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Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie (Hardys) is a locally-sourced gourmet restaurant founded on a commitment to create exceptional cuisine from premium, farm-fresh ingredients. Drawing from a wide palate of international flavours, Hardys brings together the best of several culinary traditions. The Virginia and West Virginia heritage of John Hardy III, the proprietor and owner, his background in Italian cooking, and love of California cuisine are several of the rich influences found in the menu selections. Hardys is a proud supporter of the organic, green, and slow-food movements. Having created alliances with some of Ontario’s best farm-fresh food sources, Hardys seeks to be on the forefront of environmental sustainability in the Toronto food community. Our devotion to environmental preservation goes beyond the use of locally-sourced ingredients alone; we believe that we must all conserve nature’s fragile resources and take from nature’s bounty with respect. Accordingly, we adhere to environmentally responsible business practices and implement “green schemes” to limit waste where possible.
John Hardy III John Hardy’s culinary odyssey began in 2004 as a student at the University of Toronto when he took his existing love of cooking to a new level in the course of exploring the best fresh food markets Toronto has to offer. The many discoveries he made at farmers markets around the city resulted in John’s experimenting with various new tastes, flavours, and textures. As his skills and knowledge grew, variety itself soon became the focal point of John’s cuisine. In the summer of 2008 John had the incredible opportunity to complete a three month ‘stage’ at the American Academy in Rome working within the sustainable foods program. There, he trained under the guidance of executive chef Mona Talbot and sous chef Chris Briden of the world-renowned Chez Panisse widely considered the birthplace of Californian organic cuisine. The superb quality and freshness of the foods John cooked and ate in Italy, brought the value of local farm sources into an ever sharper focus. Upon returning to Toronto, John continued to hone his skills in professional kitchens. In the summer of 2009, he founded a catering service, Hardy Foods based on the concept of integrating the best foods our community has to offer, elite service, and reverence for our farmlands and the environment. In 2011, John opened Hardys: A Hogtown Brasserie as an homage to pork expressed through American, Italian, and Portuguese cuisines. The staple of Hardy’s is that everything is made in house: from the sauces to the Canadian Bacon. We cure a number of different meats for the consumption of our clientele: pork loin, house smoked bacon, canadian bacon, and prosciutto are some of our specialties. Farms Meat Tottenham, ON (Belted Galloway Beef) Webers Pastured Meats, Paisley, ON (Berkshire Pork) St. Lawrence Upper Cut Meats, Toronto, ON (Free Range Chickens, Beef Brisket) Bread Ace Bakery, Toronto, ON Press Coming Soon, Summer 2012
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