My fondest memory of the Fox & Fiddle franchise is a going away party my colleagues had for me at the Bloor Street W location (the one across from U of T below the Holiday Inn). The dim and slightly depressing ambience was what came to mind when I saw the Fox was re-opening at John and Adelaide. I was like: "Really? Couldn't they do better at the base of a new condo?" Fast forward to several weeks later, when my dad was visiting me for the weekend and we wanted to grab a quick no frills pint. Since I live around the corner, the new Fox & Fiddle came to mind. This new location is bright, with nice furniture and a more "up-scale" feel. It was a very welcoming change from what I expected from this franchise, and I told our server this as he quickly hooked us up with some drinks. He mentioned that they were trying very hard to create a better experience at this location with things like in-house baked bread and an actual chef (not just a cook defrosting mozza sticks) on site. I had a peek at the menu, and while it does have a lot of the pub favorites, it's not the same greasy, cheesy food that the other locations have. Dinner was still a few hours away and I was a bit hungry, so I did order a pound of wings. Our server suggested getting them dry with the buffalo sauce on the side which was very good. I've eaten a lot of wings in the city, and I really enjoyed these. These wings were giant and meaty and after three of them I was satisfied.
I would definitely go back for an after work pint and some wings!