What’s on the menu at Standard Time, a listening bar on Geary with a pop-up kitchen residency

First up: an umami-centric menu from SeeYouSoon

By Erin Hershberg| Photography by Jelena Subotic

| June 18, 2024

Name: Standard Time Contact: 165 Geary, @standardtime.to
Owners: Malcolm Levy, Tyler Power, Waseem Dabdoub, Colin Sims, Azar Niekamp, Ian Rydberg and Mikey Pesce Chefs: Rotating residencies (currently SeeYouSoon) Accessibility: Not fully accessible

Malcolm Levy, part-owner of Standard Time, Geary Avenue’s listening bar and newly christened restaurant, set up shop in 2020 with a simple plan. “I wanted to give Toronto a hub for the natural intersection of food, music, design and creativity,” he says, “like Public Records or Gem in New York.” For its first few years, the bar operated only as a listening bar and dance space while its owners plotted a kitchen residency program, which made its debut earlier this month. The inaugural guest is SeeYouSoon, a travelling kitchen that recently did stints in Paris and New York. Now, Standard Time has a dining menu that matches the ethos of its drink and music offerings.

The pop-up food residencies, which the team lines up months in advance, begin in the evening. SeeYouSoon, which is spearheaded by young chefs Keith Siu, Michael Ovejas and Kevin Le, is currently serving up Asian-inspired avant-garde comfort food. Coming up on the docket are guest appearances by Uncle Mikey’s, Jamil’s Chaat House and a yet-to-be-revealed Mexican pop-up.

The after 10 p.m. crowd is treated to a taste of what Standard Time is already known for: methodically programmed dance music that spans just about every genre you could think of. The airy light-filled space also features rotating art installations, a daytime coffee program and a record shop that peddles house-branded merch and hard-to-find releases.

The food

SeeYouSoon is opening the kitchen residency program with a bang. Explosive flavour profiles—like garlicky panko-crusted sweetbreads in abalone sauce or tender roasted cabbage glazed in miso, black bean furikake and funky, smoky katsuo—make for an umami-centric menu that deftly combines creativity and culinary competence. It’s a fun and tasty list of plates that keeps diners both satisfied and on their toes—perfect for a pre-dancing meal.

A blue clay bowl with crudo in it — For the SeeYouSoon spin on crudo, generous slices of fresh tuna sit in a slightly bitter, slightly sweet, slightly sour agrodolce made of Ontario rhubarb and a Sichuan pepper corn oil. It’s garnished with shaved pickled rhubarb, shiso snippings, toasted black sesame and a shiso nori furikake. $22

Grilled pork jowl — Here we have the grilled pork jowl, a cut with arguably more flavour than the popular pork belly. In this iteration, the meat is grilled to order and glazed with an unlikely pairing of caramel and fish sauce. The candied kumquat garnish acts as a counterpoint to the richness of the dish, and the cilantro and Thai basil keep the flavours clean. $27

A plate with tar tar — The Kare Kare Tartare uses flavours from Filipino kare-kare, a peanut stew made with a variety of offcuts like trotters and tripe. But SeeYouSoon elevates the recipe with classic French technique. Chopped Ontario sirloin is mixed with a peanut and beef bouillon emulsion, smoky and unctuous roasted eggplant jam, bok choy, Anaheim chilies, and shrimp paste. Thinly sliced daikon sits like a roof over the tartare and is meant to evoke the space’s current ceiling art installation (more on that below). It comes with crunchy fried shrimp chips for dipping. $21

A take on a fillet of fish sandwich — The Filet XO Fish is a pretty self-explanatory but delicious take on the classic McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. In this version, fresh cod is coated in classic beer batter, then fried to a perfect golden brown. It’s sandwiched in a brioche bun and slathered in a dill tartar sauce and an XO sauce of dried scallops, garlic, shallot, chilies and oil. A slice of melty American cheese provides the final burst of nostalgia. $22

A whole squid dish — Here we have the Sticky Rice Whole Squid. Mushroom dashi sticky rice is mixed with bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, chives and lobster, then stuffed inside a glazed squid and grilled. $26

The Ube parfait — The Ube Parfait sits on a bed of tapioca pearls. It’s built from locally sourced ube ice cream, house-made ube jam, candied sunflower seeds and toasted coconut, then finished with Chantilly cream. $15

The drinks

While a cocktail program is in development, right now the drink menu features a rotating selection of natural wine available by the glass or bottle. Most of the offerings are zero-zero (nothing is added or taken out during fermentation), and none of the bottles venture north of $100. “Drinking culture has shifted, and people aren’t thoughtlessly pounding drinks like they used to,” says Kyle Doucet, Standard Time’s wine programmer. “Wine should taste different every time. It should be surprising and magical. If it fails to do that, I’m not interested.”

Someone pouring a glass of wine at the bar — Kyle Doucet pours a glass of lightly chilled red at the bar

The space

Nordic minimalism meets Geary Avenue’s warehouse chic to create a room that’s half dance bar (cue the sick Joseph Crowe speakers) and half full-service restaurant. The restaurant side features art installations that separate it from the dance floor while still establishing a unified vibe. Currently, the ceiling has a hanging paper art piece by Fang Design Studio. Like everything else in this space, its presence is temporary—another reminder to embrace your time here while it lasts.