Yorkville’s Dimmi

Unpretentious Quality

If you’ve visited Yorkville even once, chances are you’ve encountered the iconic Dimmi ‘Bar and Trattoria’. Even if you only managed to brush by one of its two patios – one on the peaceful laneway between Yorkville Avenue and Cumberland Street, and another right at 140 Cumberland where Dimmi has claimed its prominent position under the ownership of Raymond Commisso and Leslie Chan for more than 13 years – you’ll remember Dimmi.

A great place for a casual lunch or dinner, or a glass of wine and an appetizer in the middle of a summer afternoon, Dimmi has been serving gourmet pizzas, authentic Italian pasta, and other crowd-pleasers concocted by “Frank the Chef” for over a decade. Unusually, Dimmi has had the same chef (Frank) since Raymond and Leslie took over this Yorkville destination. They must have a magic secret, because they also keep their other staff happy and busy over the years, consistently serving the regulars and the casual passers-by.

Which is good, of course, for the many who come back time and again to experience good service and good food in a fun atmosphere. Top sellers, apart from the pizza and pastas, are the daily meat and fish specials and the freshly-made custom orders of risotto, stirred lovingly for all the time it takes to stir up a good risotto.

You’ll be comfortable here, whatever time of day you visit, and in which ever season. It’s just that the patios are closed between November and April. When you do, you may find yourself rubbing shoulders with celebs – especially during TIFF – and with athletes like some of the Raptors and Maple Leafs teams, as well as regular mortals like you and me.

Inside, the restaurant seats 80 people in a fun atmosphere during the winter months, adding 60 more seats when the patios open. The food is reliably good, and the servers are warm and attentive without being obtrusive. We like it!

ONE – at Hazelton Hotel

You get what you pay for

Mmm, brunch at ONE. A Sunday girls-who-brunch outing to Yorkville, which just seems to get prettier – though we’ll all be rejoicing when the nearby Bloor Street streetscape is finished.

The patio at ONE is truly lovely, a place to see and been seen if that excites you. What better way to see who is wearing what as they stroll past you on Yorkville Avenue. However, we opted to eat in inside ONE, an almost cavernous part of the Hazelton Hotel.

The room is beautifully appointed, the decor is chic contemporary, and the service was initially warm and attentive, even if it slowed down a little as more diners begin to fill the space. In our case, we found out we were in the middle of a shift change, so we lost our first server and hadn’t bonded as quickly with the stand-in. Three of us weren’t in any hurry, so we sipped our way through one (OK more than one) champagne cocktail (Henriot bubbles, $35) about which we’d had a lengthy and enlightening discussion with our personable server.

Look, it’s not cheap. Nor, on the other hand, are the dishes out of line with Yorkville prices – $17 eggs benny, $14 omelettes, and so on. But, oh, the quality! You really do get what you pay for here. Fabulous eggs benedict on a light brioche with artisan ham and velvety hollandaise – just the right amount; fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes topped with squished berries and a modicum of (real, what else?) maple syrup; and a delectable egg white omelette with gruyere, scallions and mushrooms. Everything is perfectly proportioned and impeccably presented. The home fries are delicate coins of perfection rather than greasy clumps of starch. The coffee is fabulous, the teas delicately aromatic.

We loved it. We didn’t like the noise level that mounted as we progressed through our feast, brought on by the droves of people that also want to get a taste of excellence. This is a spacious place with high ceilings and little soft furnishings to absorb some of the noise. But, in our opinion, it was a better option than sitting on the patio overlooking the crawling traffic and the crowds of people walking by. Patios are great places to spend 30 minutes, but this was serious, leisurely, girly brunching.

Great place, great food, great staff, thankfully devoid of Yorkville ‘posers’, and an impressive standby for special occasion dining in Yorkville.