Now Toronto: Inside the Drake’s massive new Sterling Road location

Drake Commissary packs a restaurant, store, bar, takeout counter and catering kitchen into 8,000 square feet

DRAKE COMMISSARY (128 Sterling, at Perth) Access: eight steps at front door (accessible separate entrance), washrooms on main floor.

Leave it to the Drake Hotel to open the most stylish prep facility in town.

The 8,000-square-foot Drake Commissary, opening Monday, June 12 in the Junction Triangle, encompasses a swank teal-accented dining room packed with custom work from local artists, lounges decked out in vintage furniture, a café and bar area, a marble takeout counter and a food shop stocked with house-made goodies.

Oh yeah, and there’s a massive kitchen packed with state-of-the-art gear that will soon channel food to all of the Drake’s properties – which was, chef Ted Corrado notes, the reason this grand project was conceived in the first place.

“When [Drake chief development officer] Bill Simpson interviewed at Drake One Fifty to take this job, he was telling me about all the new projects coming online, and as I processed it, I was like, ‘You’re gonna need a commissary kitchen.’ He was like ‘Sure, sign the papers, let’s go.’ And here we are, five years later – we’ve got a proper kitchen to do all the things I dreamed of doing.”

Natalia Manzocco

A few days before opening, the Commissary kitchen, which spans the west wall of the facility, is already abuzz with life, pumping out loaves of bread by the dozen in an impressive four-door oven (the Drake supplies clients like Carver and the Tempered Room as well as its own restaurants) and prepping orders for their brand-spanking-new catering division.

“We launched catering a couple months ago, and we already have a ton of interest – we did the Power Ball, Field Trip VIP. We hit the ground running,” Corrado says.

The kitchen is divided from the dining room by a huge window, and diners can even perch at a bar that runs along the length of the prep facility to watch the action.

Natalia Manzocco

“We want people to experience the kitchen while they’re eating, to see where their food came from,” Corrado says. “To sort of cross that barrier and get to know how real food is made is the whole underlying theme of the place.”

The new space will no doubt shift the takeout-buying habits of the Junction Triangle, but the Drake’s kitchens, from Queen West to Prince Edward County, will all feel its impact. Here they can prep batches of syrups for the Drake’s bar program, experiment with their new ice cream machine, brine buckets of briskets or age what Corrado estimates to be roughly 2,000 kg of charcuterie.

“We’re just getting in here, figuring out how far we can take it,” Corrado says.

“When I stand here, in this kitchen – two weeks ago, it was really sterile, all stainless and white. But now it’s just full of life. We’ve managed to use every inch of space already.

“I don’t wanna say we’re outgrowing it, but…”

Below, a closer look at some of the Commissary’s dishes and design features.

Natalia Manzocco

The Drake brought designer John Tong of +tongtong and art curator Mia Nielsen back on board to design the Commissary space, which is infused with hits of sea green and decorated with work from local artists, including Maxwell N. Burnstein and Adrian Esparza. Artist Alex McLeod created the miniature landscape in the mural that spans the dining room with 3D rendering software.

Natalia Manzocco

Danish smorrebrod sandwiches (with pickled herring and beets, left, and avocado, salt cod and trout roe) are a feature in the sandwich case.

Natalia Manzocco

“Ted’s Lasagna”, with fior di latte, basil and parmesan, is one of the rotating hot food items.

Natalia Manzocco

The drink menu at the Commissary bar includes a selection of cocktails created by the Drake’s baristas, including the Ginger Rogers with Lot 40 whiskey, strawberry, rhubarb honey, ginger and lemon.