Southern Accent opens new digs on College Street

What:     New Southern Accent Location
When:    Wednesday January 24, 2017
Where:   839 College St, Toronto, ON M6H 
Contact:  Phone: (416) 536-3211
Website:  http://southernaccent.com/

I was invited to check out the new digs for Southern Accent after they recently had to close up shop on their Mirvish Village location after over 30 years there because developers purchased Honest Ed's and Mirvish Village for Re-development.  It's very sad to see Toronto lose these Icons in the city to replace them with non descript boxes.  My dad loved to go to Honest Ed's to get a lot of things for our home when I was a kid so I find it's like losing a piece of my childhood.  

Francis Wood the Owner of Southern Accent had a great reputation for building a great music and food loving community in her Restaurant with many little nooks and crannies tucked inside the building as well as the lovely patio outside.  It was an institution for all things New Orleans.  

I even used to do makeup for a show called Real to Reel with host Richard Crouse and we would film at the restaurant once in a while.  

The location and the design of the restaurant may be different with the move to College street and it now being in an up and coming foodie destination as other locations run out of room for restaurants they move further north of King and Queen to Dundas and College Streets.

The new location is long and narrow.  It has pretty much mostly the same menu as before but because of the new location they are opening it for more extended hours to serve beignets for breakfast in the mornings and they also have a take-out section at the entrance where you can get Muffaletta sandwiches and other things on the additional menu to go.

There is also a weekend brunch.  You could spend a lot of time in their new digs with all the food and music they plan to serve up.

The other interesting additions are the new Memory wall as you walk in on the left side of the wall up to the bar.  Thirty years of photos and memories in a collage.  

There are also a couple of cosy nooks at the back of the restaurant and an area for live music.

I tried a few things on their menu at the Preview including their hush puppies, blackened chicken fingers, bruchetta, crab cakes, calamari and the new beignets.

 And they made sure to bring this guy with them to greet everyone old and new to Southern Accent.

Prenup Pub - New restaurant

Event: Prenup Pub Blogger Tasting
Date:  Dec. 3, 2014
Location: 191 College Street, Toronto

I spent another dinner with a great bunch of Food bloggers at the new Restaurant Prenup Pub for a great tasting of a very diverse menu.

The Prenup Pub (named for what the owner will leave his 5 children), has only been open for 2 months but on our arrival for our dinner the 2 level restaurant was packed with groups of people.  You would have thought it was a weekend night from the hum of the bar/restaurant.  There were large groups of students and some tech geeks and then there were the group of us foodies doing what my friend Mary and I call Speed Eating and Speed Blogging.   We got there and just got seated and organized and then the food started coming.   First there were plates set up for us to take photos of. Imaging what paparazzi in an elevator trying to get a great shot of a baby or something and that's what it's like.   A bunch of dishes on a couple of small tables surrounded by mostly women with cameras and  cell phones trying to get the perfect food porn photo.  Yup that's us if you see us in a restaurant.

Then we sat down and the family style platters came around for us to share and sample the food.  We passed food down the long and packed tables and served up portions on to our tiny side plates.   We all felt like we had to eat fast because all the food practically came at the same time so we had to fill up our tiny plates and pass the food down and then inhale the food so that there was room to scoop up more food from the next platter onto our clear plates.   Why?  Well the tables were small 2 tops pushed together in a booth style/chair set up.   I think there was a dozen of us there.  Large platters, drinks, plates and candles and whatever else was on the table didn't leave much room for platters to linger.
We basically inhaled the food as quickly as we could to make sure we had a chance to try everything.   We all thought it was the fastest tasting ever.

Ok so how was the food?  It was a bit of an eclectic menu I thought.

                                                      What we tried:

Wurst Salad - sliced sausage salad
Waterzooi - Belgian chicken stew from Ghent
Mussels of the Day - Chili tomato sauce
Madame Monsieur Waffle - Ham and cheese on a waffle with a fried egg on top
Prenup Pizza - grilled vegetables on puff pastry
Beer Braised Lamb - Wrapped in phylo pastry served with stoemp, a mash and vegetables.

Pork Schnitzel - with fries and a mushroom sauce
Tiramisu - Italian dessert

So thinking of the origins of the dishes we surfed Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.
My favourite dishes were the Mussels which were perfectly seasoned and flavourful without being overpowering.  The schnitzel and frites were really tasty.  The frites were well made, not greasy and very Belgian style.  The waffle dish would probably be the perfect dish for the hangover crowd on a sunday brunch menu with the sweet and savoury covered in one dish.

I wasn't a fan of the pizza though.  Because it's made with puff pastry it doesn't have the puff it would without the vegetables and it was a bit greasy on the bottom and I wasn't a fan of the tomato sauce.  I prefer a passata fresh tomato sauce.

What I really loved though was the way the restaurant was renovated with solid wood and warm walls and really beautiful chandeliers and great separate rooms that give you that private group feel while still feeling like a huge place.  It had an upscale pub look and feel.   This is the perfect place to meet your friends for beers because they have a whopping 70 beers on Tap.  Not being a beer drinker I can't tell you anything else about the beers so you will have to go and check those out for yourselves.

It's located in the heart of the University of Toronto student scene so expect to see lot's of students looking to have a bit of fun to blow off a bit of studying steam.

Prices might be a bit steep for some students but I bet they will just go for drinks and have some of their great frites.