The Bay Street Bull
Vol. 5 - No. 6 - Winter 2009

David Lee's Hotly Anticipated New Eatery Makes Its Mark

BY JAMES GRAINGER

Chef David Lee’s long affiliation with Splendido, one of the city’s most venerated fine dining institutions, ensured that his new restaurant venture would automatically qualify as a must-visit destination for the food crowd. So when Nota Bene opened in the summer, the question around town was not why should anyone want to eat there but where, exactly, was the place? Was it in the theatre district, on the Queen Street West strip or crowded in among the Bay Street towers?

Nota Bene is hardly off the beaten track. Nestled at the base of the glass-and-steel annex of the Canada Life building and fronting Queen Street just west of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the new eatery from Lee and Splendido owner Yannick Bigourdan (and their silent partner, restaurateur Franco Prevedello) is ideally located to service the theatre, culture and finance crowds for lunch and dinner.

The view into Nota Bene’s street-level bar does not do justice to the surprisingly airy, spacious dining room behind, which seats about 200 while allowing plenty of elbow room for diners seated at the comfy benches that line the walls. The decor is minimalist—lots of beige and black—without feeling cold or impersonal, and the high ceilings ensure you never need to lean over your soup bowl to make yourself heard across the table.

The menu offers regional Canadian favourites such as Nova Scotia lobster, Digby scallops, Lake Huron pickerel, Cumbrae Farms beef, handcrafted local cheeses and plenty of pork, haute cuisine’s latest “it” meat. There are also plenty of dishes and seafood choices from around the world.

A duck prosciutto starter mixes thin slices of the delicate, fatty meat with sharp pecorino cheese, fresh arugula and balsamic vinegar, offering a preview of the menu’s distinct but expertly matched flavour combinations. The tandoori spiced barramundi is a tad dry, but the spicing and mango salad add a rich complement to the fish’s subtle taste, while the modestly named “Farm to Fork Charcuterie” plate showcases the kitchen’s delicious in-house cold meats and pickled vegetables, including a selection of flavourful sausages, beer-cured bacon and thick mustard.

The porkfest continues with a main of suckling pig and boudin noir tart. Diners should probably cut this impossibly rich riot of sweet baby pork, bacon, blood sausage, mushrooms and oozing taleggio cheese with a side of sautéed rotini with garlic and chili, pommes frites or a heaping of light-as-paper onion rings. The stilton brisket beef burger is another stomach-bursting treat and is simply one of the best (and reasonably priced) gourmet burgers in the city at this point in time.

The more health-conscious may want to settle into a seafood choice. A half-dozen wild Digby sea scallops are perfectly seared to maintain their rich flavour and moistness, and are not overpowered by a zippy, fruity salad of pineapple, chili, coriander and jicama, a Mexican root vegetable. The pickerel filet is also tender and juicy, and is wonderfully paired with a potato gnocchi livened with basil pesto and wild mushrooms.

The desserts are uniformly superb, from the lemon yogurt panna cotta with a compote of eye-opening sour cherries to the heavy, rich bread and butter pudding with a side of banana ice cream.

A special nod should be given to the friendly wait staff’s military precision and the extensive, impeccable wine menu. Such attention to detail, coupled with Nota Bene’s uniformly lively and fresh menu offerings, should ensure Lee and Bigourdan’s high ranking in the city’s pantheon of culinary heavyweights.