ARTS & CULTURE
Monday, January 5, 2015 7
Jurisfoodence: In Search of Toronto’s Best Brunch
Food Adventure #7: School
kate henley & karolina wisniewski ›
staff writer & editor-in-chief
School
70 Fraser Avenue
Kate: After a short break, Karolina and I thought we
would begin 2015 by heading back to school a few
days early… Why is it called “School” though?! Are
they supposed to be teaching us how to brunch well?
We’ll never know.
Karolina: I was so excited to go to School, having
heard such good things. Your relentless thirst to discover its namesake, Kate, inspired me to embark on
a thorough Googling session. Alas, I didn’t discover
the inspiration behind the quirky name, but I did
learn that there have been (many) weddings held at
School. I don’t know about you, but it’s always been
my dream to walk past a butcher beef cuts print on
my way down the isle (yes, this really happened; I
saw photographic proof).
Kate: Yikes. School is located in Liberty Village, an
area of the city that I had never been to before – and
where I will probably never return. I don’t know
what my expectations were, but at ten o’clock on a
Saturday morning it was bleak. The few people that
were around were all going the same place we were,
and nothing else appeared open.
Karolina: I mean, Liberty Village is supposed to be
a thing, right? Maybe School’s problem is that it’s
located at the outskirts of Liberty Village, nearly
on the border between it and Parkdale. The neighbourhood seemed pleasant enough, but as Kate said,
slightly post-apocalyptic in its emptiness. At any
rate, this week we decided to share the brunch love
and invited two companions along.
Brunch Hours
School serves its Weekend Brunch menu from 9
am-3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and an all-day
breakfast from 9 am-3 pm on weekdays, which has
some of the same items on the menu.
ê While the décor may not have earned it top ratings, School’s culinary creativity amply distracts from its shortfalls.
Wait Time/Service
Kate: I arrived about five minutes earlier than
Karolina, but, despite the fact that there were a
number of tables open and no line, I was “unable to
be seated until my whole party had arrived.”
Karolina: I was fairly relieved that we weren’t put
on a waiting list, I guess brunch at the ungodly hour
of 10 am is enough to put most people off.
Kate: Very true. Once we were seated, we had
pretty good service. Our server brought us coffee
almost immediately, was very friendly, and gave us
a number of recommendations.
Karolina: She was indeed helpful and attentive. When asked for recommendations, she named
nearly everything on the menu and made it all
sounds mouth-watering, which I suppose means she
did her job well.
Atmosphere
Kate: I loved the building that School was in – I am a
sucker for exposed brick and garage-style windows.
However, the décor was a bit strange: we were in the
second of two rooms, and one entire wall was covered in a shelving unit holding a variety of objects;
while some could be associated with school (a few
books, some large letters of the alphabet), others
were totally unrelated (like plates on little display
stands). It also had one of those huge outlines of a
cow indicating the