After Lake Inez garnered what can best be described as a cult following, the team behind the East End gem have opened another neighbourhood bar, Belle Isle.
Co-owner Zac Schwartz calls the new spot “a bit more calamitous” than Lake Inez — but with all the same whimsy, passion and energy.
“We wanted Belle Isle to be a place you could go to after dinner for a nightcap and still feel hot, but also everyone there is really nice to you,” he says. “Trying to embody the overlapping area in the Venn diagram of feeling hot plus people being nice to you. Anything is possible!”
Schwartz, with co-owners Patrick Ciappara, Ali Yaqubian, and chef Jay Moore, pulled from a quirky and very specific set of inspirations to shape Belle Isle.
“Influenced loosely by the legendary aquarium on the actual Belle Isle in Detroit, we landed aesthetically somewhere between aquarium chic, cottage longing and Nonna core,” Schwartz says.
Like Lake Inez, Belle Isle’s menu is seasonal and always evolving. Chef Jay Moore and the team work closely with Broadfork Produce, letting the farm’s freshest offerings inspire their dishes. So far, the crowd favourites are The Coney Dog, the Ramp to Nowhere — a Texas toast piled with fermented ramp pesto, serrano chiles and house queso, all kissed with Herbes de Provence — and, of course, the Jell-O shot, which has seen many different iterations.
“But there are three core tenets,” Schwartz says. “It can’t be too sweet, you must be able to taste the booze and it must be jiggled liberally before consumption.”
The cocktail program is just as unique as the space that houses it.
“James McCole, our manager slash bartender, is super gifted and curious and thoughtful. I, on the other hand, have a very trashy palate,” Schwartz says. “We wanted to find the answer in between those two things. So we keep it accessibly priced. James experiments with ingredients I’ve never heard of, but most of the cocktails come back to roost in the form of something familiar.”
The result is concoctions like the “This Cold Pizza is Curing my Depression” pizzatini, the “Cheek Full of Hubba Bubba”, and the guava candy-infused vodka martini.
Most of all, Schwartz wants Belle Isle’s guests to have fun. “I hope they feel comfy, silly, hot, full, appropriately buzzed, and excited to come back,” he says.
Belle Isle is located at 1455 Gerrard Street East.
