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| - I could write at length about how Toronto's kosher restaurants and bakeries serve a captive audience, and how our food culture often suffers for it.
I don't keep kosher though, so it's really not my argument to make.
Located on Bathurst and Glencairn, in the middle of a strip of bakeries, butchers and other businesses that service Toronto's observant Jewish community Hermes sells great fresh rye breads and rolls, light chocolate dipped cookies, and super treats both haymishe (cheese Danish are a specialty) and goyishe (equally good donuts, cupcakes and an excellent Boston Cream pie).
I'd rate Hermes higher but for two factors:
The first is restrictive hours. As a kosher facility, they close early on Friday and all day Saturday, along with most Jewish holidays (which basically removes much of September and October from the calendar). Inconvenient but certainly understandable.
The second is much less understandable. Service is atrocious. Hermes employs the biggest collection of grouches this side of Oscar's trash can. A three year old's friendly hello is met with a sneer that transitions to a scowl. breakable spritz cookies are shoved carelessly into boxes, rye breads are heaved in your face, and questions are ignored, shrugged off or insulted...and not in a clever New York Deli way. Seriously. This place employs jerks.
One of the best things Hermes has going for it is it's nut-free status. Mindful of allergies in the family, we once ordered a birthday cake. Our instructions were (we thought) simple: chocolate cake, white icing, no fruity gels (at least half of our household hates the stuff). We got a cake laden with red fruity goo. We asked them to give us a replacement. At first they refused, then claimed we hadn't made the request, so pay up sucka. Then they checked the order form and saw the request. And offered to change it...by piping additional icing on top of the goo. Then they offered to sell us a different cake. For an upcharge. Then they offered to write the birthday victim's name on a chocolate slab since the new cake couldn't accommodate the writing. For an upcharge. It all worked out in the end, without said upcharges, but this review shall remain a chilling reminder for those who expect white-glove service.
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