Sir, Yes, Sir! More Sweet, Less Savoury!

Wednesday night, I made my way to the Brockton General, one of the new business that is gentrifying my West end neighbourhoods of Bloordale Village and Brockton Village. Replacing a Portuguese bar at Dundas and Lisgar, the small restaurant resembled the other cafes that have sprung up in the area: mismatched wooden tables and chairs, old-timey decor including sepia-tinted photographs, cuckoo clocks, and a faded poster of a Portuguese soccer team. The bottles behind the bar were stored in rickety, wooden crates.

According to the owner, Wednesday is slower compared to the packed houses from Thursday to Sunday. So there was only 1 chef in the kitchen and the revolving main menu, written on butcher paper, featured only 3 items tonight. I ordered all 3 and another dish from the bar menu: a potted animal ($7) which for tonight meant a duck gruyere with some bread.

The duck did come out in a pot, or at least a small glass jar whose lid came off with a nice pop. It was essentially a coarse pate or terrine. I've been complaining lately about the blandness of the duck dishes I've been eating. Not this one. The first bite or two was almost too gamey, but my palate re-calibrated. A nice appetizer but too large a portion, I had to ask for another round of bread to finish off the duck.

The soup ($8) came out in a shallow bowl with a row of thinly sliced parsnip and black walnuts arrayed along one side. They were topped with finely minced capicollo, which reminded me of the shrimp powder on banh beo. The server then poured warm clear maple broth into the bowl. Neat! I don't think I've ever had a sweet soup before. The broth tasted wonderful with the parsnip and the black walnuts; with the capicollo, not so much. The sweet and savoury clashed instead of complementing each other. It was better once I let the pork soak in the broth to draw a bit of the saltiness out.

The main ($15) was maltagliati pasta with little pointy bits of pancetta, tomato, and pecorino. Everything came together for this dish. This maltagliati was long, flat ribbons that had the right amount of chewiness. The sharp, smokey pork went well with the tangy tomatoes. Very nice.

The dessert ($7) was pieces of chocolate cake over chocolate amaro sauce and hazelnut. Some of the pieces were topped with either sour cream or a few flakes of Maldon salt. The chocolate and hazelnut were quite good, the salt did not complement the sweetness, and the sour cream tasted so odd with the chocolate cake that I almost spat it out. It was a good dessert overall but next time I'll ask for the salt and sour cream to be added on the side.

I believe that the Brockton General changes its menu regularly so there's no telling what's for dinner (unless you check the wall on their facebook page). For my meal, there were some minor misses where the chef seemed to have gotten a little too creative, but they were all interesting and well-made. I'll definitely be back to this tiny boite that Toronto Life gave a Best New Restaurants 2011 spot to (as well as James Chatto).