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Food Food & Drink

L’Ouvrier packs ’em in

L’OUVRIER (791 Dundas West, at Palmerston, 416-901-9581, louvrier.ca) Complete dinners for $55 (brunches $25), including tax, tip and a glass of wine. Average main $21/$12. Open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday from 6 pm. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 3 pm. Closed Monday, some holidays. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN


If you’re planning on making a splash at L’Ouvrier, don’t show up wearing white.

If you do, you’ll virtually fade into the woodwork sitting on a white chair at a white table in a white room. Funny thing is, as bleak and austere as the former speakeasy feels by day, the 44-seat storefront positively glows after dark, cast in a warm yellow light from several rows of low-watt floods overhead.

And don’t show up without a reservation. Open mere weeks, L’Ouvrier is already the hottest thing to hit the hip Dundas West strip since the early days of the Hoof. We’re lucky to snag the last four-top this early Tuesday eve.

A round of grapefruit-garnished Aperol and Prosecco spritzers ($9) down, we’re soon tucking into former Crush chef Angus Bennett’s rustic chicken liver pâté à la campagne dressed with pickled celery, coupled with smoked ham hock croquettes and house-made piccalilli ($12). We pass on the mandatory beet ‘n’ goat cheese salad and choose a tangle of peppery organic arugula in honeyed vinaigrette tossed with slivered radish, shaved Parmigiano and toasted pecans (both $9). Smart move.

Perfectly crisp of skin, moist of flesh and free of grease, a confit thigh and leg of King Cole duck ($24) comes sided with baked pastry-like gnocchi and wild honey mushrooms in a marvellously rich roasted garlic cream sauce. Slow-braised in red wine, shredded lamb shank finds its way into large house-made ravioli ($21) finished with buttery cauliflower purée and lemon zest.

Mistakenly described elsewhere as heart-shaped, butternut squash love letters ($18) turn out to be rectangular pasta envelopes stuffed with silkily puréed veg finished with lemony cream and roasted pumpkin seeds. Too bad the monochromatic colour scheme – white sauce on white noodles on a white plate on a white table in a white room – makes the tasty dish almost disappear.

A double dessert of flourless chocolate fudge cake and candied lemon cheese cake (both $7) vanishes just as quickly but for a different reason: they’re damned delish!

Back for brunch, we begin with Bennett’s sugar-coated scones spread with house-made mango jam and crème fraîche ($6) – shame there’s two of them and three of us – and strong Café Brasiliano Americanos ($3). Chilled tap water arrives at table in a recycled bourbon bottle.

We split a salad of translucent English cuke and fennel strewn with red pomegranate seeds and crumbled Greek feta before moving on to potato rosti finished with smoked salmon, fried shallots and capers ($13). BLTs built on Ace Bakery sourdough get tiered with meaty house-smoked bacon and tomato ($12), while 5-ounce grilled-to-order Wellington County burgers come dressed with aged cheddar and more smoky bacon ($16, both with enough fab fries to share). Stingy County General, take note.

Sure, not everything’s up to speed just yet. Servers are still finding their feet and latter-day Madonna doesn’t make ideal dinner music – minor quibbles all. But if full houses nearly every night are any proof, L’Ouvrier is well on it way to being more than a blank canvas.

stevend@nowtoronto.com

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