MICHAEL WEBSTER: In one month we've gone through what I
think, like, most restaurants might go through in a year.
Within like three week-- we haven't even been
open a month yet.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: We just started accepting credit
cards, now that all our technology is working.
But today we didn't accept credit cards.
So cash money is king.
I love it.
Everything went down.
Fuck.
Cash money.
It meant that I had money to pay for the staff.
GUY RAWLINGS: The first day was fucked up.
That was a good, like, 18 hour day.
And it's like an hour before we're opening, and I'm in the
fuckin' washroom, like, wiping off dust and fuckin' smeared,
like, grout and shit.
Renovations?
You thought that was hard?
Fuck you.
That's open.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: My name's Grant Van Gameren.
I am the owner of Bar Isabel.
A lot of people think this is a Spanish restaurant.
It's not a Spanish restaurant by any means.
It's definitely inspired by the convivial way of eating
and drinking in Spain.
The way I describe it is, you know, this sassy, sexy, older,
slightly chubby Spanish woman, with a little gypsy in her.
Uh, he's making a sea bream ceviche here.
As a chef I just had to say, you know what?
You don't have to be doing something incredibly
innovative and different, and you don't have to prove
yourself on each individual plate.
For me, it was about the progression
of the entire meal.
Is this our blood sausage?
Little bit of confit shallots.
Rather than try to impress each person with each plate,
impress them with an array of dishes, right?
Sort of really kind of have that restraint in food, and
just do a whole grilled octopus, you know?
It's not fuckin' seaweed, it's not fuckin' glued together.
You're not trying to serve a square piece of it.
It was really keeping things natural, just very simple,
well-executed food.
Let's have some roasted crab legs, with lots of ginger,
garlic, smoked paprika.
Got claws, crabs.
Gets real messy at the table, though.
We use the water from all the crab when it defrosts.
It gets frozen on the boat, so we use that
to do all out liquid.
The goal is to baste in all the cracks.
Gets messy even plating it.
I actually never even wanted to be a chef, to
be honest with you.
I don't have any kind of culinary history where my
grandmother used to cook food for me.
My first job was really kind of at Pizza Pizza, slinging
out pizzas for a couple years there.
Becoming a chef really became a necessity, because I was in
my early twenties, all my friends were graduating with
degrees from university, and here I was.
And I had nothing.
And all I had been doing was cooking in shitty restaurants.
So I made a choice at that time to really take it
seriously and put my all into it, and then that's when I
first started my decent jobs at Canoe, and this and that.
I've always been a pretty independent person.
I'd always want to do things differently than the chef
would be doing it, so I just really had to open up my own
restaurant.
It's delicious.
So juicy.
A lot of the food I cook now is just
stuff I've taught myself.
I never went to culinary school.
I don't play that whole executive chef kind of status.
I like to cook.
I like to be involved in my kitchen.
I like to have fun.
My main priority is to make sure that things are
consistent and tasty.
And people seem to receive it pretty well.
Bar Isabel was just about bringing good people on board.
This is Guy Rawlings, the ginger kick.
Are you hungover?
You got the Gatorade?
GUY RAWLINGS: Very nice.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: You know, it's really nice to have a
chef run the front of the house.
Right?
It gives it a complete, different dynamic.
The way he talks to staff, the way he deals with situations.
He has that kitchen brigade mentality, right?
GUY RAWLINGS: Let's do some cocktails.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: Yeah.
Do you know what those guys want down there?
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Michael Webster.
I went to his apartment once and it was, like, literally,
there were probably $20,000, $30,000 worth of alcohol.
He opened his fridge, there was absolutely no food.
But there were like 50 types of bitters,
and just simple syrups.
At that moment I knew, OK, I gotta hire this guy.
GUY RAWLINGS: Watch out behind you.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: Champions.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Chef's hungry.
Chef's thirsty.
It's good times with Guy and Mike, always.
Since we've opened we haven't had a night where we've
actually been able to go out.
I can generally be a control freak when it comes to food,
the setup, the chairs, the cleanliness, whatever's going
on in the room.
So it was nice to finally make that step and be like, yeah,
it can function without you.
We're on empty stomachs right now, so it's gonna get real,
real messy tonight.
We've been going hard seven days,
until 2:00 in the morning.
And then we get out at 5:00 in the morning.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: I get out at 5:00 in the morning.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Third week's better.
We're getting out at 3:30.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: He gets out in time for McDonald's.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: That's right.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: I get out in time for an empty apartment
and a box of tissues alone.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: That's right.
So last night we started our evening off
at Bellwoods Brewery.
Their beer is fucking amazing.
We met with Luke, one of the owners.
LUKE PESTL: My name's Luke Pestl.
I'm one of the owners here, and one of the brewmasters,
along with Mike Clark.
And this is our little kingdom of brewing.
GUY RAWLINGS: It's funny to sit here with Luke where,
like, what?
Like a year and a half ago, two years ago, it's him just
having a burger, and he's like--
I wanna open a brewery.
I'm thinking, like, near Bellwoods.
Then to see all the stages--
we got a space.
It's a fuckin' art gallery, it has nothing.
I'm like, y'all are fuckin' crazy.
And then within a month you open and, what?
You got the gold medal for the, Hellwoods?
LUKE PESTL: Baltic Porter.
GUY RAWLINGS: Baltic Porter.
And then within 10 months, fuckin' top-- what was that?
Third best brewery in the world?
LUKE PESTL: Best third brewery in the world.
Yeah.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: From a burger a year and a half ago and an
idea, to third-best new brewery in the world.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: It's too bad you didn't become a
partner in this.
GUY RAWLINGS: He tried.
He tried!
He tried so hard.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: You're fuckin' stupid.
GUY RAWLINGS: You don't--
I can't make any decisions.
The only decision I can make is I'm gonna wear the same
clothes as I did yesterday.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: Well, cheers to your successes.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Happy one year anniversary.
LUKE PESTL: Thank you.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: It's pretty amazing to see what they've
done in just one year.
It's exciting to kind of think where they're
gonna be in five years.
GUY RAWLINGS: After you, chef.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I'm drunk already.
GUY RAWLINGS: Oh boy.
I can't even fit in this motherfucker.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I used to be a rapper.
GUY RAWLINGS: Mr. Tooks.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I also used to be a reptile breeder.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: A hip-hop artist.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Before being a cook.
I like animals that are misunderstood.
Well, I used to breed--
GUY RAWLINGS: What was the breed?
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Blood pythons.
I'd go to clean their water bowl and I'd smell mice,
because I used to breed rats in the closet.
And that's another reason why I didn't get--
have a girlfriend for too long.
One day I reached in, smelling like mice, and this fuckin'
snake almost bit my face off.
Oh boy, oh boy.
Time to get some food.
And we went to 416 Snack Bar.
Fuckin' crazy place.
Busier than ever.
I have lots of love for what Adrian, Dave, and those guys
do over there.
Like us, they are open seven days a week.
They do food 'til 2:00 in the morning.
ADRIAN RAVINSKY: My name is Adrian Ravinsky.
I'm the proprietor and barman at 416 Snack Bar.
Late-night food in Toronto, until recently, was lacking
pretty considerably.
My business partner and myself, we worked in
restaurants all over town for the better part of a decade.
And more or less we decided at one point, like, there's just
fuckin' nothing good to eat past 11 o'clock in this city.
So we opened this place specifically for people in--
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: The industry,
who are fuckin' hungry.
Late-night.
Want good music, want fuckin' tasty, salty
food, and good booze.
That's why we're here.
ADRIAN RAVINSKY: That's why we're here.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: The food was fuckin'
phenomenal last night.
Those guys in the kitchen, they're working in small
quarters, they're working on the bar tops.
They got little lamps for their stations so they can see
what's going on.
It takes special people who can pull that off
day in and day out.
I think we had some crispy deep-fried Chinatown chicken,
or something?
I think it was all cornstarch.
It was so fuckin' crispy.
And these crazy spicy sushi rolls.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: Good music, tasty food, horny people.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Are you horny right now?
MICHAEL WEBSTER: I'm always horny.
GUY RAWLINGS: I feel concerned for our customers.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: That was two much.
We're doing some shots of bourbon
and fernet, or something.
And I think that's where kind of-- you know.
I started to get a little bit drunk.
I don't drink that often, so.
Really started to feel it there.
It's hard to walk into something that a lot of people
think are special, or a great place.
When you own it, you don't have that same feeling, right?
So I think, like, walking into 416 last night-- this is what
something really special feels like.
GUY RAWLINGS: Next stop.
Right now we're going to Bar Volo.
They've helped us connect with some amazing breweries.
And they really allowed us to open our eyes to
what beer can be.
THOMAS MORANA: We're Bar Volo.
We've been here for 25 years?
This is my father, Ralph.
He started this spot.
And this is my brother Julian, another manager and a full
part of Volo.
And we run this spot.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I don't think a lot of people in this
city even know about Bar Volo.
And yet they're bringing the most
interesting beers to Ontario.
That's a Mikkeller.
Thomas is a fucking huge beer geek.
He'll talk your ear off about beer.
He has so much information, and he just
needs to get it out.
THOMAS MORANA: The Mikkeller Stella 2.
Only 200 bottles released in the world.
It's extremely sour.
All sorts of [INAUDIBLE], lacto, [INAUDIBLE].
A lot of bugs going on in here.
It's fuckin' good, man.
You wouldn't even know if this was a beer.
Like, you drink it like a wine.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: We were popping bottles.
The Mikkeller Magnums.
All these sour beers.
I think it got a little bit hazy there, chugging back
those sours.
Who knows how many--
you know, what percentage of alcohol they were.
THOMAS MORANA: Hey, don't tell anybody we're taking shots of
Happy Van Winkle.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: That's kind of when I started to, uh,
forget about portions of the night.
It's always a great crowd.
They're super into, like, some crazy hip-hop trap music.
And they're true gangsters at heart.
-After you.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Woo!
Champions.
GUY RAWLINGS: Thomas.
Get in here, bro.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I need my bottles.
My bottles.
GUY RAWLINGS: Yes, Thomas.
Oh.
It feels so good.
It hurts so right.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: I've always wondered what filming of gang
bus is like.
GUY RAWLINGS: Give me the other one.
THOMAS MORANA: Oh, this is gonna go everywhere.
-No, no.
GUY RAWLINGS: No, no, it's good!
No, it's good.
THOMAS MORANA: No, it's wild fermentation--
GUY RAWLINGS: No, I'm wild fermentation.
That's how you do it!
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Police, police, police.
Don't open the door.
Oh, no.
You just opened the door.
-And now you close the door.
-So much heat right now.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Champions should not
be drinking in cabs.
So then we headed back to Bar Isabel.
Every night around the end of service we basically do this
hand-written menu here, from 11:30 on.
So the kitchen crew are basically
ready to rock and roll.
All right guys, let's go.
One chef's sober, one chef's drunk.
We got a lot of colorful plates.
Making me dizzy.
I might just vomit on the fried chicken.
We do some big gangster platters.
This is we do at Isabel late-night.
Brando's fried chicken.
Sausages.
Bone marrows.
Octopus.
A little bit of foie gras over here.
Some ceviches.
Whatever the fuck we got in the kitchen.
These platters, they don't make us any money.
We try to make money off the cocktails.
That's it.
True champions.
True champions at Isabel.
A lot of restaurants, near the end of the night they start
making you feel uncomfortable, like you have
to finish your meal.
And what's beautiful about here is that people will be
having dinner, and it'll be like 11 o'clock.
And all of a sudden the lights will get dimmer, the music
gets louder.
You want to sit at the bar, you want to sit at the table,
you just want a drink of booze, no problem.
This guy.
This guy is the best.
MARKS SCREWS: Second best, second best.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: The best designer.
He designed everything.
Where can you get crab legs and foie gras at, you know,
2:00 in the morning, and get good service?
So that's really what we're trying to do here.
And I think that's it.
Good service tonight.
Good service.
-Chef, you're working at 12:00 tomorrow.
GRANT VAN GAMEREN: Chef's showing up a little bit late
tomorrow.
-No.
Don't think so.
I make the schedule around here.
And you're showing up at 12:00.