Discover Canada’s Best New Restaurants
6
Paris Paris
Toronto, ON
Paris Paris Toronto, ON
1161 Dundas St. W.  |  416-535-5656parisparis.ca
By Kaitlin FontanaPhotos by Andrew Querner

It’s rare to find a bar that artfully transitions from daytime hangout to nighttime hot spot, but Paris Paris is just such a place. It helps that the light along the busy west-end street tracks perfectly, and that a jungle’s worth of plant life creeps and crawls along the window ledge and from the rafters, keeping things bright and cheerful in the afternoon and alluringly lush when darkness falls. This wine bar is a local in the truest sense: I meet a friend for lunch and she and her one-year-old son are welcomed with literal open arms – our server takes him for a spin around the room while we peruse the menu. I’m not ready to commit to a fully boozy situation at noon, but Paris Paris has that covered with the Kalimotxo, a red wine/Mexican Coke combo that dispatches a shot of caffeine and a sugar upper with the alcohol downer. It’s also, I can attest, a great hangover cure. Happily reset, I order a clementine-scented dry rosé from the Niagara region, which balances a plate of garlicky eggplant dip, as do slices of the tangy housemade sourdough bread. The wine list is full of funky organic, biodynamic and natural wines, mostly from small family producers. The open kitchen in the back is busy with poached salmon with green goddess dressing and piri piri-style chicken – simple but beautifully assembled plates that leave me feeling as light and airy as the place itself.