by Luke McKinney
FoodConnect Toronto
luke.mckinney@foodconnect.com

Yonge street is the longest single street in the world, and the downtown end can get pretty hectic. A greater shopping selection you won't find elsewhere in Toronto, but all the options and activity can leave you drained. Only a few steps from the high-rent Yonge and Bloor junction, an island of air-conditioned amiability awaits.

The Artful Dodger is a true lounge, a classic bar design with plenty of patio seating for those who brave the summer sun, and an extremely comfortable indoors for those who realise that the giant sky-based flesh-cooker isn't their friend. A decent selection of beers will help you relax away the day.

The food is impressive. The first test of any barfood is the fries - should they arrive anything less than crisp, strike the address from your memory and never return because a bar kitchen that can't manage that probably can't tell salt from rat poison. The Artful fries crisp and salty, but if they're a basic competence test then the lunch steak sandwich is a first class degree with flying colors and a big gold star.

Bar steak sandwiches are normally so thin that being asked how you want it done is like choosing the flavor of a car - not a parameter that could possibly apply. Not so at the Dodger, where a succulent slab of steak arrives in lightly toasted french bread which wonderfully soaks up the flavor of deliciously caramelised onion topping.

A real treat - to drop in for some quick pubgrub and avoid death by shopping crowds, to find a real image of bar relaxation and good food.

The Artful Dodger is located at 12 Isabella St.

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