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Ficoa
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Ficoa is bright and unpretentious, with an array of tasting menus, programming, snacks and more that defy categorization. With contemporary Canadian cuisine that’s guided as much by the seasons as it is by chef Gerry Quintero’s playful approach to cooking, there’s no telling what you might find at College Street’s newest fine-dining spot.
If tasting menus and haute cuisine make you think of stuffy locales where rules outnumber the amount of dishes alighting on the table, rest assured that Ficoa deviates from the norm. Freshened up from its days as Il Covo, the space flaunts white walls, golden touches and a modern, airy feel. Having a mandarin orange as its emblem (a nod to the owner’s childhood in Ficoa, Ecuador) just bolsters the restaurant’s cheery aura.
Yes, you can drop a not-altogether-insignificant amount of cash at Ficoa. In doing so, though, you’ll taste your way through a multitude of unique courses, sip on drinks personalized to your tastes and never feel an ounce of imposter-style disquiet, thanks to the restaurant’s, and the team’s, familiar, friendly feel.
Best known for he and partner Mandy Sou’s pop-up-turned café and caterer, Alma + Gil, chef Quintero brings a passion for global cuisine, complex cooking, seasonality and running a zero-waste kitchen to his role at Ficoa.
“The menu,” he laughs “is all over the place but it makes sense once you see it.” At Ficoa, he cooks with few, if any, restrictions. Quintero’s food is locally grown and, when not in season, is served in a fermented or preserved state from when it was. “We work on hot, cold, sweet, sour savoury, etc.,” he adds. “That’s the progression.”
Bar and late-night menus offer a first glimpse at Quintero’s intricate approach. Not just any bar mix, the team’s Bar Granola is an amazingly complicated, nut-free cocktail of salty, crispy components. Have you ever thought of making something akin to Pringles by dehydrating seasoned mashed potatoes? Or to bloom tapioca starch and mix it with cooked quinoa before frying it and dousing it with house-made all-dressed seasoning? Quintero has and its delicious, especially when mixed with roasted popcorn, pepitas and shell-on pumpkin seeds.
Salty and sweet, the olive bowl at Ficoa is a mix of seven varieties, roasted Moscato grapes, and mandarin-scented oil with rosemary, thyme and garlic. An order is a no-brainer with any of the team’s drinks, including house-made kombucha or the easy-drinking Casanova, made with strawberry-infused gin, pomegranate, lime and sumac.
Served with black garlic and brie-cheese dip, Fried Mushroom Bites are the type of savoury snack that disappears, handfuls at a time.
Dishes that should, in some capacity, join the tasting menu lineup, the Ficoa Burger and GQ Fried Chicken bulk up the late-night menu. Made from house-ground beef and a triple-cheese mix resting on a pillowy brioche bun, the burger is substantial and a properly juicy, drippy mess. Chef’s deboned half fried chicken, meanwhile, is required eating and a bargain at just $18. A dish that necessitates multiple levels of dredging, it’s golden enough to tell you it’ll be good before you even take a bit. Crumbly and brittle, sided by aioli and chili jam, it’s a solid choice for night owl’s in search of sustenance.
There are three tasting menu options at Ficoa, ranging from the Neighbourhood Menu, requiring the least commitment (of time and funds) to the three-hour Golden Ticket, an all-inclusive option available almost exclusively to members (more on that later).
Available at 5 p.m., the Neighbourhood Menu “takes about an hour and a half,” says chef Quintero. “It comes with a welcome drink and a snack set. We ask what you prefer, bubbly, kombucha, a mocktail.” The menu also includes a first course, choice of main and a dessert.
The team’s core menu, the grander Ficoa Tasting Menu, is comprised of 16 dishes across seven courses. “When you arrive, you’re taken into a lounge. It gets you relaxed,” explains Quintero. “We receive you there with snacks and a welcome drink. Then you get brought into the dining room for the tasting menu. You’re not sitting down for three hours in the same spot.”
For this option, the team offers the optional chef’s beverage pairing, which includes cocktails or mocktails, spirits and wines, or a traditional wine pairing. “The wine menu is very much what is unusual and not as common,” adds Quintero. “We have lots of lesser-known brands and varietals, like a white pinot noir. We’re trying to load up the wine cellar with very unique wines.”
Sit down to any of the team’s tastings and the inspiration for dishes will flit from one country to another, will showcase seasonal stars and is likely to be different on every visit. “There’s some similarity to our feasts [at Alma +Gil],” explains Quintero. “It shows that we know a wide variety of food. The menu doesn’t have a background really, it’s contemporary Canadian. Very Toronto and very diverse.”
Currently, that translates to dishes like a snack platter with pork and truffle sausage, celeriac truffle soup and Mimosa Springs trout with Savoy cabbage kimchi. There’s a dewy salad of Boston lettuce leaves dressed up with pickled onions and heirloom tomatoes. Rib-eye steak arrives with roasted onion salsa and dry-aged duck sits atop chile morita barbecue sauce and mushroom onion jam. Potatoes are lavished with Fontina cheese and butter and fermented brine and coconut aminos lift roasted mushrooms al ajillo to their full potential. In keeping with the citrus emblem, there is also, adds Quintero, “always a dessert with mandarins,” be it a puff pastry tart or a mandarin-perfumed marshmallow.
In all, the tasting represents a dizzying amount of effort and ingredients, and a parade of plates likely to leave diners breathless.
Curious to see (and taste) more? Though it’s a relatively unheard of concept in Toronto, Ficoa offers memberships for diners keen on repeat visits and the promise of perks. Two membership options — Golden and Corporate — include restaurant credits, early access to reservations, tickets to special events, and more.
A place where ingredients are met with unbridled enthusiasm and freedom, Ficoa brings something entirely new to the College Street strip. “For myself and the cooks, it’s very fun,” explains Quintero. "We can draw from anywhere and do whatever we want with ingredients,” he adds. Is a world of possibilities and limitless options a category? If so, that's exactly where Ficoa belongs.
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