CAPLANSKYS (356 College, at Brunswick, 416-500-3852) Complete dinners for $30 per person (lunches/breakfasts $20), including all taxes, tip and a pint of Ontario microbrew. Average main $12/$9. Open Sunday and Monday 10 am to 10 pm, Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 11 pm. Closed Sunday (September 27) at 4 pm and all day Monday (September 28). Licensed. Access: one step at door, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
Zane Caplansky is one lucky guy. His hotly anticipated eponymous deli at the top of Kensington Market hasn’t been open two hours and already there’s a line out the door.
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That was the scene last year, too, when the first-time restaurateur set up shop in the kitchen of the Monarch Tavern. It was so busy that he couldn’t keep up with demand and had to temporarily shut down after his first weekend. This time out, Caplansky’s slightly better prepared.
Located just west of Spadina, its spiritual home, the new 70-seat room’s been stripped back to its bare brick walls and original terrazzo floor, a wall of windows opening to an awning-covered terrace. The menu’s expanded from the Monarch days, and now features a full breakfast and dinner lineup as well as the artisanal smoked meat that made the joint famous in the first place.
The number of servers has also increased. There must be at least a dozen of them buzzing about, Caplansky a blur in the midst of them in an ill-fitting plaid shirt and ratty jeans. They’re an exceptionally polite bunch to boot, but, then, they have to be, since the kitchen screws up nearly every order.
House-smoked meat sandwiches ($7 small/$10 with soup, fries or salad/$13 large) are just as terrific as they were, smoky and beautifully marbled, closer to Southern barbecue than St. Laurent, even if they still come on Silverstein’s cardboard rye, but of course, so did Shopsy’s and the Bagel’s back in the day. And there are now three variations – fatty, medium and lean, though the latter’s a little dry, as our server warned us, as is the smoked turkey ($8/$10/$14).
Keeping things in the family, the house’s classic chopped liver ($7/$10/ $4 starter) comes from a recipe perfected by Caplansky’s mom, former Ontario health minister and federal immigration minister Elinor Caplan. Mustard variations range from plain ol’ ballpark (nee Heinz) to a spicier version and a house-made grainy variety that lacks the kick of Kozlick’s.
Thick with chunks of fatty house-smoked bacon and sweet cabbage ‘n’ onion, borscht borders on Chinatown hot ‘n’ sour soup, its chunky tomato broth kicked with vinegar. Matzoh balls in clear chicken broth (both $4) are comfort food to the max. Yukon Gold fries ($4) work better by themselves then smothered in squeak-free cheese curds and way-too-salty smoked meat gravy as poutine.
Matzoh-stuffed kishke (both $6) may as well be sawdust sausage, so bland is their payload, though here the meat gravy provides some needed flavour. Sadly, that same gravy virtually obliterates the subtlety of potato ‘n’ cabbage knishes in buttery phyllo pastry. Compared to those served at nearby Bella’s, Caplansky’s latkes ($4) are mere mashed potato pancakes.
Back week two for dinner, we start with a round of Verner’s ginger ale ($2) and a plate of delicately pickled herring ($5) – think Jewish sushi. Pan-fried beef liver ($9) arrives with onions caramelized in chicken fat. Sinewy slow-cooked brisket ($12) in a simple tomato braise comes sided, like the liver, with steamed broccoli and correctly lumpy mashed spuds. Unlike the headless free-range chickens of week one, the servers are quick and the kitchen finally under control.
Throw a few 8-by-10 glossies of celebrity regulars on the wall – mine’s in the mail – and Caplansky’s has the makings of the next Switzer’s.
stevend@nowtoronto.com
