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The Playbook Commons
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When you walk into the Playbook Commons, you’re greeted by a small space with a big meaning. The Garden Bar serves as a hospitality double entendre, as it boasts a lot of floral themes, but also serves as an homage to some of sports’ great venues - Madison Square Garden, TD Garden, and Maple Leaf Gardens. And it works as a sort of appetizer for what Vito Cristiano, the VP of Hospitality at ownership group Harlo Entertainment calls the main event - the gigantic, light-drenched main restaurant with a huge bar and hanging televisions.
“We built a lot of different neighbourhoods and areas where guest can enjoy themselves,” Cristiano says. “The sight lines to the TVs aren’t cut off, so you can still feel immersed in the experience while still having some sense of privacy and intimacy.”
It’s all designed to feel, in a way, like a guest is entering someone’s home, and isn’t there for the traditional sports bar experience. Instead, the intent is to make people feel comfortable and welcome, to elevate game night with art and Italian fare. On the TVs not showing live sports, there won’t be replays or muted highlight shows. Instead, a collaboration with artists allows the restaurant to show digitized images of beautiful landscapes from around the world, brought to life with effects and, in some cases, restored to their former glory.
“Sports is at the forefront, for sure,” Cristiano says. “It’s a massive component of the experience here. But we also wanted to make something that was more elevated, refined, but still very playful and approachable.”
The pepperoni cups are served New York style, with hot honey on the side to drizzle. “We use Venetian pepperoni,” Zou says. “It took us a while to source the right sizing, ones that give us the right char and crisp while having that cupping effect. Venetian doesn’t really sell this size to the public, so I had to send my chef to drive to pick these up from the factory.”
“We get our branzino fresh every morning,” says head chef Jia Zou. “The filet is cured in salt and sugar, and when we plate it, we drizzle it with a little bit of prosecco, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and Vancouver Island sea salt.” The result is a fresh, bright crudo that’s light and flavourful.
One of the more unique dishes on the menu is the sweet corn arancini, made with a risotto of brown butter, corn, and grana padano cheese, served with a brown butter aioli and housemade mayo. “This dish is inspired from when I was working at Auberge du Pommier,” Zou says. “One of the dishes was a sweet corn soup. The prep took me hours and hours to do, but I loved drinking the steeped corn and milk byproduct. That flavour inspired this dish.”
The prime New York strip is derived from exclusively Canadian beef, and everything is either AAA or Canadian prime from small farms. It’s served with a mushroom peppercorn sauce, a fusion of bourdelaise, Steak Diane, and peppercorn sauces.
“The green goddess asparagus is actually one of my favourite dishes on the menu,” Zou says. “One of my pet peeves is overcooked asparagus. So we do ours a bit differently - we use raw asparagus, drizzle a little bit of olive oil and salt on it and throw it on the grill.” The green goddess sauce its topped with is made with thyme, tarragon and chive flavours.
The spicy vodka rigatoni is an Italian-American staple, made famous by places like Carbone in New York. The Playbook Commons version boasts the same creamy sauce but adds the Venetian pepperoni cups for a bit of a twist.
“The lasagna rotolo took a lot of trial and error,” Zou says. “We had so many renditions, working with different sizing, different fillings.” The final product is made with spinach, ricotta, béchamel, fontina, pecorino and spicy marinara all rolled together in layers.
The Basque cheesecake is given a special twist when it’s bruleed tableside, creating a crunchy, sweet flavour.
The Rose Coloured Glasses is a light, refreshing drink - the restaurant’s fusion of a sour and an Aperol spritz. It’s made with Grey Goose, St. Germain, Aperol, egg whites, lemon, and honey and, just like the name suggests, will melt all the day’s troubles away.
The Count Me In is a version of a Negroni, made with Don Julio Reposado, Campari, Cinzano Rosso, and Amontillado sherry. Its served tableside with a stamped ice cube.
Simple yet satisfying, the Liquid Sunshine is essentially a Limoncello spritz with soda. But its made different with the addition of a scoop of sorbet, which can be mixed into the drink and enjoyed like a dessert and a cocktail at the same time.
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