Pizzeria Libretto - Toronto

The bar decor with beer taps, chalkboard and certificates on the wall.

Libretto aims to be loyal to what real pizza is, invented in Naples using local natural ingredients, cooked in a wood fired oven at extremely high heat to achieve a charred, blistered crust. We use San Marzano tomatoes and Fiore di Latte Mozzarella, brought in fresh daily. Our dough is made with naturally leavened Italian Caputo dopio zero flour. Our pizza bakes in less than 90 seconds in our 900 degree wood burning oven, hand built for us by a 3rd generation pizza oven maker in Naples. Simple, Honest, and Natural.

—Chef Rocco Agostino & Max Rimaldi

http://pizzerialibretto.com/

Eaton Centre Urban Eatery - III

Urban Herbivore in the food court.
Other reviews.
...Though it is underground, the new food court is bright and airy; down its centre run long white communal tables. Next to me sat Daniel Ordibehesht, 23, eating Urban Herbivore’s curry, a dish he enjoyed at its original location in Kensington. When I said that I liked the décor, Mr. Ordibehesht laughed.

“This is like a cattle mart feeding place,” he said. “I feel like it’s feeding time at the zoo.”

Indeed, in this vast space the din is forbidding. But civilization has taken a leap forward here. Specifically, there are no garbage cans at this food court. Diners bring their trays to uniformed women at expansive white counters I would call “lunch tray triage stations.”

I watched one of these workers dump fries into a food scraps bin and the box in the trash. She put cans and plastic bottles in a blue bin and stacked the melamine bowls, plates, glasses and steel cutlery and trays on a rolling cart, to go to the kitchen for washing and reuse.

Nearby is a hand-washing station: a sink, soap dispenser and paper towel dispenser, all motion-activated.

All told, a nice place to lunch, where you can feel good about yourself. Wear a jacket; even a jaunty hat will not be out of place.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/06/peter-kuitenbrouwer-eaton-centres-%E2%80%98urban-eatery%E2%80%99-a-place-to-feel-good-about-yourself/

Eaton Centre Urban Eatery - II

Teriyaki next to a concrete column.

Eaton Centre Urban Eatery - I

Sbarro pizza with a fair size of selections.

Introduction of the “urban eatery”.
The food court experience is a notoriously horrible one. The ambiance is nonexistent, the options are limited to the typical fast-food chains, and the waste produced is enormous. For years, the Eaton Centre food court has been no exception—that is, until Cadillac-Fairview embarked on creating Canada’s first “destination food court” there. It took $48 million and 14 months of renovations to transform the subterranean food court into an “urban eatery”—something that feels more like Copenhagen (mid-century modern furniture, a red, white and wood colour palette) than Toronto—until you see the A&W at least. But Cadillac-Fairview didn’t just want to give the space a facelift; they wanted to change the experience as a whole (indeed, they’ve billed it as “downtown eating, redefined”). The Styrofoam plates and next-to-useless plastic knives are out (unless of course, you order to go), and surprisingly strong crockery and decently weighted cutlery are in. They’ve also brought in a handful of Toronto restaurants and mini-chains, like Urban Herbivore, Amaya Express and Liberty Noodle. It’s not Splendido, but it’s a whole lot better than what it replaced. And it’s home to what has to be the nicest KFC we’ve ever seen.

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/daily-dish/opening-daily-dish/2011/09/01/introducing-urban-eatery/

AGO - Windows II

The big wood sills attached to the window frames.

AGO - Windows I

The front and back stairs of the AGO have big wood window sills attached to structural steel columns.