The bowl that opens like a lily holds a draught of the earth, a bronze consommé garnished with parsnip puree and little chips of candied parsnip. This translucent distillation of roots is as hefty and satisfying a taste as a fine beef broth, the vegetables’ sweetness cut by a few floating brussel sprout leaves and a healthy addition of beer, seamlessly integrated as a supporting rather than dominating ingredient. This then is Cream Ale Consomme.
A great soup ($9). A terrific way to start the meal at L.A.B. or Live and Breathe which is nestled in the party animal strip of College West at Grace. L.A.B. may be the first restaurant owned by a blogger. Howard Dubrovsky of Food Cult is an ardent vegetarian chef determined to take veggies out of the wan aisles of the health food store, snatch them back from the dour “make ‘em eat grass” politicos, and make them go taste for taste with mighty meat, put them in other words spang in the heart of fine dining.
Dubrovsky and his co-owner, the chef Chris Scott, formerly of David Adjey Cuisine, along with The Design Group, have created a smart little boite from a storefront shoebox, a shaved brick wall girdled by white crown moulding on one side, on the other bright graffiti art. The thirty seats are anchored by the bar at the back framed by a line of big water bottles turned upside down and lit by, you guessed it, those sexy Edison double loops.
As for the food – well L.A.B. lives up to its other acronym. Larky, Adventuresome, Bold – add geeky, a nod to molecular cuisine and – wholly engaging.
Being a skeptical carnivore, I feel ennui when I survey a menu dotted with cute faux meat titles. Why can’t a carrot be free to be a carrot? So I order without much hope the root vegetable “Calamari” $8. Wow. I eat my words with delight. A pile of absolutely irresistible deep fried rings of celeriac and parsley root arrive with deep saffron coloured tartare sauce and a shower of micro cilantro.
My pleasure continues. I never knew a perogie that didn’t sink like a stone in my gullet, but Scott, who handles most of the cooking, has made wafer-light and squishy sweet potato perogies $17, garnished delectably with pickled watermelon, foxy grape sauce and fried sage. No-Rhyme Risotto $18 makes no sense until you eat it. Then, another canny mingling of flavours – the rice is delicate short grain, bright orange with sweet carrot, sprinkled with sparky cabernet sauvignon powder and decorated beguilingly with silver leaf.
Where’s the fish? I ask when served the vegetable ragout $18, a bouillabaisse broth fragrant with pernod and annatto oil but I forget its omission as I chow down on perfectly cooked fingerling potatoes, fennel, and carrots and a little cone of gritty crumbs, the dehydrated provencal spicy sauce, rouille.
L.A.B. is atleast 40 percent meat. Most notably an 8-oz striploin, $27, cooked sous-vide for eight hours. Why? I would love to be fluent in thermodynamics which are as foreign to me as a credit default swap on a double-A tranche of a subprime backed collateralized debt obligation. (Thank goodness no financier has taken to cooking). Anyway here goes. The steak slung on the barbie is grilled at max heat, hauled off when timed for desired doneness. Result, heavy charring, pink heart. Sous-vide is the reverse. The steak is grilled and seasoned,sealed in a plastic bag, cooked at low heat. Result: a tender steak that is pink throughout. I have to add that sous vide isn’t fool-proof. Several restaurants use it but not always to L.A.B.’s standard.
L.A.B. also does something bracing to that faux beef, bison as both a spicy tartare and fine shavings of carpaccio $10 sparked with pickled mustard seeds.
Desserts are Dubrovsky’s patch: doubtfully I order Compressed Fruit $8 and confounded, luxuriate in dense blocks of melon marinated in a plastic bag of vanilla syrup with the most amazingly intense melon jus poured over it. I’m so bowled over by Malaysian curry ice cream that I almost overlook the accompanying apple/cheddar turnover $9. A Mayan Brownie $9 is full of chili threads which burn like muscles during pilates, topped with micro fruit in hibiscus syrup.
Only problem. Now I love vegetables but – considering the growing discovery of plant allergies – I wonder if they love me.
*** L.A.B. Live and Breathe. 691 College 416-551-5025
No wheelchair access. Dinner for two, food plus tax: $110
