Grant van Gameren is shaving pecorino cheese on dishes and working the line, tattoos sticking out from his black T-shirt like a rock โnโ roll star superimposed in a kitchen. Heโs wearing a black baseball cap and apron, and while he pumps out crudites and fish, the restaurateur as responsible as anyone for elevated hipster dining in Toronto reveals a new flourish โ a grin.
โCOVID was hard for me, man. Laying off 400 staff, fighting with landlords, selling my house in Toronto. To be honest, coming back has taken years,โ says van Gameren, whose eleven revenue streams include luminary hot spots Bar Raval, Bar Isabel, Quetzal and El Rey, three Harryโs locations and an Airbnb on his vegetable farm in Prince Edward County.
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Alongside Jen Agg, van Gameren was responsible for launching the Black Hoof on Dundas Street in 2008, and his roller-coaster ride through commerce and cooking has produced some of the cityโs best bites, biggest fallouts and legendary nights on the town. You donโt need to watch The Bear to know the restaurant business is dicey โ big egos, huge overhead, tight margins, and thatโs during usual times. The pandemic was unusual times and though everyone was affected, few businesses dissolved overnight like restaurants, and Grant van Gameren owned or co-owned nearly a dozen of them (and a catering company too). Talented, irascible, famous, the 42-year-old dad says heโs opening Martineโs in the old Woodlot space on Palmerston because he believes dining in Toronto could use a course correction.
โIโm old. Iโve done this dozens of times, but food has become so complicated over the years โ this is is the opposite,โ says van Gameren, who opened Martineโs in the building he also rents for Bar Raval, has chef Luke Haines in charge of both kitchens and his partner, Hailey Burke, managing both rooms.
โLuke is chef de cuisine at Bar Raval and extremely talented, but I told him, โIf I give you an ingredient and it takes you more than three minutes to come up with a dish, you’re probably overthinking it,โ says van Gameren, who grows the vegetables for Martineโs at his home garden in Prince Edward County, sometimes going from ground to plate in a day. โFrom the Black Hoof to everything Iโve done, food is only one part of what weโre selling. The experience has to be awesome, and if we get accolades like a Best New Restaurantsโ list or a Michelin star, amazing โ but it ainโt paying our bills.โ
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Oyster mushrooms with razor clams and wild leeks is the Martineโs dish that has tongues wagging. And the after-party for Canadaโs Top 100 Restaurants, โreminded me of the Black Hoof days,โ says van Gameren. When chefs crowded into his tight new space, it was an affirmation that Torontoโs original cooking influencer still has support from inside the biz.
โItโs never been about the money. Itโs about: what do we want to do? We can make economical sense of it later,โ van Gameren says.
We sampled his branzino, tuna butter with turnip and radishes and skate wing in an amatriciana sauce that was tangy, crisp, simple and sweet.
โWhatโs important is that weโre doing food that we like and understand and can evolve frequently so people will come back and, because of it, keep us in business.โ
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Martineโs is located off College Street, and gives off cool in-the-know speakeasy vibes. (When we visited, the owners of Ardo occupied the adjoining bar stools.) With a kitchen occupying 30 per cent of the dining room, a small submerged bar opposite the wood-burning stove and an upstairs area seating 16 beneath a skylight, Martineโs is a tucked away Little Italy snack bar โ a place to add to the half block confection backstopped by DaiLo and Bar Raval.
โChefs have been raving recently about our oyster mushrooms with clams, and thatโs the beauty of cooking simply โ it tastes good and doesnโt have any pretension,โ van Gameren says. โItโs been awhile since Iโve been in the kitchen. My family misses me and I wonโt be in there forever, but I see myself doing more cooking over the next little while.โ
The other night, after a few glasses of sparkling Italian red, we perched at the bar, watching over the heads of diners โ many standing, just like at Bar Raval โ while van Gameren did his thing. Itโs been lots of long hard years since the Black Hoof helped transform dining in Toronto, and van Gameren has carried each win and loss like the tattoos covering his arms. Before leaving, I told the star chef to enjoy his journey.
โAbsolutely,โ he says, with a grin.
