On Tuesday night, Nicki and I did a little trot over to King and Bathurst-ish to check out Sazerac Lounge. It’s been open awhile, but until recently there wasn’t much buzz or excitement surrounding it. I had been invited to its grand opening a few months ago when my roommate’s petite soeur had snagged a few passes courtesy the modelling agency she works for. We instead decided to stay in and have a “white trash” evening. (Read: Shitty food and shittier movies.)

Which, coincidentally, probably worked in our favour. Sazerac Lounge has apparently completely switched gears in the four or so months since its been opened, including recently revamping its menu – along with its kitchen staff. (Sazzy’s got a brand new chef.)

The space (as you’ll see in the vlog) is trendy – brick walls and typographic eye-catcher and all – large, and a mix of lounge seating and table seating. The bar is cute, nice ditty of a setup. But we were there for the food!

Sazerac Lounge’s menu is a mix: mostly Southern/Acadian influences (it is named Sazerac, after all), un peu de Francais, one dish was Japanese. Not quite a hodgepodge, not quite one directional.

We were treated to six courses and a starter of some of the best corn bread I’ve ever had. That’s right, the corn bread is one of the ones that just stuck with ya. (Maybe the aged cheddar and yam butter are to blame?) Next up was hamachi with horseradish snow (itself more for presentation than anything), red currants, and ginger oil served on a frozen pillow. (It was appropriately named Ice Fish.) The 100km Farms Summer Salad was a delightful mix of complex flavours but far too small a portion. I get the whole “gastronomy” and “food as art” mentalities, but at this point we were all famished and could’ve used something a tad more substantial.

Kolapore Springs Trout with buttermilk dill and sorrel puree was lovely – though the skin could’ve been much crisper – and the subsequent sorbet palate cleanser theatrically dished with liquid nitrogen was a nice distraction from the fact that we’d still only had about 10 bites total at this point.

Chantecler Rouge Chicken was a rich dish, so I suppose I get why the portion was again (four letter word, rhymes with hiney), and the Rhubarb and Walnut Tartin was a splendid end to the evening. And couldn’t have come a moment sooner…