A pair of Toronto restaurateurs closed down their previous restaurant to make way for a new spot in Little Italy. It was a great choice.
Restaurateur Michael Sangregorio and Chef Fabio Bondi are no strangers to the Toronto food scene. In fact, they’re currently on their third restaurant as a duo after shuttering their previous venture, the Junction’s Lucia, to make way for their new project.
It’s called Sal’s Pasta and Chops, and it opened its doors in the heart of Little Italy this past July.
An unpretentious, comfortable spot lined with plush banquettes and framed black and white photos, it’s a welcome addition to the neighbourhood, and perhaps Sangregorio and Bondi’s best project yet. A healthy amount of its success can be attributed to the passion behind the project.
The sons of two Italian fathers — both named Sal, hence the restaurant’s name — Sangregorio and Bondi created Sal’s as a love letter to the Italian-Canadian cuisine they grew up with, and the people who prepared it for them.
You know what they say about food prepared with love always tasting better? That’s surely the case here. Sangregorio and Bondi’s passion for the concept is palpable; evident in each dish, down to the garnish and plate it’s served on. You can even find framed photos of both Sals on the walls at the restaurant if you look hard enough.
We started things off with the beef carpaccio ($16) — always a worthy place to begin any culinary journey.
At Sal’s, it’s served with anchovies, house-made croutons, pecorino crema and fried capers, but it still manages to maintain a light, mild flavour. Expect something warm, almost nutty, with a satisfying crunch from the croutons.
A staple on any Italian-North American menu, the fried artichokes ($14) are a salty, crispy delight. They’re on the menu as a side, and we’d certainly recommend ordering them to be shared with the table, or even as an appetizer, but be warned: the artichokes themselves are sizable.
Paired with a side of pepperoncini aioli, they’re undeniably addictive.
Pasta gets billed first in the restaurant’s name, so you can rest assured that the menu features a comprehensive suite of pasta dishes. Six, to be exact.
The pici ($19) is a charmingly simple take on aglio e olio, featuring thick noodles cooked perfectly al dente. It’s pleasantly spicy and leans a little towards the salty end of the spectrum, but shared with the table, it’s a great bite.
Chef Fabio’s favourite dish is the whole butterflied branzino ($34), and it’s easy to understand why. It comes slathered with a bright, herby gremolata that gives the whole dish a surprisingly fresh finish.
For anyone who gets the creeps eating skin-on fish, this is a perfect gateway. The skin is perfectly crispy and light-as-air. As fish skin supporters, we’d go as far as to say it could be the best part of the entire dish.
For meatier options, the “chops, cuts and fish” section of the menu also features droolworthy showstoppers like a 30-day, dry-aged, ribeye steak ($99), bone-in veal chop parm ($38) and Barese sausage ($32) featuring handmade sausages from Toronto’s own Ferdi’s Foods.
In addition to a comprehensive menu of house cocktails, like the Negroni sour ($16), which is a sweeter, more tart and utterly crushable take on the classic Negroni, Sal’s also offers a selection of Tawse wines on tap, alongside the usual beer suspects.
They’ve got an even broader selection of wines by the glass and bottle, too, if wine out of a keg isn’t really your thing. Rest assured, though, the administration method does nothing to negatively impact the taste.
All too often, dessert comes as an afterthought. Once you’ve already gotten your fill of, well, pasta and chops, it’s easy to discover that you couldn’t possibly get a bite of something sweet down.
If you take any piece of advice from us, let it be this: when you visit Sal’s, save room to finish off with their coconut cream pie ($14). It’s topped with a generous helping of airy whipped cream, but the filling, which, despite being full of coconut flavour, isn’t over-the-top, is just as fluffy.
The crust is just as buttery and flaky as you’d hope, but far from dense. Whether you consider yourself a dessert person or not, this is a must-order.
While shuttering one restaurant in favour of launching another one can’t have been an easy decision to make — particularly when Lucia was a local institution in its own right for the six years it was in business — Sal’s makes for a more than appropriate substitute.
Where Lucia was bright, trendy and ever-changing thanks to its seasonal menu, Sal’s feels like it could have been sitting on College Street for decades, just the sort of Italian institution that the neighbourhood will eat up.
So, if you ask us, the gamble was worth it. You can find Sal’s Pasta & Chops at 614 College St., Toronto.
Dining and Cooking