416 SNACK BAR 181 Bathurst, at Queen W, 416-364-9320, 416snackbar.wordpress.com.
Adrian Ravinsky and David Stewart’s laid-back snackateria has one of the most inventive finger-food card’s around, a stellar lineup of cutting-edge canapées like baby Reuben sandwiches piled with house-smoked brisket ($7) and Scotch eggs wrapped in house-made sausage ($5).
But as much as we love his charcuterie ($9), we’ll take chef Rory McGouran’s ever-changing vegetarian smorgasbord ($8) every time. This steal of a meal deal arrives at table on a ragged sheet of quarry slate and comes groaning with grilled eggplant roulade in curried walnut purée and tiny tarts brimming with roasted corn salad.
And who doesn’t love beets, especially when they’re either pickled in a salad alongside almonds and grapes in a sherry vinaigrette or fashioned into red ravioli stuffed with roasted golden beets and finished with a creamy beet reduction?
Nightly 5 pm to 2 am. Licensed. Access: one step at door, washrooms on same floor.
