| rev:text
| - It might be a bit unfair to review Globe so early into their existence, but I don't feel too badly about it. Reason being, this isn't their first restaurant opening. Globe has two other locations, so it's owners should be able to avoid the rookie mistakes of opening a restaurant. But rather than focus on the facts that it smelled like a construction site, the floors and walls needed some minor finishing work, the staff were wandering about looking slightly confused and a little scared, and the place generally seemed like it probably wasn't ready to open just yet, I'm going to put all that aside and focus on the rest of Globe.
Globe's focus is on local stuff; that means they try to only serve products that are made close-to-home. Trouble is, I'm not exactly sure how far that close-to-home boundary extends to. I was told that it includes Ontario as a whole, but it could also go much further East or West; their Albacore tuna, for example, comes from BC and their mussels come from PEI. Other items don't explicitly explain where they come from, like the Cornish hen. That's the difficulty with going local though; right-off-the-bat you need to firmly establish your local boundaries. BC and PEI, after all, aren't right around the corner. Why not Maine lobster? Maine is a lot closer and seems a lot more local to me than anywhere in BC.
I suppose my beef here is that if you want to focus on locally produced stuff, then why not do it right down to the last detail? Why have a couple of wines from Italy and the US when you could easily make a wine menu completely from Niagara Peninsula wines or even from West Coast British Columbia (since we haven't yet established where that local line is drawn). I suppose the entire local concept is pretty hot right now, considering the whole farm-to-table trend, but those places are a bit more sincere by growing and sourcing everything onsite. To me, that's what true local eating is all about: setting firm boundaries.
The main thing that caught me right away-even more so than the local-ness of stuff-was the truly reasonable prices. At my initial walk-in to the beautiful dining room, I expected to pay a bit more, but that wasn't the case at all. Starters are around 11 bucks, entrees are around 22; at prices like that, it's even kind of refreshing, considering how elegant both the dining room and bar spaces are. And the food is good too. The local carnivore flatbread, for example, had a perfectly cooked flatbread base with some delicious, good-quality meats. The baked Spring vegetable tart seemed a little strange served on raw spinach, but the contrast worked nicely together.
The dining room space is beautiful. 20 foot ceilings, elegant lighting, solid wooden tables. In terms of sheer ambience and sophistication, there's nothing in Bloor West Village that can even come close to competing with Globe.
Despite the wandering servers, we were lucky enough to have the only one that seemed focused. Even though the meddling manager kept needlessly hovering over us mere seconds each time before our server got there, we had fantastic service that pretty much made the entire experience better. If we had another server, I probably would have thought a lot less.
Truth be told, Globe's focus on local products seems to be more of a gimmick at this point rather than a passion. However despite that, it was a pretty good overall experience, opening jitters and stage fright aside. I think that once they work all the kinks out, there'll be nothing in Bloor West Village-an area that is really hurting for some good restaurants to begin with-that can even come close to competing with Globe.
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