Husband and wife duo Aldo Camarena and Ashley McKay quickly became integral in the Toronto food scene when they unveiled Xolo, a combination of hypnotic beats and mouthwatering Latin-American eats. The pop-up experience touched down at various spots across the city, bringing together aspects of Camarena’s life and the creative mementos he collected from stints in Mexico City, East Los Angeles and Toronto. Now, Camarena and McKay just opened permanent digs, with an exciting new restaurant called Antylia.
“Antylia is a destination perfect for guests to dive into an exploration of Latin American and northern cuisines. We use our cultural backgrounds, as well as our multicultural culinary experiences, to paint a landscape of flavours from North and South America, highlighting beautiful seasonal and local ingredients,” Camarena says. “We draw inspiration from many places, but primarily Latin and diasporic cultures, as well as migration of ingredients and cuisines, both in and out of the Americas. Simply put, we’re doing Modern Latin American, highlighting Canadian ingredients.”
Opened on August 7, Antylia is located at 1059 Bloor St. W, and Camarena and McKay were drawn to the Bloorcourt neighbourhood because of its quickly growing food scene. Both are chefs, with McKay’s resume including stops at Azhar, Giulietta and Lena, while Camarena spent time at Quetzal, Piano Piano and NODO. Antylia draws inspiration from Xolo as well as the duo’s work in some of the best restaurants in the city while still bringing a unique, authentic vibe.
“Our original goal with Xolo was to always maintain a bit of a casual Chicano pop-culture street-food vibe. In the years since, we have grown enormously as chefs. We ran a full time spot, travelled through different countries and cooked alongside traditional cooks abroad, made connections with local producers, farmers and, overall, matured,” Camarena says. “Antylia is sort of a refined successor to Xolo. We explore Latin American flavours and culture with the same child-like wonder, now equipped with the skills, tools and connections to take our cuisine to the next level. Where Xolo was super casual, Antylia will see us make more use of our years working in fine dining.”
The menu weaves ancient Americas with modern flavour: sake-kasu cured cod wrapped in corn leaves with “chinampa” veggies and chile-lime butter; smoky tavern-style bites of Botija olives, fresh cheese and quail eggs over merkén; 14-day mole-miso aged duck grilled over Japanese charcoal with sesame-rich mole rojo and charred chayote; and blue-corn tetelas filled with Peruvian lima beans and seasonal alliums.
Antylia is open five days a week for dinner, both for walk-ins and reservations. It boasts an 18-person, horseshoe-shaped chef’s counter, designed with community in mind.
“We want to give people the open kitchen experience while also delivering a communal dining setting,” Camarena says. “Deep down, we are most excited to see people come together around good food.”
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