Paintbox Bistro is an inspired new addition to Regent Park. Oh, and the food is incredible!

Being a real estate agent I hear a lot of promises from Condo Developers about grand visions for new developments that are designed to create communities and provide a vibrant street life. In my experience this is not likely to happen. Creating a sense of community by building a series of high rise buildings set back from the main street is unlikely. Um, CityPlace, I’m talking to you – it takes a lot more than throwing a Firkin Pub and Rabba food at the base of a building to harvest a sense of neighborhood pride.

Since we live close to Regent Park and our office has a good relationship with Daniels(http://www.danielshomes.ca), the main developer for the Regent Park Revitalization Project, I have been following each phase of the project closely. When I first heard about the proposed Paintbox Bistro I was cautiously optimistic. Wow! A developer promising prime street level retail space to a restaurant that is not a franchise specializing in chicken wings!

Paintbox Bistro (http://www.paintboxbistro.ca/) is committed to Regent Park, hiring local staff that perhaps have little restaurant experience and even less fine dining experience. Renowned head chef Matt Cowan runs the kitchen and oversees the training of his newbie staff, twelve of whom were awarded a grant to take part in a four month culinary training program at George Brown College this past summer. The kitchen is street level with large windows looking out to Dundas St E. making the Bistro feel accessible and welcoming. A takeout window for quick snacks is right off the kitchen and opens to the street.

The food, by the way, is wonderful and the menu ambitious, focusing on seasonal ingredients at a reasonable price point. The staff is eager and friendly; their inexperience is apparent but easily forgivable and at times even cute. What better way tie a community together than through food?