InsideToronto.com
January 28, 2009

Nota Bene Defies Recession

By ERIC VELLEND

It's a bitterly cold Wednesday night, and while the winds of recession blow tumbleweed through most restaurants in the city, Nota Bene is packed. Every stool at the bar, every Italian leather chair in the 110-seat dining room has a bum in it. Even the private dining area is full. Did I mention it's not even 7:00 p.m.?

Nota Bene opened its doors six months ago - an eternity in the age of the food blogger - yet it remains the hottest table in town. Other restaurants are offering free corkage, prix fixe menus and seasonal promotions, anything to lure in diners during this dismal month. At Nota Bene, a weekend reservation must be booked three weeks in advance.

For anyone familiar with the culinary dream team behind Nota Bene, this should come as no surprise. Yannick Bigourdan and chef David Lee, owners of the much-lauded Splendido, joined forces with Franco Prevedello, the man who revolutionized fine dining in Toronto back in the '80s with Biffi, Pronto and Centro, to name a few.

We're the last table of the first seating, and in a moment of schadenfreude, I almost hope for an off night. Not a chance. Bigourdan is on the floor, and service is as sharp as his perfectly tailored suit.

Appetizers arrive promptly. In an Asian-inspired salad, a crispy duck thigh is perched on a tangy slaw of green papaya; roasted cashews add crunch, sumac lends its sour edge and Thai chilies detonate some serious heat. A warm salad of tender grilled octopus also offers a stunning range of tastes and textures with bitter rapini, sweet fennel, smoky peppers, briny olives and top shelf olive oil.

The entrees are equally flawless. Ribbons of perfectly al dente papardelle pasta are bathed in a very Tuscan sauce of braised rabbit, salty pancetta and woodsy porcini mushrooms. A succulent slab of short rib is so tender it quivers in the shadow of my fork. It's paired with a highly original salad of cucumbers, cornichons and fresh horseradish, the later being a natural with the beef.

To finish, silken pistachio ice cream tastes like it was churned five minutes ago. Bread pudding is refashioned as a roof of crispy brioche on top of smooth vanilla custard. The accompanying banana ice cream, however, is the lone false note of the evening: it's slightly granular and not in the same class as the pistachio.

The wine list - Prevedello's baby - is both awesome and awesomely expensive with few bottles under $60. But extras, such as one-of-a-kind stemware from Verona and individual carafes for wines by the glass, make splurging worthwhile.

If you are waiting for things to calm down before trying Nota Bene, don't. Despite the economic doom and gloom, I don't expect this restaurant to have a quiet moment for a very long time.