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Steakhouse
Harbour 60
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Refurbished, expanded and literally gleaming, Harbour 60 has reopened its doors to reveal the ultimate multimillion-dollar glow-up. Trimmed in marble and leather, cheeky animal prints juxtaposed against hazy photos of a gilded, bygone age, it partners modern opulence with the bravado of a legendary culinary icon. Reborn? Yes. Yet, its premium steak house menu and sweeping wine selection leave no ambiguity about its storied past.
“Harbour 60 is a legacy restaurant. It’s been here for 25 years,” says executive chef, Solomon Mason. “They’ve done a really good job at solidifying themselves as a leader in the luxury steak space.”
Originally opened by the Nikolaou family in 1999, Harbour 60 brought steak house swagger to the historic Toronto Harbour Commission Building. Irresistible to fat cats and celebrities, revellers and tourists, it became synonymous with quality and sophistication as it cemented its position in Toronto’s fine-dining scene.
Now expanded to two floors, the restaurant is not only bolder but significantly bigger than before. Its reincarnation includes two private dining rooms, The Vintages Room and The Commissioner’s Room, a majestic, oak-paneled hideaway currently flaunting a divisive quantity of zebra-patterned upholstery.
With the port authority now completely out of the building, the team has also taken over the upper floors — the third now home to Estelle, a private event space, and Arianna, an Italian restaurant, capping things off on the fourth.
“A little bit of inspiration (for Harbour 60) was actually Annabel’s,” explains co-owner, Daniel Nikolaou, casually name-dropping the tony private member’s club where London’s elite are known to play. “It’s a super popular spot where every floor is kind of a different vibe,” he adds. “We had that in mind; to recreate Harbour 60 but give people different atmospheres and experiences on the different floors and kind of keep everyone in the building.”
Whether you begin your night at Arianna then retreat downstairs or vice versa, a night spent at 60 Harbour Street is designed to make an impression.
Start things off with something to sip on. Cocktails, says beverage director, Steve MacNeil, were intentionally designed using top-quality or hard-to-find ingredients. The idea, he says is “to upgrade classics and also provide something that’s hard for guests to make at home.” Beyond flavour, consistency is key.
Laced with Carpano Bianco and house goldenberry syrup, The Golden Goose is an “elevated gin and tonic,” where a jumble of tart, sweet and herbal notes find a way to play nice. Tinged the soothing colour of a tropical bay, The Harbour Master blends precious drops of Yellow Chartreuse with a duo of rums and house pineapple cordial.
If cocktail decisions are simplified by a relatively succinct list, the restaurant’s encyclopaedic wine catalogue complicates the act of ordering a bottle. A tome dedicated to the locales 21,000 bottles, it includes everything from a $15,500 bottle of Pétrus to a crisp, citrusy Koshu from Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture.
“Steak houses have a reputation to have a very predictable wine list, California, Bordeaux wines, Super Tuscans,” explains wine director, Christian Hamel. “We have the best of all these categories. But we really wanted to angle it to have a wine list that could excite everybody. We have clients who are very well off, they’ve had everything. What we can offer is something they’ve never heard of.”
Despite first impressions, the list also jumps from the exorbitant to the approachable. “I wanted to make sure that, if we have that table that’s been saving up for weeks, we’ll have the best wine for $60 on the list. There’s variety in prices and in styles. It’s not an afterthought.”
Intentionality, says chef Mason, was also at the core of Harbour 60’s refreshed menu. “There was an opportunity to build on our steak program, take it to the next level,” he says. “We moved all of our aging and butchery in-house. We really wanted to have a broad range of different cuts from different regions, from different breeds of animal with different diets. We want to have a lot of intention behind the steaks that we’re serving and showcase what the best that we can possibly source would be.”
Under the watch of a top-notch team of butchers, a range of steaks—Canadian and USDA Prime, Australian Wagyu, even Kobe— are wet-aged, dry-aged, or both, until they reach their peak.
Caramelized under the white-hot fire of a Southbend Broiler, they’re lacquered in roasted beef fat and seasoned “simply with flaky salt and secret seasoning that’s been a staple in the restaurant since day one.” Feel the need to souse that Maillard-generated goodness? Go “light,” with a kicky chimichurri or punchy peppercorn jus, or embrace the excess of it all with properly buttery Béarnaise or lip-slicking torrents of crab-dotted butter.
In the form of sides, other throwbacks include Creamed Arrowleaf Spinach and bronze-hued Hand Cut Fries. XO sauce and parmesan breadcrumbs blanket a bed of tender, oil-kissed Brussels sprouts, while Gruyère-kissed bechamel cloaks a cluster of canestri in über-indulgent Baked Macaroni & Cheese.
As part of the restaurant’s crudo program, fish is also dry-aged to intensify its flavour and improve its mouthfeel. “We were improving the steak program and thought, ‘How do we do the same with the fish?,’” explains Mason. “The texture breaks down and becomes really velvety and beautiful,” he adds, as in the case of Japanese Madai served with a delicate cloud of coconut curry foam, a sweet smattering of celtuce and radish slices, for a sharp pop of flavour.
Beyond crudo, the steak house does seafood in the form of classic (if astonishingly large) Shrimp Cocktail and a crisp, golden Crab Cake sat atop a butter-thinned pool of punchy tartar sauce.
Green Goddess salad finds gem lettuce accessorized for the party with a verdant, herb-flecked avocado dressing, a flurry of dill, and sprinkling of roasted pistachios.
Understanding that diners crave variety, Harbour 60’s new menu extends to pastas, poultry and fish, many, such as hoisin-glossed short ribs, made with traditionally Asian ingredients. “Our teams are diverse, our guests are diverse,” explains Mason. “We didn’t want this restaurant to be somewhere that could exist anywhere. Harbour 60 exists here in the city of Toronto and it should feel like it exists in Toronto.”
Flaunting a fatty, flavourful patty made from a blend of short rib and sirloin, the 8 oz H60 Burger could only come out of one local kitchen. With onion bacon preserve, Comté cheese and pickle, all layered onto a sesame-crusted, house-made bun, it’s the ultimate lowbrow-highbrow mashup.
Following it up with any dessert is overkill. But with options like Baked Alaska and Hong Kong French Toast, it’s arguable that your fate was sealed before you set foot in the building.
Equally showstopping, is a mile-high Coconut Cream Pie sporting a spiky crown of white chocolate shards. Creamy and lush, significantly modernized, thanks to a few judicious tweaks and upgrades, it’s ready to wow a new generation.
Another holdover, Carrot Cake is generously spiced and moist, its cream cheese frosting generously hugging every curve.
“The point of Harbour 60 and this whole renovation, is really to bring people together in this space,” says Mason. “Having such a beautiful room, a beautiful wine list and beautiful steaks on offer is a really great way for people to come together, make friendships, and really have fun and enjoy themselves in Toronto.”
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