GEOFF HOPGOOD: Big up to Halifax.
Big up Nova Scotia.
That's where she's from.
That's where I'm from.
JESSICA WALKER: I'd be drinking
Schooner if I could, babies.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Being from Nova Scotia, we try to have certain
dishes on the menu we are proud of that represent
different parts of the Maritime.
Our smoked mackerel and oatcakes--
the quintessential little snack.
Smoked fish, some pickled shallots, creme fraiche--
and the whole package together, you get like this
smoky, sweet, sour, salty sort of concoction.
We have these types of little menu items that we want to
represent the Maritime's way.
And at the same time, people can always come back to get
those dishes.
They're sort of the mainstay here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GEOFF HOPGOOD: My name is Geoff Hopgood, and I am the
chef and owner of Hopgood's Foodliner in Toronto.
The idea for Hopgood's Foodliner actually came about
when we were just sort of signing the lease and figuring
out what we wanted to do.
We started going through some old family artifacts, some
slides and whatnot.
And we decided to sort of resurrect an old family
business name that my grandparents and their parents
and stuff had for many, many years on the East Coast, which
was a grocery store called Hopgood's Foodliner.
Being from Nova Scotia, we really try to exude the best
of what hospitality means to Nova Scotia.
So if it's like being welcomed into your home, being welcomed
into our restaurant with happy, inviting servers, as
well as bringing the freshest seafood that we
can get into Toronto.
-So here we've got Cape Breton snow crab, some little neck
clams out of Rhode Island.
We've got some Malpeque oysters and Cascumpecs,
molasses bread, truffle mignonette, [INAUDIBLE],
horseradish, lemon, cocktail sauce, drawn butter, of
course-- the classic.
Enjoy.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: It takes a bit of time to source that stuff
out, but that's exactly what I love to do.
And I just recall some of my best meals growing up as a kid
being in the summer when we were closer to the ocean, you
know at a cottage or something, and getting amazing
scallops or haddock or lobster or digging for our own clams.
And so we just wanted to bring that here.
Octopus is almost ready.
We try and make the octopus look as crazy as it can with
all of these garlic scapes and pickled [INAUDIBLE] sausage.
All right.
Here at Hopgood's, we have sort of an eclectic mix of
dishes that range from high-end and what we like to
challenge ourselves with, to that are a bit more low-brow,
casual, and fun.
And one of those is the Halifax donair.
There we go.
We've got the dirty Halifax donairs coming up right now.
These are our donair meats, made with pork and beef.
Beautiful pitas--
fluffiest in Toronto.
It's all about the steam.
All right, donairs are done.
Steamy pitas.
The typical snack you'd have after a night of drinking on
the East Coast.
It helps to absorb all the liquor.
We sell quite a few of these.
All right, so we're going to finish these off with some
chopped onion, chopped tomato, and the sweet, garlicky, a
little bit tangy donair sauce.
So we serve it on a paper bag, just like it should be.
It was kind of a joke, actually, because Toronto was
going through a big taco craze.
And we thought it was kind of funny to have
the East Coast version.
It's not a taco by any means, but it's on a flat bread, it's
piled up with meat and a couple garnishes, and you
know-- an East Coast taco sort of thing.
Everybody that works here is key.
Thanks a lot.
Later.
What we went out with last night was staff that have been
here with me since the beginning, or
close to the beginning.
Everybody needs to get the proper food
to the proper tables.
Jessica does the expediting, which is a very demanding
station on a Friday, Saturday night.
Eric Bourque, bar manager here,
makes fantastic cocktails.
He has a big passion for craft beer.
And we have Ed Hanrahan, who is one of my managers.
He used to wash dishes for me at another restaurant
that I worked at.
So he's come a long way.
-Cheers.
-[INAUDIBLE], guys.
-Here we go.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: This neighborhood used to be a
Polish area.
And now it's kind of changing-- a bit more
food-oriented.
There's lots of beautiful houses and lovely families
around here.
And what we're trying to do here is bring fantastic food
and a great restaurant to this neighborhood.
Best thing about it--
very little police.
Very little police.
We are headed off to Chantecler.
We are going to see Johnny Poon and Jacob Shukster.
Johnny cooks great food, and Jacob has great taste in wine
and cocktails.
We're going to hit that place up, we're going to eat the
fuck out of that place.
ED HANRAHAN: Aw, yeah.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: That's what we're going to do right now,
cause we are hungry.
ED HANRAHAN: Oh, man.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: What did I eat for staff meal the other day?
I had, like, a little bit of a frittata.
ED HANRAHAN: I think I had one egg.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: I think-- yeah.
ED HANRAHAN: Yeah.
-Thanks for the ride.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: It was just bumping last night--
like you could not get a table.
But we were very fortunate.
-Johnny Poon.
Johnny Poon, everybody!
[INAUDIBLE].
JOHNNY POON: Oh, I'm just getting ready to start.
JESSICA WALKER: Should we get up?
Yeah, we're just going to get the food rolling.
It's chill.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: The food we ate at Chantecler last night was
phenomenal, first of all.
Johnny has a way of taking something very simple and
making it extraordinarily beautiful.
JOHNNY POON: So we're going to start them up with a bunch of
raw seafood raw meat.
Coville Bay oysters, you know, the best.
Sea [INAUDIBLE] ceviche, with a green apple salad, and a
beef tartare with peanuts and fish sauce, a side of shrimp
chips, and also the side of seaweed for
wrapping the beef tartare.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Johnny also has this fantastic Chinese
influence, which he brings to mingle with French techniques
or French-type dishes.
Typically, you'd put on a crostini or something like
that in a French restaurant, but wrapping it in the seaweed
was a great touch.
As well, we had this amazing sea brine crudo with apple
that was sliced to precision and looking gorgeous again.
That is so good.
JESSICA WALKER: Yeah, it's really delicious.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: It's like butter.
It's like fucking butter.
One of my favorite dishes was this sidestripe shrimp.
JOHNNY POON: So here we have steamed sidestripe shrimp with
a little bit of vermicelli dressed in a roasted garlic
oil, a little bit of scallion.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: He just like poached them simply, cut
them-- it looked like he used a laser or something, because
all of the eggs were still intact on both
sides of the shrimp.
See this?
-That's quality.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: For all y'all that like caviar and a little
bit of pop, he leaves the eggs in there for you.
Jacob Shukster and Johnny Poon-- great hospitality, very
warm and inviting.
Yeah, the food is awesome.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: The food was fucking delicious, dude.
JOHNNY POON: Thanks.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: That fucking sidestripe shrimp--
JOHNNY POON: Yeah, that shit is out of control, huh?
GEOFF HOPGOOD: That fucking shit is crazy, dude.
JOHNNY POON: Thanks, man.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: That shit is crazy.
JOHNNY POON: I mean that.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Let's go.
We're doing it.
Do it, do it.
[YELLING]
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Jess, you're in the back.
Come on, get in the back, man.
So right now we're headed up to the Junction.
We're going to a place called Whole in the Wall, which is a
young fellow Jack, and his brother Ben.
And they opened up this bar.
From what I know Jack is a phenomenal cook.
He actually worked at Joe Beef in Montreal.
Every time I go to this bar, I'm like, why don't I go to
this bar everyday?
That's what I think.
Each neighborhood needs great restaurants,
they need great bars.
They need to be able to stay within their neighborhood,
because as the city grows the less you want to travel
through it.
It's just the way it is.
I think the Junction has amazing potential to be one of
those next big neighborhoods in Toronto.
I mean, already you see a number of
restaurants opening there.
And from what I hear, they actually do very well.
-What's all this, baby?
-What the fuck?
-Um.
-Come on.
-Watermelon and ribs?
-Come on!
-Ribs?
-What?
Chicken wings?
-Chicken fried chicken?
[INAUDIBLE].
JACK WILKINSON: Chicken fried rabbit.
-Rabbit?
JACK WILKINSON: Took the skin off the chicken legs, wrapped
it around the rabbit, put the soup in it, set it, breaded
it, fried it, put like a honey orange mustard sauce over the
top, and an absinthe compressed watermelon salad.
[INAUDIBLE]
olive oil.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: [INAUDIBLE]
-I need a wet nap.
ED HANRAHAN: I'll tell you what, that shit is delicious.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: It's a great spot.
Definitely a reason to go check out the
Junction, as well.
See you in a little bit?
BEN WILKINSON: Yeah.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: All right.
We've go to go lobster luge, baby.
All right, let's go.
We're wrapping up.
Let's go.
ED HANRAHAN: That's what's gonna happen, cause what's up!
What the fuck?
GEOFF HOPGOOD: We are headed out of Whole in the Wall.
Do you know where we're headed right now?
Do you know what we have in store for you?
ED HANRAHAN: I heard some fucking random rumors, some
lobster luge.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: What's a lobster luge?
ED HANRAHAN: I don't know, man.
Maybe that shit just got invented, straight up.
ERIC BOURQUE: It's all downhill from here.
Downhill your throat.
ED HANRAHAN: Yeah, that's rough.
Rough, at best.
ERIC BOURQUE: Cause luges are like--
ED HANRAHAN: I know.
I know what you were going for, but--
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Where are we right now?
JESSICA WALKER: This is where we want to be.
GEOFF HOPGOOD: This is where we want to be, right now?
Here?
ED HANRAHAN: All right.
[KNOCKING]
ED HANRAHAN: What, what.
[CHEERING]
GEOFF HOPGOOD: We're in the back room here at Foodliner.
And this is our oyster shack.
We do private parties back here for people that want to
feast on seafood.
[INAUDIBLE]
Motherfucker is here.
Chantecler, best meal I've had.
Eat.
Some of the things you might find that are typical here
would be lobster and snow crab and oysters and clams.
Basically anything that the client would like, we would
try to source and supply here.
So if it's live scallops--
whatever it is.
That's the exciting thing about this room.
So for seafood lovers, it's fantastic.
There's a couple times that we've had parties back here,
but I think that this one actually took the cake.
Lots of seafood and lobster luges.
Lobster luge!
[CHEERING]
GEOFF HOPGOOD: Getting kind of messy, but all in good fun.
[CHANTING]
GEOFF HOPGOOD: I just want to say, right now, as a testament
to these people that have been with me from fucking thick and
thin, from fucking hard times and good times, restaurant
times, every fucking day times, do you know what I'm
talking about?
You people, you're the best.
And the friends that we have in
Toronto are fucking fantastic.
The food scene in Toronto is fucking going up and up.
And I'm just fucking happy that we're here.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]