On Wednesday, I stopped off at Garfield Eats at Bloor and Dovercourt for lunch. This recent take-out spot has generated online chatter and articles, mostly not positive. It is certainly an odd endeavour: an officially Garfield licensed diner, the only one in North America (and Dubai), offering "bad pun" food like Garfuccinos and rewards like goupons. There was no place to sit here. Most of the former laundromat has been turned into kitchen space, with the rest of it devoted to Garfield merchandise.
You immediately notice how pricey the menu is, given the lack of amenities and admittedly kitschy feel. It being Garfield-related, I had to order the spinach and mushroom lasagna ($17.99). It wasn't a very large lasagna given the price, but I liked it compared to people balking online about the orange sauce on the Garfield pizza and so on. There was a good crusted cheese on top and the pasta had a nice mouth-feel. The spinach and especially the mushroom were thick, substantial, and high quality. Maybe their claim of being farm-to-table, sourcing from local vendors, wasn't just marketing speak.
But it wasn't a full lunch and thus hard to justify the price. The farm-to-table aesthetic is welcome and unexpected. But all the custom packaging, oddly thick and durable, with Garfield comic strips and other design elements must have a high cost overhead. Despite the re-box instructions, I have a hard time seeing who would actually re-use the cheese and oil-covered package as a tissue box. And would anyone actually turn those fancy pizza boxes into paper plates?
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