French fast food has now made its way to Toronto in the form of tacos.
After a successful soft opening on July 27, Brick'N'Cheese has been serving up French tacos––or "bricks" as they call them––to diversify Toronto’s fast food scene.
While not technically tacos in the typical sense, the popular street food staple in France resembles more of a burrito. At Brick’N’Cheese, their bricks follow the same formula as the French taco you can find overseas. This consists of a protein, such as ground beef or chicken, fresh golden fries, “secret” cheese sauce, and toppings, such as pickles, jalapenos, olives, mushrooms and more cheese and sauce options, all wrapped in a grilled tortilla.
You can either choose a pre-made brick, such as the original or hot’n’spicy brick, or you can channel your inner chef and build your own. They also offer a veggie patty brick as a vegetarian option.
Both born and raised in France, owners and old high school classmates Baptiste Petit and Samy El Jabri had wanted to open a restaurant together, but Petit says that's difficult to do in France. As a pair, they decided to take their chances by opening a restaurant in another part of the world and moved to Vancouver to do it.
“When I came here, I was a little bit tired of the fast food here, so as a French native and French tacos lover in my country, I decided to bring my French culture to Canada,” Petit says, adding that he doesn’t see many French street food options in Canada, except in Quebec.
Petit and El Jabri took the idea of the famous French taco from their home country and opened their first Brick’N’Cheese location as a ghost restaurant in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After success at that location, Petit and El Jabri decided to move themselves to Toronto and opened a brick and mortar restaurant in Little Italy. Petit thinks French tacos will be a good fit for Toronto’s fast food scene because of the positive feedback they received in Vancouver.
Petit adds that their best-selling brick––and his own personal favourite brick––is the original, which consists of extra lean ground beef and chicken, golden fries, ketchup, cheddar, and pickles.
Brick’N’Cheese is located at 678 College Street and is open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesdays to Sundays. They are closed on Mondays.
