Story | Renée S. Suen Photography | Renée S. Suen, The Ritz-Carlton Toronto
With a reputation that spans generations, The Ritz-Carlton is known for its gold standard in elegance, attentive service and for being the prestigious hotel chosen by the most illustrious of guests. An embodiment of luxury in the heart of downtown, the Toronto property is an urban escape for those seeking comfort and care with five-star amenities, including the Spa My Blend by Clarins.
EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace.
The drive for excellence extends to the luxury hotel’s culinary programs, with city gourmands heading to TOCA for modern renditions of traditional Italian cuisine. Created in collaboration with renowned Roman chef Oliver Glowig, whose eponymous restaurant has received two Michelin stars, TOCA’s menu employs locally sourced seasonal ingredients and features homemade pasta, fresh seafood, composed desserts, along with carefully aged cheese from Canada’s only hotel-based cheese cave. Most recently, it welcomed specialty chef Horacio Macias Leon, who has introduced TOCA Trattoria’s allday dining program.
Elevate your afternoon tea experience with a flute of Niagara’s own Cuvée Catharine Brut.
There’s also the Ritz Bar, which serves café favourites, including Black Ivory Coffee—the world’s rarest coffee that’s naturally refined by Thai elephants—and hand-crafted cocktails. The latter ranges from classics to a DIY customized martini list, and even features a couple liquid nitrogen numbers.
The Green Room is a cozy space with fireplace and a billiards table.
However, it’s the update to the hotel’s lobby lounge and terrace that is generating a buzz. Opened last August, EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace takes over the former DEQ space. In addition to a physical transformation, the warm, sophisticated but understated modern DesignAgency-inspired space can seat 61 between the lounge with its wraparound bar, dining room and green room with fireplace, billiards table, and collaborative works by Toronto photographer Caitlin Cronenberg and Ottawa artist Heidi Conrod.
The 88-seat open terrace.
The main draw in warmer months is the additional 88 seats on its lush, open terrace. Under the shadow of the CN Tower, the latter flanks Simcoe Park and is outfitted with a chic centrepiece bar and a woodfired stone oven. A hot ticket, the terrace is even more popular on Friday nights during summer months when it hosts live bossa nova and jazz
performances.
During the summer, EPOCH’s terrace has been known to host live bossa nova and jazz performances.
Celebrated chef Jeff Crump is behind EPOCH’s reimagined traditional British gastrobar fare. A Canadian slow food pioneer and founder of Earth to Table: Organic Farm and Earth to Table: Bread Bar, Crump is well known for his farm-to-table philosophy.
The menu at EPOCH is a nod to his time at lauded UK restaurants, The Fat Duck and The Hind’s Head. It features familiar dishes, like a flat-iron pepper steak that has been reinvigorated with modern flavours, including blistered shishito peppers, and a roasted half lobster that comes topped with tarragon butter and sided by addictive roasted potatoes.
Summer seafood specials might include dishes like a roasted half lobster that’s slicked with tarragon butter and sided with addictive roasted potatoes.
To start, choose from varying sizes of fresh seafood towers brimming with oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, gravlax and even blue crab. If lucky, there might be specials, like a hamachi collar or refreshing light blue crab lettuce cups christened with pickled apple and fennel pollen.
The 8-oz. flat-iron pepper steak is grilled to your liking and comes with grilled shishito peppers and a choice of skinny fries or salad (the baby gem Caesar salad in this case).
For the last course, there are go-tos like a sticky toffee pudding, milk chocolate ice cream stuffed profiteroles, or maybe even a refined version of pineapple upside-down cake. Whatever you order, do not pass on the Billionaire shepherd’s pie, cheekily named to reflect the rising costs of living in Toronto, but also a nod to the incredibly delicious layered casserole’s contents. In addition to using ground wagyu beef, the savoury, flavourful and gluten-free dish is topped with a whipped potato purée, crispy shallots and generous truffle slices.
Whatever you order, do not pass on the Billionaire shepherd’s pie, cheekily named to reflect the rising costs of living in Toronto, but also a nod to the incredibly delicious layered casserole’s contents. In addition to using ground wagyu beef, the savoury, flavourful and gluten-free dish is topped with a whipped potato purée, crispy shallots and generous truffle slices.
A must order, EPOCH’s Billionaire shepherd’s pie is a flavour-packed dish that’s composed of ground wagyu beef topped with whipped potato purée, crispy shallots and generous truffle slices.
Meanwhile, guests arriving mid-afternoon can look forward to afternoon tea service (2-4 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday), where the restaurant continues the British-inspired theme with a tiered tea stand featuring sweet and savoury items: warm, homemade scones served with lush homemade lemon cream, strawberry and rose petal jams, traditionalEnglish finger sandwiches layered with smoked salmon and crème fraiche, cucumber and herbs, and chopped eggs with sunchoke piccalilli and tarragon.
EPOCH’s British-inspired afternoon tea service is available from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday.
To slowly savour with the curated loose-leaf tea collection from Vancouver-based Tealeaves, the pastry team has assembled a trio of wellconstructed sweets that aren’t cloying and generous enough to satisfy. There’s a bright lemon pound cake that’s topped with a ripple of freshly squeezed lemon juice curd, a fruity caramelized apple tatin perched with a dome of mascarpone vanilla mousse and a caramelized hazelnut whisky cake that coats rich chocolate sponge with hazelnut studded ganache. It’s finished with whipped caramel ganache and a fresh raspberry.
Creative takes on classics like this Nitro Martini, as well as non-alcoholic cocktails, including the Moment of Zen, which are available.
Elevate your experience with a flute of Niagara’s own Cuvée Catharine Brut while settling yourself into the exceptionally comfortable lounge chairs.
When it comes to libations, EPOCH bar manager Jason William Griffin is a wealth of knowledge and experience. Serving
thoughtful, crafted cocktails that incorporate contemporary twists, the drink list is divided into chapters that range from playful spins on classics (think of a grown-up version of The Grasshopper using mint verbena infused gin, Fernet Branca and absinthe) to modern numbers like the Nitro Martini.
The eco- and health-conscious cocktails include Moment of Zen, a refreshing and clean non-alcoholic elixir that’s made with Seedlip Garden 108, matcha, pineapple, citrus and aquafaba. Meanwhile, The Unsaid Words is a current take on classic Las Word using Amontillado sherry, fermented pineapple, Chartreuse and kicked up with vadouvan spice. A creative compliment to Crump’s menu, the cocktail is a perfect finish to a satisfying night out.
EPOCH Bar & Kitchen Terrace
181 Wellington St. W.
416-585-2500
epochtoronto.com
