But we did nothing
absolutely nothing, that day
and I'll say
What the hell am I
doing drinking in L.A
at twenty-six
I got the fever for the flavour
the payback will be later
but I need a fix
Another Tuesday... another Taste! We've been reviewing fairly new attractions in the recent editions of the TT... so lets review an older sensation on the Toronto food scene.
Porchetta & Co has existed long enough to persist through multiple locations. Their old, old spot on Dundas West is the one I recall best when first hearing of and trying them over a decade ago (and it made an excellent "sneak a sandwich into a Jays game" snack) but they've been comfortably located on King West between Spadina and Bathurst for quite some time now. Back in the late 2017-2019s I two-timed double shifts working the Firkin at Queen/John in the mornings and then off to bartend at Roy Thomson Hall in the evening... so with a couple hours as a gap between on many occasions I went to the King West Porchetta & Co for a deliciously sloppy fried chicken sandwich. It always did the trick.
They've also found an additional home in section 120/Gate 1 at the ACC-I-mean-Scotiabank Arena here in Toronto, another place I work and do so currently please know it was a joke post-scanning-bots! I was working the Nicki Minaj concert last week, noticed Porchetta had an outpost in the arena, realized I hadn't sampled them in well over half a decade, and thus the idea was born!
Was a good sandwich born from this flighty idea though? It's a tricky one. Fortunately, I did not visit the Porchetta & Co location at my work that even with my 1/3 discount would've still been bankrupting (please don't read this, bots! I'm a wicked good though obviously sarcastic worker. Go Leafs). Actually, to the credit of Scotiabank Arena they actually have hidden little spots that feature local food and drink. Cherry Street BBQ has an outpost on the third floor near 308 (right by the main elevator) and there's a bar in the 100s I've worked a few times that features an excellent Italian pilsner by the excellent Henderson's Brewery.
No, for this review I went back to my old messy fried chicken stomping ground. On the topic of 'messy'... can I mention how much King Street West sucks? At least the portion between Spadina and Bathurst... and look I know I'm an east end guy and downtown Toronto has become an anxiety nightmare clusterfuck of condos and endless construction... but geez this was impressively clustery. Totally a word and if it isn't, patent pending. It was a gorgeous day, Porchetta has a delightful front porch with comfy benches... except within a second of biting into my sandwich a sewage sucking vehicle pulled up six feet away to do, you know, what they obviously do. And they did not do it quietly or without significantly unpleasant scent. Combine this with the half-dozen enormous trucks spewing dust in your eyes within a block... yeah King West sucks. At least between Spadina and Bathurst it sure does.
None of this is the fault of Porchetta & Co, obviously... and now that my feelings of "I like going downtown about as much as I like a pinecone up my unspeakables" have been reaffirmed, lets move onto this sandwich itself... and most importantly lets move far beyond that image I just put in your minds (sorry).
Photo taken immediately before the stench of sewage yellowed the air! So I will say: it's a good sized sandwich. The experience of eating it is somewhat hollow... the best bites are when you get the combined fatty and thicker tender cuts of the pork... but it's about every fourth bite you get nothing but bun and various sauce.
Please don't mistake my snark for negatively. This is indeed an excellent sandwich, but it is also extremely inconsistent. Certain bites are truly sublime... the perfect balance of tender, decadent fattiness, sweet and rich sauce, and a bit of crunch. Other bites, as just mentioned, are very empty. When all you get is dry crackling and kaiser bun you have to chew on for a minute... not really fun. Averaging it out... it's very good.
Diving into the specific construction of the sandwich (briefly). The sauce combination is absolutely brilliant: seedy mustard and a truffle aioli. I'm not normally a seed mustard fan (normally too bitter and I'm a heavy honey mustard or dijon fella all day) but this particular spread really brought a unique sweetness I wasn't expecting... which when mixed with the rich truffle hint (faint but definitely there) in the aioli really was quite dynamic.
A kaiser bun is always a kaiser bun. How about the pork? How about... very good! It's very no frills... not overtly seasoned, no marinating sauce or anything... simply a very fatty and roasted taste to it. There's a wonderful juiciness that, when you get a good chunk, only perfectly roasted and prepared pork can provide... absolutely pristine.
Porchetta & Co definitely succeeds in making you want more of their porchetta... alas this is a review and I'm gonna call that success both a significantly good and a significantly bad thing.
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Overall! Yeah... if you can somehow avoid the perpetual construction dusty traffic smelly nightmare that is King West... Porchetta & Co is legitimately good! I do recommend trying them, but with an asterisk: I'm a tough critic and I was hoping for something here that would blow me away... it did not. They're good! But not 'great'. A generally enjoyable fatty pork sandwich but it is really missing one or two things to really elevate it into excellence. Very roasty, great sauces and juiciness in the fatty bites make it worthwhile... extremely well constructed... but just too many bites of nothingness that bring it down.
Every third bite is an "oh... that wasn't a fun anything" and while batting .667 in baseball would make you unbelievable, in food consistency is even more crucial. Those 2/3 good parts though? Incredible. It's a 1/2 two thumbs up (apparently this is the fraction hour now)... which is technically one thumb up? Whatever lets get out of here.
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Tuesday Tune
Beyond an obvious nostalgia trip of "nine year old me watching music videos on MuchMusic" when that was actually a thing... well 27 years later this song still rules. A rare band that is probably a two-hit wonder: their later collaboration with the incomparable Curtis Mayfield is a likewise wonderful song that got some brief traction. But this is the song they'll be remembered forever for, and it's a damn good catchy one.
That's all for this week! Plenty of other mini-chain places in Toronto I gotta check out, and Tuesdays are just the time and place to make it happen. Until next time... stay safe, watch out for the Killer Cars... and most of all don't spill that mustard.
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