Michelin Makes a Date With Toronto
Plus, an iconic steakhouse ships steaks to your door, couples turn to alcohol, and a Brooklyn restaurant offers fabulous parting gifts
Michelin is on the move with the famous dining guide announcing the date for its 2024 Toronto Star Revelation Ceremony.
The Toronto Michelin ceremony will take place September 18 at History.
Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, said of the CAnadian city, “Since the initial selection in 2022, the famously anonymous Guide inspectors have seen and felt the passion and growth in the local gastronomy scene of Toronto.”
Known for being a multicultural powerhouse, the 2023 Toronto Michelin Guide includes 78 restaurants representing 28 different types of cuisine ranging from Japanese to Filipino. Take a look at the 2023 Toronto Michelin Guide here.
One of the Country’s Best Steakhouses Ships Steaks to Your Door
One of the country’s best steakhouses isn’t in New York City or Chicago — it’s in Tampa. Since 1956, Bern’s Steak House has been lauded for its excellent Prime 100-day-dry-aged steaks cut to order. Guests don’t just dine at Bern’s — they have an extended culinary adventure that starts with a fine meal and finishes with a trip to the Harry Waugh Dessert Room, where they can indulge in desserts, cheeses, and aged cognacs. Lucky individuals will also get a tour of the restaurant’s wine cellar that’s considered one of the finest in the world.
The restaurant boasts the world’s largest private wine collection of more than 750,000 bottles, along with an extensive whiskey program. The wine collection won the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine Program. The restaurant, naturally, is also listed in the 2024 Michelin Florida Guide.
Bern’s is worth a trip to Tampa, but if you want to experience its steak program at home, Goldbelly offers Bern’s on its site. A filet mignon dinner for two ($149.95) offers two USDA Choice hand-cut filets along with creamed spinach and potato puree. If you want to try Bern’s famous dry-aged steaks, the dry-aged Prime New York strip steak dinner for two ($139.95) includes two steaks aged in-house for five to eight weeks before being hand-cut to order. There’s also a steak sample six-pack for $249.95 which includes USDA Choice filet mignon, USDA Prime New York strip, and Delmonico (boneless ribeye) steaks, all aged and hand-cut in-house. Order here.
Booze Bonds: About 20 Percent of Couples Use Alcohol to Keep Their Marriage Alive
We’ve all heard the statistic that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce, so it stands that couples will turn to anything that can salvage a marriage and increase healthy bonding.
A recent study conducted by TexasDivorceLaws.org found that many couples turn to alcohol as a way to keep their marriage alive. The study surveyed 3,000 couples and found that, in most states, nearly 20 percent of couples consider “alcohol a cornerstone of their relationship”. In addition, the study found that couples drink together about three times a week, with 28 percent of couples surveyed feel drinking together brings them closer. It should come as no surprise, then that nearly half of the couples use alcohol to “get in the mood".
If that doesn’t work, 25 percent of couples use drinking as a way to avoid their problems.
“While shared experiences, including occasional drinking, can play a positive role in partnerships, the high percentage of couples relying on alcohol as a cornerstone of their relationships raises important questions about healthy relationship dynamics”, says Shaun Connell, founder of Texas Divorce Laws.
And Now For Your Fabulous Parting Gift
There’s something about finishing a meal or going to a party and getting a little something to take home. Being presented with a small box of bonbons or petit fours or even (on one occasion) four bagels and a small brick of cream cheese to enjoy the next morning is a gesture that often gets far more bang for the buck.
Michelin-starred Restaurant Yuu in Greenpoint, Brooklyn is onboard with the parting gift. Diners who indulge in the restaurant’s tasting menu ($300) are escorted to the restaurant’s parlor for mignardise by executive pastry chef Masaki Takahashi, accompanied by coffee or tea. While relaxing, guests are presented with a navy and gold bag that includes grapefruit and vanilla Madelines and hazelnut financiers to be enjoyed at home the next morning.
The parting gift is a lovely gesture I wish more restaurants participated in.