Pantry
I first discovered Pantry back in June when owners Greg Bolton and Liz Bolton-Dnieper were just putting the finishing touches on their new space. Located near Dovercourt, just west of Little Italy, Pantry is the sort of place that falls outside of traditionally defined categories and manages to somehow succeed as a sublime local cafe, a go-to lunch spot AND specialty grocer and caterer for a dinner at home.
Inside the look is defined by exposed brick walls, high ceilings, modern orange stools, a swish red leather sofa and shelves and displays stocking everything from fresh iced tea ($2.76), artisanal lemonade ($5.99), Dave's Gourmet pasta sauce and an assortment of mouth-watering, prepared foods.
Near the back a communal wooden table is a perfect spot to settle down with a cappuccino ($2.95) and a ginger cookie ($1.50 each) and take advantage of the free WiFi.
Owner Greg Bolton worked in kitchens in the 80's and never really lost his passion for food and wine. He's written for local food magazine City Bites and also does work with WineOnline.ca. But the real juice comes from his wife Liz, who has spent the last 6 years as event manager at Balzac's Cafe in the Distillery District, where she's helped to pull off hundreds of events with a variety of catering and event partners.
Greg, who I found out also happens to check out blogTO from time to time, recently responded to some of my questions about the store.
What is the concept behind Pantry?
Basically, we opened the store because we wanted to help people eat better every day. My wife Liz and I are in some ways our own target market. We're busy parents of two and we love great food, but can't always find the time to cook well or eat out. And a person can only order in so much pizza, sushi and Thai. So a big part of our plan was to create a wide selection of restaurant quality food - made with local and/or organic ingredients whenever possible - that you can take home.
We also have a grocery component to the store. This is designed to make it easier for people to create their own great meals at home. Gradually, more and more of that stuff will be made in-house. For example, we're starting to sell our house-made organic chicken and veggie stocks, which can be used as a base for something you'd whip up at home.
Pantry is such an inviting space for people to hang out on the couch, at the front window or the back table. Do most people tend to stay a while or take the food to go?
The majority of our customers take out, but we have limited seating because we wanted the place to be a bit of a neighbourhood hang. Often people will eat off the coffee table while sitting on our couch in front, or maybe out front, where we've got a few chairs set up. And a dog bowl for the pooches. It's casual.
On the weekends, we do brunch, but we don't advertise it too much because we don't want people disappointed that there's nowhere to sit! That said, we can do our brunch to go, so you could take it home and eat it in bed. Or take it to the park. When was the last time you ate brunch in the park? Hell, when was the first time?
What have been some of the most popular drinks and food so far?
On the drinks side, our coffee, from Balzac's, is very popular. We do three types of brewed coffee - a dark, a medium and a decaf - as well as lattes, espressos and americanos.
On the food side, we're always chasing the freshest produce, so the menu is tweaked virtually every day. Some of our most popular staples include sliced organic Ancho chili pork (a secret recipe of Chef Simon Sperling), a lovely wheatberry salad (brought to us by consulting chef Gary Hoyer) and a concoction known as Texas Caviar, which is basically guacamole with black-eyed peas, black beans, roasted corn, tomatoes and lots of garlic.
For the kids, we do a Mac 'n' Cheese muffin, which some adults are rumoured to enjoy as well. We also do amazing pastries in-house, courtesy of Asia Marrion. Brownies, brioche, fresh fruit tarts, all amazing.
When I was last there, the back kitchen seemed to be really buzzing. How much of the cooking is done for the store itself and how much is for catering?
All the activity you saw was just for the store. We cook all the food in-house, and it's quite labour-intensive. As we like to say, great food is a pain in the ass, and while most of our customers don't have time to make it, we do.
That said, the catering side of our business is growing fast. A lot of people simply want the stuff we make every day in larger quantities for dinner parties, baby showers, etc. We're also happy to do custom orders - the other day, one one of our regulars requested a quiche, which isn't normally on our menu. I brought out the chef, they talked ingredients, and we had a quiche ready for her the following day. It's just a quiche, but it made us feel good that we can be responsive to our customers. If you give us 24 hours' notice, we can do a lot.
As well, we offer full-service catering, for which we have a much larger menu that's customized for each event.
Anything else you'd like to share with us?
We've recently become a pick-up location for Kawartha Ecological Growers. Basically, you can order a share of their farm's yield online, they put it in a box and deliver it to us every week for you to pick up.
We're also going to be rolling out cooking classes, private dining and food and wine pairing workshops in the fall.
We have a twice-monthly newsletter that you can join at pantry.to.
Discussion
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Truly sublime. Greg is a friend and former colleague and the experience he and Liz have created is second to none. From the subtle aroma wafting from the kitchen to the selection of pastries, groceries and more that you see passing through Pantry, you won't find better gourmet to go. And though the idea is to save you time, you won't want to leave when you do get there.
The place is gorgeous, yes, but hopelessly overpriced for average-tasting prepared food. Today I had a chipotle chicken salad that was very mayonnaisy and full of gristle which put me back a whopping $6 for a small plastic container that wasn't even full. Same with the tomato salad, which was, well, just tomatoes; not even particularly ripe ones, and with nothing particularly to recommend them. If this place is going to fly in this neighbourhood the owners will need to rethink the extortionist Pusateri's prices.
Hey Jane,
Sorry about that. The chicken is organic. Mayo- same Rowe farm eggs. Tomatoes: from Kawartha, we have to pay the farmers a fair price to keep them going. Thanks for your input and come back and mention your name, I'll give you your $6 back, happily. Pusateri's can't comment on what they do, but our rent is high and our food costs being organic and local...what can I say. Really sorry you had a bad experience but if you want, there's a note on the front of the cash that says: Jane gets $6 back. Please come in, mention your problem, and the date of your complaint on blog.to and ask for one of the owners, We're happy to give you your money back. Guess we're all too used to those Mexican farmers, they don't charge all that much for tomatoes that we don't use. Metro, I hear they have a great chicken salad that's made with commercial chicken, now that's a bargain. It's January, and we're still here. Lower prices and better food. Thanks again for your feedback, wish you would have done it the day of and gotten the meal for free. Don't like anyone to feel ripped off. We're only trying to fill a small niche in the 'hood, not everyone likes everything.
This place is terrific - I'm in there all the time and I've had nothing but great experiences. I particularly love the carrot muffins with icing. I could eat a batch in one sitting!
K-Line - thanks for the nice comment - ask for Liz when you're in next and if I'm there, I'll sneak you a few spoons of icing...spread it on toast! Thanks and we're always making new things to add to the old. More protein veggie salads with wild rice and beans on the menu and easier take-out and stick in toater over things. As always, we like to hear what people want and as long as it does not involve us trucking in asparagus or strawberries in January, we're eager to try new ideas.
Thank you! And hey, I am serious about the icing..and broken cakes we can't sell, they're all yours K-Line!
Wow. I just googled Pantry because I wanted to check it our for lunch. But, from what I'm assuming is one of the owner's responses to "Jane", I've been totally turned off and now will NOT be going.
Here's why:
This owner took an inordinate amount of space to tell Jane she will get her 6 bucks back. Why say it 3 times!!! Yeah, we know, Jane will get her money back. Nice. She should if she feels ripped off and if the product she ate was sub-standard.
Second, why are you trying to justify your prices? I felt like you're talking down to us and like we're idiots for not knowing what prices for produce are these days. Ok, Ok, I know that YOU want to use Kawartha for tomatoes. It doesn't truly make a taste difference, just a price difference. I've tried them both. Sure it might be a bit juicier, but when it's mixed up in a sandwich, you can't really tell.
And third, wow, I've never quite seen the 'firing of a customer' just like this: you're basically telling 'Jane' and everyone like her to go to Metro instead if they don't want to pay your prices???
Thanks for that recommendation: I'm headed to Metro for that fabulous chicken salad that you highly suggest.
Come on Jackson, the comments from the people at Pantry are fair. Stores truly can't please everyone, but good for them for defending themselves. Customer comments like Jane's left unresponded to do a lot to harm a business. It is frustrating for small business owners to see careless comments like this on sites like these. If Jane had just gone into the store to address the issue, versus making it public it could have been dealt up on the spot. Small business owners don't have a chance to defend themselves in any other way when this is the forum selected for complaint.
Youre absolutely right JACKSON, the owner should not have justified his business in that manner. I would also like to point out that the fact they posted a sign that Jane gets $6 back was obviously meant to embarrass her and ensure that she would not return for her money. Just not the way this should have been handled.
Never, ever degrade a customer. Especially in a forum that is open to all of your other potential customers.
Frankly, I get the feeling that Jane was bang on in her review of the foods quality or lack thereof. As for the price, if the ingredients were actually local & organic it does not excuse the chef from having to make the food taste good.
I really wish I could have had a different view of Pantry, (I tried, honest) but after several negative experiences, I can only presume that Pantry indeed believes itself to be "better" than it actually is.
Perhaps they should be reminded that the ridiculous markup on their supplied goods has effectively priced them into a niche that their (even more inflated) prepared goods have never really managed to live up to in the first place.
It's curious how a business could be so out of touch with reality. Perhaps they are trust-fund babies, spending family money to support an impressive(looking) business that's built on a false sense of entitlement or something...Only thing i can say for sure, is that their notoriously self-righteous attitudes and poorly veiled condescension have assured that I (or anyone I know of) won't be back, until a better (more genuine) local business moves into that space.
how very 'toronto' of you all.