Lake Inez's guide to Gerrard East
A true insider gives his 6 neighbourhood picks
You know Lake Inez — one of the most shouted-out spots in our Best of Toronto series?
Well, co-owner Zac Schwartz (pictured below 🍸) gave us a little love letter to Gerrard St East. The neighbourhood Lake Inez calls home.
Six spots, all in his own words. He’s got taste and he’s got stories — you’re gonna love this one.
Here are his recommendations on how to spend an evening in the neighbourhood… with some poetic commentary along the way.
“ok so you try to go lake inez but zac - one of owners - is there and he like comes by your table to quality check the food but before you know it he's somehow talking about his daddy issues and he's weeping and apologizing and somehow now sitting at your table?? and you keep saying "no no it's fine." "of course this is a safe space" and "wow that seems really hard" but when he leaves to go blow his nose you settle your tab and run out of the restaurant and now you need a new plan. fast.
so these are my top 6 picks on gerrard east at night:”
1. el hijo de tizoc:
📍797 gerrard street east
“cozy, cantina-esque, super reasonably priced (too reasonably??), and then huge cocktails where you think 'how is it that they're serving cocktails in like a stein it must be really water-y or bar lime-y' but then it ends up being boozy and delicious and goes right to your brain+heart and you feel suddenly emboldened to speak to your server in spanish and even though you're not making much sense they tolerate you politely cause THEY'RE NICE PEOPLE.”
2. leela:
📍1386 gerrard street east
“gosh i love this place. i think the kids took over for the parents and kept the food the same but just made the music louder and the lights lower and thus way harder to hear/see in there (aka better). backlit in pink neon, top 40 remixes absolutely blaring at 135 BPM, ice cold beer, hunks of spicy fried fish with pickled onions, silky & roasty & gingery shrimp curry, whole ass stack of garlic naan.”
3. desi burger:
📍westernmost, if possible, there are three in a row but my recommendation is for 1342 gerrard st east
“sonu absolutely doms from his pulpit. he has an infectious energy and the gift of gab. i always get the desi burger with a fried egg and not spicy (cause even "not spicy" is spicy as fuck) with a pistachio kulfi to cool me down and maybe the fresh sugar cane juice if i'm trying to impress someone. desi burger is basically a smash patty but made with potato, onion, and chickpea, and seasoned with that spicy pastel green mint sauce and sweet brown tamarind sauce and pickled onions. plus they're open til at least 4am.”
4. lee's dumpling house:
📍619 gerrard st east
“best dumplings, no question. i get one order pan fried and one order steamed; that's just the baseline. then i do the fish maw and crab meat soup - also mandatory except definitely not for everyone. then i add one wildcard every time to keep things fresh.
some recent wildcard favourites: salt n pepper fried fish, spicy szechuan beef in soup, and spicy glass noodle salad with fried egg, crispy chili flakes, pork, and noodles so long and slippery they're impossible to eat without looking like an idiot or a baby.”
5. com tam 168:
📍1018 gerrard st east
“lots of good vietnamese options between broadview and coxwell but this is the one for me. classical remixes of like simon & garfunkel on the stereo and super fast service. i get the bean curd shrimp cakes and an order of congee with sliced fish. i eat half the order of cakes and save the other half to dump in my congee. i crush it with thai basil and hot sauce and, depending on the time of day (/mental state), i'll get the fresh coconut juice or a bottle of beer. every once in a while i switch it up to the fried shrimp skewered with a sugar cane and when the shrimp is all gone you get to gnaw wistfully on the cane for some lingering shrimpy essence.”
6. jenny's place:
📍1338 gerrard st east
“best bar in the city - and it's not even really close. joanne (not jenny!), the owner, is an icon. the jameson tastes better here than anywhere else in the world. ditto the high life. ditto the white claws. when my angel of death tells me i've only got a few days left i'll spend them at jenny's with a bag of joanne's microwaved popcorn in one hand, a set of darts in the other, and kid cudi's pursuit of happiness on repeat on the juke box. that's how i want to go.”
If you haven’t already been, make sure to go see Zac IRL at Lake Inez…. and tell him we sent you ;)
Oh, the Lake Inez team also recently opened the doors to Belle Isle, the “weird sibling bar” just down the street. We had the chance to check it out and loved everything about it. More on that visit coming soon…
As always, thanks for reading,
Michael
Zac is a gem.
Zac knows. 1,4,5 especially. Better go before it gets busy!!