New Italian restaurant in downtown Toronto

TORONTO—Liberty Entertainment Group closed five-year-old Flow Restaurant & Lounge in November and re-opened the space in Yorkville last month as a stylish Italian restaurant called Ciao Wine Bar.

The company says the new 8,000-square-foot restaurant, with 250 seats on three levels, “offers traditional Italian fare in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere.”
Liberty Group creative director Nadia Di Donato came up with a design aimed at providing “a contemporary yet soulful environment.”

The casual menu is described as providing “traditional Italian classics and modern Italian staples.”

The lower level has been made to look like a rustic wine cellar, with arched brick walls and vaulted ceiling, complete with bottle racks.

A prominent feature in that part of the restaurant is the open kitchen with two stone ovens where thin crust pizzas are cooked after being flattened out and given their toppings on an alabaster bar in front of the patrons.

Also on display  are local and imported cured meats in glass refrigerators.
Up one floor on the street level is a floor to ceiling glass bar equipped with an Enomatic system that makes serving wine by the glass a lot more feasible since it can keep wine from an open bottle fresh for more than three weeks.

On the top level of the restaurant diners sit at butcher block tables, in a an area featuring stone and glass walls and rustic wood finishes. There are also two private dining rooms, each seating 18.

The music is down tempo, but the space has retained its property of magnifying and bouncing sound to make it a somewhat noisy establishment.

The food and drink is delivered by servers wearing fashions from the Italian fashion company Diesel.

The executive chef is Roberto Punzo, who has plied his trade in places such as Peter Pan, Terra and Pronto, and owns a catering business.

The kitchen serves up more than 20 types of pizza and pasta that hail back to a variety of Italy’s regions. The pastas run $12 to $22 in price, and the pizzas $10 to $17.

Antipasto items, which include standards such as carpaccio and not-so-standard raw tuna with fennel and orange, have a price range of $11 to $16. Seafood plates include grilled whole calamari, shrimp and clams, priced at $12 and $14. There are panini ($11–$13) as well as risotto ($16–$21), and daily meat fish and poultry entrées.

The extensive international wine list has a large selection of  Italian reds.
A number of white wines are in the $30 to $60 a bottle range and others cost much more. Reds start at around $40.

There are eight whites available by the glass, with a five-ounce pour. They range in price from $8 to $16. On the red side, there are 11 wines for $10 to $23, and for those with a taste for fine Italian reds and deeper pockets than most people, there are Barolos for $93 and $101 a glass, and a super Tuscan for $125.

Ciao Wine Bar, 133 Yorkville Ave., Toronto. 416-925-2143. Ciaowinebar.com. 8,000 square feet, 250 seats. Patio 50 seats.