
Think of them as culinary speakeasies - these secret, underground, anti-restaurants that have become so popular in New York, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney and, more recently, in Toronto. They usually have no fixed locations and open up only for dinners and on random dates. Seats are limited (rarely more than 15), so reservations - which can only be made online - are essential. The menu is always changing and never disclosed until the dinner itself - just like the chef who usually remains anonymous or is different each time.
They probably started as a reaction to high rentals and costs of operating a restaurant, but I prefer to think of these underground restaurants as a put-down of celebrity chefs and their over-priced, over-hyped establishments, a movement certainly worthy of our applause and support.
The irony is that this underground movement doesn’t seem to be swinging the trend the opposite way. In fact, many underground restaurants bring exclusivity to the extreme, even upping the ante for bragging rights. It's unlikely then that they will democratize fine dining.
At Toronto’s Charlie’s Burgers, for example, it’s not enough that you can afford its $110 meal ticket (so called “cash donation” which varies from dinner to dinner). You need to be “accepted” as a guest, a process that involves applying on-line, answering a questionnaire (obviously to measure one’s foodie quotient), hoping to be put on the waitlist (seats are snapped up within minutes after a dinner announcement is posted) and, after much patience and anxiety, receiving an email that details the directions to the venue but divulges nothing much in terms of the menu.
During my visit to Toronto last summer, Poch filled up the questionnaire for me and managed to squeeze me into Charlie’s guest list, but I had to leave for Manila before the scheduled dinner.
This trip, though, we were fortunate to get ourselves a couple of seats in 6º, another popular Toronto-based underground restaurant.
Unlike Charlie’s Burgers where the chefs and venues are different each time, the 6º dining series is created by one chef, Karen Viva-Haynes of Viva Tastings. It’s held in one location, literally underground, in a kitchen built in the basement of her house on Henry Street and which she uses for her corporate catering and cooking classes.
Where Charlie’s parties run up to 20-30 people, Haynes’ dining events are more intimate and less formal, with no more than 14 guests seated around the stainless-steel worktable in the middle of the kitchen.
The restaurant name 6º is for 6º of separation. So what was the “connection” that got us in? Haynes said she noted the email address that Poch used in her application. It was from MacLaren, the ad agency where her daughter used to work.
I like that it was a less intricate – and less pretentious – way of getting a dinner invite. Also, I love that we could watch Haynes and her sous chef at work - preparing, cooking, plating and explaining the dishes to us as they are served. The price tag for the dinner was also more modest ($85pp) and it’s BYOB.
Like Charlie’s Burgers, Karen Viva-Haynes wouldn’t disclose her multi-course tasting menu until the dinner itself. At most, she would name a few ingredients, a concession to help guests decide on the wine to bring. For our dinner last Sunday, she mentioned Ontario venison, fingerling potatoes, apples, horse radish, organic greens and shrimp. She advised that a blended wine – red or white - would work well, as the dishes would be heavier to fit with the season.
Poch and I deliberated between the pinot noir I had bought in a previous trip to Burgundy and a Barolo which she had been reserving for “the right occasion”. So Barolo it was, an Italian favorite that always paired very well with stews and game like venison and wild boar.
Our dinner turned out to be excellent, from start to finish. Presentation-wise, it was simple, almost austere. But the flavors, rich and deep, more than made up for the lack of flourish.
We were welcomed with a hot apple cider drink with cranberries and appetizers of cognac-and-mushroom terrine and beet salad with goat cheese aioli in fried wanton cones. Dessert was a comforting, pub-style pudding. Interestingly, the salad of honey crisp apple and greens was served after, not before the heavy courses - French style. It was a 7-course dinner that included a white bean velouté with candied pancetta, sauteéd mushroom with truffles shavings, prawns wrapped in crisp potato strings and the venison pot pie. The amuse bouche was memorable, too: smoked eggs with cayenne-laced stuffing.
When Poch and I emerged from the basement kitchen, it felt like we had just emerged from an underground amusement park; the cold air outside heightened our sense of exhilaration - as if down there, we handed the joystick to the chef and just held on tight for the ride.
True, it is the vibe of exclusivity and secrecy that attracts a hungry audience to underground restaurants like Charlie's Burgers and 6º. But I think what will keep the buzz going is that audience experience I have so futilely described. These culinary speakeasies get it and are putting the right things together that will provoke and delight the jaded palate. No, not ambience, nor service, not even a 3-star Michelin rating. Instead, these: suspense, surprise, surrender.
Let's admit it. Aren't these what we truly, deeply want and seek out, in bed as at the dining table?
