November 13 2010
The Nook and Cranny
3106 Portage Avenue
(Where Schmeckers used to be)
Hours of operation:
Mon-Fri – 9 am - 1am
Sat & Sun – 8 am - 1 am
(hours subject to change)
Breakfast Special - $7.00 (includes coffee),
$7.84 after tax
Bill Parafidis took over The Nook on Sherbrook Street when his father died a few years ago. Bill guided the restaurant in a new direction with renovations, installing a bar with a big flat-screen TV and closing the place in the evenings. The once awesome Nook-at-night has been a memory for a few years. But now Bill’s got his big boy pants on and has opened up a new Nook location in St. James that compares to the original Nook like Back to the Future II compares to Back to the Future I – it’s shinier, more modern and costs more. Oh, and it’s awesome.
A quick paint-job and an thorough airing-out of Schmeckers later and we have The Nook and Cranny. The restaurant had been serving food for about a week by the time we arrived, but the grand opening won’t be until around Monday the 22nd. The dates have yet to be settled, but they are getting their liquor licence on Monday the 15th.
The green aprons and sleeve tattoos of the attractive servers on Sherbrook are nowhere to be seen (though I love them so). The new location has professional-looking uniforms and nary a tattoo in sight. From our vantage, it seemed that there were equal numbers of female and male servers, something I’d never seen in the Sherbrook one in my years of going there.
The breakfast menu remains similar to its West Broadway progenitor, with the breakfast special and range of omelettes (now called the “Parafidis” omelettes, according to the menu). A few things were new though – the coffee was great! Seriously, such a difference. I also liked the addition of multigrain toast in place of white to the toast trinity of white, brown or rye. The rest of the breakfast was just as I remember it from Sherbrook – same mushy potatoes I can’t help but like, same good bacon and same eggs. Even the same slice of orange on the side and jam packets. Always remember to order your hashbrowns crispy, or see if they have the option of pan fries (we didn’t think to ask).
