Coming Soon: Lil’ Baci Taverna, a new outpost of a popular east-end restaurant

Toronto’s midtown received some healthy culinary injections in the last year with the likes of Cuisine of India, an institution that relocated from North York, and the critically acclaimed Falasca SPQR. Now, Leslieville’s popular Lil’ Baci has chosen the neighbourhood for its second outpost.      

When Mark Bacci and his team opened the first Lil’ Baci in 2007, there were a couple of setbacks. Size and budget concerns meant that the cozy Italian haunt would never have a proper kitchen aside from a pizza oven and two induction burners. But Bacci’s ambitions are sky-high for Lil’ Baci Taverna, which is set to open up near Yonge and Davisville this spring.

“This is going to be the place that we’ve always wanted to do,” he says.

That means a restaurant where everything is made in-house, including bread; where whole animals are butchered on site and where the expansive Italian menu will feature 35-plus items of sharing plates.

Bacci and his executive chef, Larry Santos  (who recently stepped on as a partner) have been hard at work on the menu, which is divided into around 10 sections: pickled, cured, formaggio, insalata, crostino, pasta and polenta, meat and poultry, pizza and the like. The idea is to create a custom-built, mix-and-match experience.

One could pair an order of pan-roasted chicken breast, say, with a manageable portion of pappardelle pasta complete with rabbit ragu, savoy cabbage and mascarpone cheese. Not enough? Add a plate of slow-cooked white beans with a poached duck egg and bottarga. Most items will cost between $6-$12.

Come October, owners are planning to convert the upstairs space into a crudo bar, featuring a selection of local, sustainable seafood. Bacci says other projects are on the horizon, too: an Italian sandwich shop and specialty store for 2013, and then the mother lode, a “working man’s steak house” for 2014.

In the meantime, Lil’ Baci Taverna is gunning for an April opening.       

Lil’ Baci Taverna, 2013 Yonge St. 

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