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The potential for June Harlowe Foods to be a super duper great corner 'hood spot is all there for the taking by the owner Sandi Dixon. I have driven past this former Portuguese sports bar, once known as Pirates, for months before I finally realized it had been converted to a small cafe/bistro spot. It's located on Dupont Street, just east of where Dupont, Annette & Dundas converge. It's an odd spot along Dupont, where it's a bit of a waste land in terms of eateries. Other than some Portuguese Churrasqueira, the pickings are slim.
A Chef friend of mine told me about June Harlowe Foods because he had taken his wife there for brunch and he couldn't stop talking about how much they enjoyed it. So I dropped in last Thursday night for dinner just to give the place a once over. The sports bar moved out and JHFs moved in. They took down all the soccer insignias off the walls and replaced it with local artwork. The front and side windows give the resto and airy feel and there is a substantial side patio which I expect to be a popular location for brunch on warm, sunny, summery weekends.
The menu is a one pager with an odd mix of foods. At first I'm not quite sure if they are trying to go bistro or bar food. You've got a crusted pork chop with a peach chutney and the usual sides (mash & veg). There's a chicken breast stuffed with ricotta, spinach and peppers. There's two burger choices, the Harlowe Burger & the Dixon Burger, as well as a Portobello burger choice. One will also find Shepherd's Pie, Vegetarian Shepherd's pie and surprise, surprise...there are Chicken wings on the menu.
Our server tells us that there are two things on the menu not available today, the short ribs and the poutine. Insert the pout here. I was going to have some poutine (I was in need of comfort) but without the gravy created by the short ribs there was no gravy for Poutine.
To start, we order the soup of the day, a Potato Leek soup and a Crostini with goats cheese, grilled zucchini and puree of roasted red pepper. Both were delicious. Soup consistency was akin to a Veloute and I like my soups like this. I would have liked the soup a tad hotter. I want my soup to arrive steaming so I can take my time with it. If there had been some sort of garnish on the soup it would have raised the wow factor slightly. The Crostini was really tasty. The zucs were grilled beautifully, still being firm but just starting to get juicy. You could taste the smokey grill on it and that really added to the flavour.
I waffled around on the mains. After soup & Crostini I wasn't sure how much more I could shovel in. So funnily enough and very much unlike me, I ordered chicken wings. The wings were a decent size and quite meaty, not chewy or been overly deep friend into leather. The wings were smothered with lots of sauce the way I like them. Being the spud lover that I am, fries/chips/frites are such a deal breaker for me. The potatoes were fresh cut but unfortunately for me, they weren't crispy and dry, the way I tend to like them. Either they needed to be cooked longer or the oil in the deep fryer just isn't hot enough.
My daughter ordered the Harlowe burger which is hand made burger with brie on top. The patty was delicious, cooked on a flat grill that gives the meat that slight crispy carmelization that burgers really need when cooking them in this style. The burger comes sided with fries. The bun and the toppings were fresh, again all good signs to the potential for a really decent little spot to grab a plateful of satisfying, fresh, delicious food.
On Wednesdays June Harlowe Foods offers up a ten buck special of a burger, fries and a pint. Considering that the burger & fries on its own is a $12 item on the menu, Wednesdays would be a bargain. I make a note of this special in my daytimer. I'm waiting for summer to arrive so I can make it my patio destination on Wednesdays after work.
Service is friendly. One waiter covers basically the whole room so once the places fills (it holds approx. 24 -28 people) he's hopping. It took a bit of a wait to get our second round of drinks but we just sat back and enjoyed the space. We weren't in a hurry so it wasn't an issue for us.
There is a big flat screen TV up on the wall behind the bar. They had the food network on but no sound. My preference would be to just turn that TV off all together or show some old black and white art films. The television is just a distraction that takes away from the art and the neighbourhood old charm of this original building. It felt like a fish out of water to me.
I'm definitely going back to June Harlowe Foods. There is potential for this spot to really raise its own bar and I hear that the brunch is really decent. That'll provide me with the benchmark I need to really need to get the sweet and low on this local eatery. On Sundays they also have entertainment.
Note: Right now, cash only. There is an ATM in the basement.
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