I understand the impulse for chefs to revisit classic dishes and comfort food staples — the kind of fare you might order off a slightly sticky laminated menu or a grease-stained brochure. What I don’t understand is revisitation without reimagination, especially when the dishes are being sold for premium prices.
That’s the crux of why I left Matty Matheson’s new restaurant Bar Clams disappointed.
The eatery opened its doors to the public on Friday and is billed as a Maritimes-style diner, harkening back to the celebrity chef’s childhood growing up in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
On the menu are East Coast favourites like Halifax’s donair and Newfoundland’s Jigg’s dinner of corned beef and cabbage. (People from Newfoundland generally hate being labelled as Maritimers so I’m sure that choice isn’t going over well out east.)
When I browsed through the menu before heading to the restaurant, I, like many others online, noted how high the prices were for what is usually considered cheap, unpretentious food.
Thirty-five dollars for cod and chips was particularly eyebrow raising.
I hoped the quality and creativity of the dishes would justify the high prices but instead I was met with straightforward interpretations and small portion sizes.
The meal started off with six fresh oysters for $24. The shellfish were juicy and firm and bursting with flavour. No complaints there, except for the bottle that leaked red wine vinegar all over my hand each time I used it.
Next up were the fried clam strips and bellies served with cocktail and tartar sauces, which came in a pitifully small bowl for $35. I found the batter to be too thick and the overall bite was under-seasoned if eaten without a hearty dollop of one of the sauces.
Nothing about this dish justified the steep price tag, in my opinion. It lacked both flavour and imagination.
Our servers brought out the crab dip at the same time, topped with bread crumbs and accompanied with six saltines. The bread crumbs failed to add much crunch or textural contrast to the dish, but I was impressed with the quality of the crab.
The folks at Bar Clams certainly have great seafood providers because the dip left a strong lingering flavour of crab on the taste buds even after the plate was polished off. Given how expensive crab is, I can see why this dish cost $26 but at that price, a couple more saltines wouldn’t hurt — or dare I say, a more creative cracker choice.
Next was the Jigg’s dinner, a Sunday evening staple in Newfoundland that involves boiling beef brisket or corned beef with cabbage and root vegetables like potatoes and turnips all in one big pot.
The standout on this plate were the root vegetables, made so succulent (nearly juicy) by the gentle boiling and imbued with a mellow beef-y flavour. The brisket was good but nothing to write home about. The dish was accented with a side of breadcrumbs that tasted like Thanksgiving stuffing but turned soggy early into eating.
At risk of sounding like a broken record, for $36 I expected more from this plate. A Jigg’s dinner is not a technically hard dish to pull off, so I anticipated Matheson would do more to elevate it and make it his own.
Dessert was the Hello Dollies, made up of layers of graham crackers, chocolate, caramel and shredded coconut. This dessert usually comes in the form of bars, but the Bar Clams staff served it warm in a skillet with cold cream poured over table-side.
Such a decadent dessert begs for some acidity and brightness to round it out, but no such addition could be found. Visually, the dish fell flat, as well.
I would be remiss not to mention that the service at Bar Clams was excellent and our waiters were attentive and welcoming. They were the real stars of the show.
I applaud Matheson for bringing homey, East Coast flavours to Toronto but I think he missed the mark.
While promoting the launch of the restaurant, Matheson posted a photo to his Instagram of the Blue Goose Restaurant in Desable, P.E.I., writing: “THIS ONES FOR YOU GRAMPY MATHESON.”
Matheson’s grandfather owned the roadside institution, he told CBC’s Tom Power in an on-stage interview.
“I think my love of restaurants maybe comes from the love of my grandfather," he said at the time.
It’s a moving tribute to open a restaurant in honour of a loved one. But I think Matheson missed a great opportunity to bring a bit of Blue Goose charm to Toronto with a real greasy spoon diner.
Toronto is full of fine-dining-adjacent restaurants where patrons shell out $150-$200 for dinner, but what we’re lacking downtown are the joints with cheap food and big portions that serve as community spaces.
Restaurants like the Blue Goose endure over decades because of what they mean to the communities they reside in. They fill vital niches, feeding neighbours and giving the community a place to gather.
I fear the only people gathering at Bar Clams are the well-off Torontonians that already have a smorgasbord of other options to dine at.
