Bar Centrale

Down a flight of stairs from the Terroni Price dining room in Toronto, Bar Centrale keeps its own Italian all-day rhythm, opening as a coffee counter and closing as a wine bar.

Coffee early, wine late

The format is the appeal. It starts with breakfast and coffee, carries through brunch and lunch without changing character, and shifts into a wine bar as the evening comes on. That makes it a rarer thing in the city than it sounds: one Italian room you can use at almost any hour without it feeling like the wrong time to be there.

A below-stairs room with table service

The room is classic and elegant rather than a stand-up counter, and it runs on table service, which sets the pace slower than the cafe label suggests. Being below the restaurant gives it a separate, quieter atmosphere while keeping the same kitchen sensibility overhead. Dinner is part of the day here, not an afterthought bolted onto a coffee bar.

How to use it

Come in the morning if you want the cafe side, a coffee and something small before the room fills. Come in the evening if you want the wine bar, where the Italian list and the table service are the point. In between, it does brunch and lunch in the same setting, which is the most useful thing about it.