The windshield wipers of our car are attempting to slap away the pouring rain that’s turned this part of Corso Italia into a place full of gravel and muck, as we make our way towards the Regal Heights Bistro on St. Clair, just east of Dufferin. The streetcar track/road improvement project on St. Clair Avenue West is still not finished, limiting the traffic to one lane. However, the traffic is easy in this bad weather, and we can to park our car just across the street from the bistro. Jogging along the cracked pavement and among the orange cones in this no-man’s-land, I look at the building where I the Regal Heights Bistro is supposed to be placed. “There’s no sign, there used to be a big sign,” I faintly observe, ” and it looks like a pub inside. I hope this is still the right place.” But my partner says: “Yep – Regal Heights Bistro,” pointing at the front window, displaying a little hand-lettered sign and also the trademark Jazz Brunch sign.
As soon as we cross the threshold, a hostess is already waiting to seat us and presenting a selection of a table. It is quarter past eight and only about a third of the tables is full, most patrons sitting near the bar. “This is your first time here? Our sign blew down, and when we put it on a chalkboard, the rain washes it away.” “Tonight you are in for a treat, we have a birthday party and a jazz band, it will be fun!” So now we are certain we are indeed in the right place, although when I look around us, I can see more of a pub than an upscale bistro interior, with the smell of French fries in the air. The menu is right next in our focus, however my partner expresses his disappointment with the two-sided business we received.
“They’ve sure changed their menu,” he observes sadly. Maybe since he is an elitist jazz musician himself, he just doesn’t like the idea of a live band playing here tonight. I re-read the restaurant name written at the top of the menu just to make a hundred percent sure we are in the right place. I tried to look up the bistro’s website but I couldn’t find any, and the only online information available was a few bare-bones positive reviews. But I found some posted menus with dishes like caprese salad, provencale escargots, chicken liver pate, smoked salmon crepes and black squid ink linguine. But no homemade black squid ink linguine is getting out of this kitchen, and I of course don’t need a menu to tell me that. The actual offerings consist of typical pub food, maybe gussied up a bit by unusual flavours and toppings, but pub food nevertheless.
Our hostess comes back to take our order so that I can ask – what happened? The actual menu is very different from what we found online. Different owner? “Oh no, it’s still the same ownership,” she replies reassuringly. “The website hasn’t been updated in a long time. Our menu hasn’t altered for the last couple of years, just our chefs have been changing a lot. But we always focus on fresh food: we shop daily, we cut the meat ourselves, we make our own burgers, we don’t use any microwaves… we just want the general atmosphere to be more easy.” Although the restaurant is indeed casual, right down to the paper napkins, wall signage from around the globe points to a more sophisticated gastronomy.
Our hostess smiles: “We shrink from that gastro-pub term,” and puts us at her ease with a charming, pleasant manner.
Want to read the rest of the story? Here you can find the whole Regal Heights Bistro write-up.
