The pandemic has made us all crave comfort and nostalgia; for Flo Leung, Toronto-based food illustrator and one half of the takeout kitchen/studio Noble House, it led to a sentimental
NOW Magazine
Four summer activities in Toronto you can elevate with cannabis
This article is sponsored by Fire & Flower Cannabis Co. By NOW Staff
It happens every year, somehow you blink and we’re already halfway through July.
Summer in Toronto always zooms by but this year feels like it’s on fast-forward – perhaps that’s because we’ve all been itching to get back outside after a long pandemic winter and spring. Although it’s the shortest season, summer in Toronto is also the best. With everything from food truck festivals to movie screenings in the park to patios teeming with life every night, it’s hard to feel bored. But all that stimulation and potential FOMO that you chose the wrong new wine bar to spend your precious Saturday night at can be exhausting.
Some of the most successful restaurants in Toronto right now are ones you’ve never heard of. These are restaurants with wincingly pun-forward names (Wrap Me Up, Bite Me Grill), or names that evoke locations they don’t really occupy. They’ve never offered in-person dining, have no front-of-house staff to furlough, often don’t have physical storefronts. They share commissary or hub kitchens capable of producing dozens of cuisines, with food prepared exclusively for takeout or delivery, which makes its way to customers through third-party apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and SkipTheDishes. Some of these restaurants are, in a way, fictional. The food, of course, is real (and of a quality that varies as much as restaurants themselves do), but all the things associated with a sit-down restaurant ambience, aesthetics, knowledgable servers carrying plates and flatware have been abandoned in the name of convenience, choice, necessity and speed.