Anyone who has squeezed into Bar Raval knows the drill: elbows out, drink in hand, no chairs in sight. The team behind it has decided Toronto deserves a Spanish room where you can actually sit down, and it has just arrived on Palmerston Avenue.
Casa Rubia, at 293 Palmerston Ave. in Little Italy, takes over the space that used to be Martine’s Wine Bar. Grant van Gameren and Hailey Burke are partnered with chef Zach Smith, who recently returned to run the kitchen at Bar Raval. Their idea is simple. Keep the Iberian spirit, but swap standing-room snacking for white tablecloths, full service and big plates meant for sharing. Van Gameren is careful to point out that a tablecloth in Europe signals hospitality, not stuffiness.
The menu leans Basque and northern Spanish. Expect pan con rubia (the house take on pan con tomate), Iberian charcuterie and anchovies to start, then fideos with cockles, suckling pig, charred octopus, grilled prawns and the prized Rubia Gallega beef that gives the restaurant its name. A Galician strip loin arrives with blistered shishito peppers, and the showpiece is a giant custom-cut bone filled with marrow, topped with scallops and uni butter.
The bar program is just as considered. A Spanish-leaning martini uses manzanilla sherry and a touch of kelp, the espresso martini nods to the Spanish carajillo, and a section of the list is devoted to sobremesa, the lingering after-dinner ritual of vermouth, amari and whisky. Roughly fifty guests fit across the mezzanine dining room and downstairs bar, with a patio planned for summer.
If you have been craving a late, loud, candlelit dinner that does not feel rushed, this is the new reservation to chase.
Round up your friends, book a table at Casa Rubia this week and make it a long night. Tell us your favourite dish in the comments, and follow us for more of Toronto’s best new openings.