L.A.B. (651 College, at Grace, 416-551-5025, labrestaurant.com) Complete brunches for $25 per person, including tax, tip and a pomegranate mocktail. Average main $12. Open Tuesday to Saturday 6 to 10:30 pm. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 11:30 am to 3:30 pm. Closed Mondays. Licensed. Access: two steps at door, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNNN
Don’t come to Howard Dubrovsky’s L.A.B. Saturday and Sunday mornings expecting molecular brunch.
“I’m trying to keep things a little simpler than dinner,” says the ebulliently bow-tied Dubrovsky.
So it’s goodbye, molten chocolate bunny cake – shredded rabbit croquettes with explosive centres à la flourless chocolate cake ($26) – and hello, Green Eggs And Ham ($10). Or rather, perfectly scrambled free-range eggs finished with puréed arugula and a tangle of shoots over Australian English muffins from Cobbs bakery in Kensington, sided with a stack of fried-baloney-style pancetta.
Dubrovsky cures local lake trout into gravlax, the translucent pink flesh plated over a barely there salad of watercress and shaved fennel in a lemon vinaigrette, a dollop of basil crème fraîche and rye crostini on the side ($12). A pair of eggs from a hormone-free duck named Delores come deliciously poached in red wine over crisp Yukon Gold rosti and regional kale sautéed in Ontario garlic, an unusually nutty Béarnaise and a garnish of roasted cherry tomato infused with hickory smoke chef’s only nod to molecular gastronomy.
Well, that and a bill that shows up in a test tube.
“Just because we’re trying to be more accessible doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”