I think it’s safe to say that the lavish dinners of yore have become just that: remnants of the past. No longer is there the ritual of dining – dressing to the nines to impress one’s date, a greeting by a maitre d’, sharing a bottle of wine over white linen tablecloths. We’ve become a class of comfort diners, where gourmet has gone back to basics and repairs are being made on the foundations of food tarnished by the QSR industry. Of course I’m generalizing, but, on a whole, we’d rather eat a dirty burger and sauced up rotisserie chicken than a 12-course meal served by white-gloved waiters acting more as au pairs than servers. And the Soho House ain’t seein’ nothing wrong with that…
The Soho House began in 1995 in London (the good one) as a private members’ club for the creative class – film industry types, media mavens, design darlings, the real Mad Men. With about a dozen international ‘houses’ – including the opening of a Toronto off-shoot during TIFF last year – the Soho House has become the secret handshake of the discerning brood.
Now because of this members-only mentality, one might expect a certain air of pretense to follow along. But how pretentious can an institution be that serves up dirty burgers and churrasqueira-style chicken? Not everything is always as it seems…
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Awhile back the Soho House launched a stand-alone triplex, as it were, at 79 Highgate Road in London. (They’d previously opened two other stand-alone restaurant concepts.) The Kentish Town digs sees Pizza East in the front at street-level, the Chicken Shop in the basement, and Dirty Burger ’round the back. The individual concepts have made the rounds at many of the Soho Houses internationally, offering a night or two to indulge in the grandiose gourmet grub at satellite sites. And debuting recently in Toronto were the Dirty Burger and Chicken Shop so Hogtown members can get a taste of this high-end peasant food. (So called by Soho House Toronto’s GM Jimson Bienenstock.)
So what makes the Dirty Burger so dirty? Why’s the Chicken Shop so clucking good? Easy: attention to detail. The Dirty Burger is as the name suggests, a slightly sloppy, soul-satisfying bite of burger bliss. A beef patty – from the rump, and made using two types of fat, a proprietary secret – is steamed and seared to a juicy mess, slapped on a butter-glazed bun, topped with chopped iceberg, tomato, pickles, cheese and a house-made mustard-mayo, and slid into a wax paper sleeve. Doity!
As for the famed chicken that flies out the kitchen, that’s a little more intricate a process. Organic, free-range chickens are marinated up to 48 hours in a special paprika-based brine, then steamed til about three-quarter doneness. What’s next for the birds? A flash-freeze, which essentially turns the chicken into a sponge to soak in all the flavour and juices. It’s finished over a charcoal and wood grill to crisp up the skin and imbue the final pangs of palatable pleasure.
Luckily for Soho House Toronto members, Chef Nano Crespo is able to expedite the famed recipes Tuesday nights, alongside sides like butter lettuce and avocado salad, a simple purple slaw, roasted corn with cilantro butter, and classic desserts like apple crumble and fudgey brownies. The rest of you need make friends with a cardholder, or bite the bullet and join the club.
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And if the bullet’s a burger that’ll leak juice down your chin and slip and slide in your greased up fingers, is it really an either/or situation?
For added mouth-watering, check out this video of the original Chicken Shop in London…