Grant van Gameren doesn't necessarily want to hear that Bar Isabel, his new restaurant in Toronto's Little Italy, is Spanish or Mediterranean, even though that's basically what it is. So what we can say without offending anyone is that it serves an amazing whole grilled octopus, a Spanish-blood-sausage dish that blew our minds, and some of the best cocktails we've ever had with fantastic names like A Woman Scorned.
We gathered up the Bar Isabel crew—comprising of chef turned front-of-house manager Guy Rawlings and their mad scientist of cocktails, Mike Webster—and took them to the city's most exciting microbrewery, Bellwoods, along with a late-night dinner at the incomparable 416 Snack Bar, and a sour-beer tasting over trap hip-hop at Bar Volo. It all ended back at Bar Isabel for an absurdly decadent party with large plates of food galore—so enjoy. We sure did.