, the bread. I started coming here when they first opened, during the pandemic. My wife and I would come down, grab a banh mi and sit in the park. On Tuesdays, I’ll always order our staff meal from here.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really love bread and sandwiches. I love the science behind bread-making, and I’m fascinated by how very few ingredients can be transformed into different things just by changing the percentages. I got into making sourdough during the pandemic, which turned into doing a lot of pre-ferments like poolish and biga. You can control everything, the flour you use or what you add into it. I like the flexibility. The challah is definitely the item I’m most protective over at Maven. With bread, you can’t just time it, you need to look at visual cues and factor in things like the temperature and humidity of the day.”

Go-to dish #1: Lemongrass grilled chicken banh mi with pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander, Vietnamese mayonnaise and jalapeños

“This is a perfectly composed sandwich. They bake their bread every day, and the bread is the star. The classic with pâté and different types of pork is delicious, but this one with chicken is my favourite. The sliced jalapeño adds a vegetal spiciness. I’ve travelled to Vietnam, and I follow a lot of Vietnamese food creators online, which has helped me gain a deeper understanding of the cuisine. For example, Vietnamese-style mayonnaise is richer and thicker because it’s made with only egg yolks. Some people incorporate rice flour into the banh mi batter to get that shattering crispness, then you also steam it a little bit.

“The banh mi is a wild example of all the cultural influences in Vietnam. The French took over, and the Japanese were there, and you see these influences in the food—the bread, the pâté, the mayonnaise, the pickled vegetables. There’s a whole world of terrines and cured meats that I find fascinating too. It’s interesting to see how cuisines evolved based on who was there.”

Go-to dish #2: Fresh rolls with fried tofu, sesame seeds, vermicelli, lettuce, pickled carrot, mint, cucumber and peanut dipping sauce

“I could eat here every day—here and Masa Deli. What a life that would be. In Toronto, people tend to flock to the next cool place and forget about what came before, but when I was building Maven, I didn’t want that flashiness. I wanted to tap into something that people would want to come back to regularly.

“What’s nice about Toronto compared with places like New York is that smaller restaurants stand a chance. But I think there’s room to grow when it comes to offering good service outside of a fine-dining setting. Not the technical things, just making guests feel comfortable and taking care of them in a way that they want to come back for. There are some amazing spots in the city where you don’t have to spend a fortune to feel taken care of. That’s what we’re trying to do at Maven.”