We’ll see you in there.
Connect to customize your food & drink discovery.
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Hot Pork
If you like this, you’ll also like:
Toronto chef Michael Synowicki likes to say that he grew up with pork in his blood
“My dad is from Toronto, but both sides of his family are Ukrainian so I grew up eating plenty of pork,” explains Synowicki. “I definitely have that Eastern European blood in me that craves pork regularly. I couldn’t live without it.”
Viewed his porcine predilections, Synowicki seemed destined to open a deli-charcuterie on Dundas West called Hot Pork.
The only surprise was that it took some 40 years for Fate to kick in.
When Synowicki was a boy, his father owned of one of Toronto’s pioneering fine food stores, Stan’s Food Fair, on Yonge north of Eglinton. Both his parents were gourmands and accomplished home cooks who prohibited their young son from setting foot in McDonald’s. It was little wonder that this well-fed youth grew up nourishing plans to be a fine dining chef, plans he set into motion when he moved to Vancouver at age 21 to enrol in culinary school.
At school, Synowicki acquired expertise as well as serious student debt, which he discovered he could pay off more quickly by working in the upscale kitchens of big chain hotels. “When you’re in a compromised position and things start going your way, you go with the flow.” notes Synowicki.
He went with the flow for the next 13 years, moving through various Marriott locations before landing a prize job as chef at Toronto’s King Edward. “It gave me a good life and I felt my career path was defined, that I’d always work for large corporations,” confesses Synowicki.
Then the pandemic arrived and he suddenly found himself working (pro bono) as “personal chef” to his wife and their roommate. When his money began running out, with mortgage payments looming, he realized “I better start doing something.
Although he had several ideas kicking around in his head, Synowicki also tapped into those more primal pork cravings coursing through his blood, cravings that had been activated as a young boy when he began making sausages with his dad, who had outfitted the basement with butchery equipment. Since then, over the decades he and his father have routinely gotten together to make sausages. Among their favourites, a hot Italian sausage, a Maltese sausage (Synowicki’s mother’s background is Maltese) and a breakfast patty became the three original items with which Synowicki decided to launched a new business, which he named Chef Michael’s Gourmet.
He began hawking his sausages via Instagram. But as the pandemic waned and demand soared, Synowicki began occupying stands at various pop-ups and venues including The Junction and Eglinton Way farmers markets. By then, the admittedly restless Synowicki had become “bored” with just sausages and had invested in a smoker. In keeping with farmers markets’ early hours, in addition to his packaged products, Synowicki started offering hungry morning customers freshly grilled smoked pork belly and brisket sandwiches.
The line-ups for his sandwiches were such that Synowicki felt it was “a no-brainer” to open a restaurant where he could sell them along with a constantly expanding stable of both frozen and vacuum sealed products. In addition to the smoked meats and globally-inspired sausages (Mexican chorizo, Irish, Hmong Vietnamese), such products, all hand-made, run the gamut from pickles, pates and jars of hearty soup to citrus-cured salmon, sausage rolls and Char Siu Chinese barbecued pork.
If Synowicki had never rationally considered opening his own restaurant, his subconscious had. “Hot Pork came to me in a vision,” he relates. “I don’t know if it was a daydream or a dream, but a couple of years ago I just saw it in my head; a white box, and inside was ‘Hot Pork’ in pink neon. I thought about it a lot, but kept it a secret from most people.”
However, in 2023, when he stumbled upon a Portuguese sports bar on Dundas West, within spitting distance of Trinity Bellwoods Park, Synowicki began transforming the vision into reality. After converting the basement into a kitchen with a walk-in freezer (the smoker is out in the back alley), he went to work gutting the upstairs. The resulting space, with both counter and table seating, is bright and futuristic with a retro edge and lots of glossy white and jet black. (“When it comes down to it, I’m a metal head,” confesses Synowicki, “I’ve spent most of my life wearing, and loving, black.”).
Amid the monochrome are splashes of colour. One wall is dominated by a blown-up photo of a pixilated blue-green mountainscape, the work of Synowicki’s wife, artist Jennie Suddick, who gave it to him despite her misgivings it would ruin the vibe (it doesn’t!) In addition to some plastic orchids gifted by Synowicki’s mother (“You need some flowers in there to make the place nicer.”), there are also real orchids, gifted by Synowicki’s landlord who was unaware of his green thumblessness (to date, it looks as reassuringly healthy as its artificial doppelganger).
Fittingly, the biggest pop of colour emanates from the hot pink neon “Hot Pork” sign in the window. “Pink is not my colour,” stresses Synowicki. “But in my mind, Toronto is a cheeky, in-your-face, bold personality kind of place. So I wanted a sign that was fun, with style.”
While the hot pink “Hot Pork” may lure you into the restaurant, the real thing – in the form of a pork belly breakfast sandwich – will keep you coming back for more. After marinating for 12 hours in a BBQ spice mix, the pork belly is smoked in-house (actually in-alley) for eight hours. Crisped up on a flat-top, the thick, tender and oh-so-smoky slabs are topped with a fried egg, BBQ sauce and mayo, then piled into an English muffin. Before you even lay eyes upon this beast, the wafting scent will have you salivating.
Another not so small slice of carnivore heaven comes in the form of the smoked beef brisket sandwich. Six substantial ounces of AAA brisket are paired with tangy aged white cheddar and creamy cole slaw, all wedged between a pillowy challah bun from Lev bakery.
It goes without saying that Synowicki is a devoted carnivore, yet he’s an equally staunch believer in the right of vegetarians and vegans to enjoy themselves as well. The enjoyment he has in mind is profound and comes in the form of a fried cauliflower sandwich. Spiked with za'atar, the cauliflower – crisp outside, tender inside – is topped with fresh tabouleh and doused in lemon tahini sauce, then sandwiched into a challah bun.
That Hot Pork’s offerings are simple should not be taken to mean that they’re tame or timid. On the contrary, the flavours, distilled to their very essence, are off-the-charts. “Food-wise I’ve always believed in substance over style,” confesses Synowicki. “I love fine dining, but if you ask me my favourite restaurants in Toronto, the majority are places you can get out of for less than $25. I find them comforting.”
Perhaps there’s nothing quite so classically comforting as a burger and fries. In keeping with the Hot Pork name, all of Synowicki’s burgers are 100 pork and traffic in some degree of heat. Most are made from patty versions of his sausages. The Korean gochujang burger, for example, is made from a gochujang sausage inspired by all the Korean take-out that Synowicki consumed during Covid lockdown.
There’s also a Red Thai curry four-ounce burger (eight ounces if you opt for a double), based on a traditional chiang mai sausage from northern Thailand. Seasoned with red curry paste, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and Thai chilis along with onion and garlic, the flavours are complex and just the right shade of piquant. Piled into a challah bun, the burger gets a fresh, tropical lift from lime aioli and a crunchy green mango salad.
As for the fries, they’re hand-cut and served in the form of poutine, along with fresh Quebecois cheese curds and rich, dark gravy. Of course, this isn’t just any gravy – it’s gravy made from the drippings of both the smoked brisket and the smoked pork belly. The results are so groaningly addictive that once you’ve demolished the fries and curds, you’re going to lick every last, stray drop off the white and black checkerboard paper lining the basket.
At the moment, drinks are limited to the soft variety, San Pellegrino sodas and Cokes, as well as Ting, a citrusy Jamaican pop that was a favourite of Synowicki’s growing up, but whose cool, effervescence and zing pairs nicely with all the meaty offerings. However, once Hot Pork’s liquor license kicks in, expect a selection of local craft brews and wines (hand-chosen by Synowicki’s dad, now a wine importer), ideal companions especially once picnic season at Trinity Bellwoods kicks in and opening hours (currently covering breakfast and lunch) stretch into the evening.
As for the menu, as Synowicki points out, the fact that it’s listed on a blackboard gives him permission to come up with new offerings on an ongoing basis. That said, some items are definitely sticking around based on fervent popular acclaim.
To illustrate the degree of Hot Pork customers’ enthusiasm, Synowicki launches into an anecdote: “Just today, this guy comes in and orders two sandwiches, a brisket and a pork belly. While he’s eating them, he calls me over and asks, ‘How do you do this? How do you make this beef sandwich taste like this? How does it get crispy like this? This is unreal!’.”
“He eats both sandwiches, then orders some products to take home. When I come out with his order, instead of leaving, he says to me, ‘I think I’ll have a pork sausage patty breakfast sandwich.’ So I make him one and after he eats his third sandwich, he leaves.”
Although that’s the end of Synowicki’s anecdote, it’s only the beginning of the story. If this guy is anything like Hot Pork’s rapidly growing roster of regulars, you can bet he’ll be back tomorrow for another sandwich (or three).
Recommended For You
