Eat local: Goodbye Porticello

Queens Quay is home to about 37 36 eateries -- we'll loosely define them as places where you can pick up a bite to eat. At Queens Quay Life, why not try to give a good idea of what each has to offer.

It's a sad day in the neighbourhood, a restaurant has shut down. But the eternal question is, did anyone notice?

Here at Queens Quay Life, we made a pledge early on to sample all the food that's in the neighbourhood. Granted, we haven't reviewed a restaurant in a few weeks, but we were all ready to get going again. Enter Porticello.

We know well the restaurant that's attached to the apartments just east of Spadina and Queens Quay. It's Italian food and as its sample menu (still online) on paper it looks good

Calamari
Grilled w/ olives, tomatoes, and fresh herb

Portobello
Oven roasted with balsamic glazed onions and parmesan cheese

Linguine Pescatore
Fresh seafood in tomato sauce

Even Toronto Life in its review gives it some points along with 1.5 stars and this not glowing but passable line:

The small menu of Italian standards and the equally truncated Italian wine list are dishearteningly unadventurous, but the affable owner can be trusted to find a more interesting bottle and to recommend whatever is freshest and best from the kitchen

Well, maybe someone can explain that, at least while we have been in the neighbourhood for more than 5 years, why it's been pretty dead. We think that maybe, just maybe, it didn't capitalize on the growing condo population. Why no flyers? Why no marketing? Why no buzz? We're only left to wonder that why can thousands of potential customers just blocks away never really ventured there.

Yesterday, we were passing the restaurant and we noticed three people in there dismantling lights and upending tables. Today, it was shuttered and dark and we read a notice from a barrister looking to collect rent, more than $11,000 according to the letter taped to the window, supposedly for everyone to see. Yes, this picture is blurry, sorry.

So goodbye Porticello.