Where to eat and drink in Toronto neighbourhood recently named one of the world's coolest

A Toronto neighbourhood was just named one of the coolest in the entire world — here’s everywhere you need to eat and drink when you visit.

“Coolness” is subjective. In our opinion, anyway. Coolness can’t be counted, measured or described. It’s as transient as the water in a river. Just ask anyone who enthusiastically wore stretchy tattoo chokers in the ’90s. Or the twenty-tens, for that matter.

Still, despite coolness’s characteristically translucent quality, there will always be places and things that are, indeed, “cool.” Typically, it’s cool people who call the shots. If a cool person says it’s cool, it’s cool.

How many more times do you think we can say cool in this article? Hint: it’s more than you think.

That’s more or less the methodology behind Time Out Magazine’s annual list of the coolest neighbourhoods around the world. The British magazine rounds up the coolest connections its editorial team has and asks.

If enough cool people agree on a particular neighbourhood, it is to be knighted.

On this year’s list, Toronto’s own Davenport neighbourhood — the stretch of the same-named street roughly contained by Bathurst to the east, Lansdowne to the west and Dupont to the south — earned itself an impressive 26th spot on the list of 39 neighbourhoods.

Cool folk don’t concern themselves with whole numbers.

If you’re looking to up your street cred by visiting the neighbourhood, you’ll need all the sustenance you can get. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best spots to eat and drink in the Davenport area:

Eat

The restaurants in this area run the gamut from quick and casual to outright upscale, so there’s something that’ll feed your appetite, whatever it may be.

For a quick lunch, swing by the Michelin-recommended Famiglia Baldassarre. Here, Chef Leandro Baldassarre churns out daily pasta lunch specials from noon to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. Be warned, even if you arrive before they open, there will be a line. Yes, it’s one worth waiting in.

The quaint Annabelle Pasta Bar is another excellent option for satisfying your carb cravings. Its pasta menu rotates regularly, and is supplemented with a lunchtime sandwich service and a selection of small bites, with curated wine, beer, cocktail and mocktail menus that tie the whole thing together.

On a special occasion (or if you’re just feeling fancy), General Public is the place to go. The ’70s-inspired rooms — we’re talking wood pannelling and pink velvet — are undeniably cool, even to those whose radars need some fine-tuning, and the menu, full of spruced-up takes on familiar staples, is full of crowd pleasers.

For an even more special occasion, head to the aloof 1147 Ristorante. Located inside a design studio and gallery, the restaurant, helmed by chefs Flavio Catania and Michele Rabazzi, only seats 16. Exclusivity, we’re told, is cool.

Looking for a crowd-pleaser? Check out Geary Avenue’s Parallel Brothers for Middle Eastern cuisine, including some of the best falafel in the entire city.

Drink

All that eating calls for something to wash it down, and beverages are, unsurprisingly, abounding in this neighbourhood.

Too early in the day for something with a kick to it? Head to The Sovereign Cafe for a dose of java and, if you’re feeling frisky, an utterly unbelievable blueberry scone.

If you, like us, fall into the “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” camp, check out Paradise Grapevine‘s Geary location and find yourself ensconced in a veritable wonderland of natural wines. We might be approaching the end of patio season, but a glass (or three) of its Party Favour orange wine al fresco is a different level of bliss.

For the hop heads among us, Blood Brothers Brewing is just down the street, serving up to 26 different beers on tap in their enormous, industrial taproom.

At the corner of Geary and Dufferin, you’ll land on The Greater Good, a playful, no-frills bar with a smattering of arcade games and, most importantly, a North of Brooklyn Pizza location attached. Drinking on an empty stomach is not to be tolerated.

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Etc.

When you find yourself inevitably unprepared for the night to end, you can pick the party up at Standard Time, a listening bar and record shop that hosts lively events — even food pop-ups — regularly.

Just beyond the confines of Davenport, near the intersection of Dupont and Dundas, you’ll find Cafeteria, a hub for techno and deep house music on the ground floor and art exhibitions and special events upstairs.

Whatever you choose to do, rest in the knowledge that it’s officially cooler than anything you’d be doing elsewhere. Time Out has deemed it so.

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