Last updated on April 20th, 2021 at 03:05 am
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
You can’t live your formative years in the boundless suburbs of a major city without feeling like you’re missing out. Growing up, I spent more time hanging in basements of my friends’ parents than I did painting the town any shade of red. We had to get creative and invent things to do for fun because you’d seldom find anything open past 9. And if you had a little money in your pocket and you wanted fine dining? Then you’d better hope you had wheels unless you wanted the same frozen food from the same family chains all over town.
There was little to write home about eating out in the ‘burbs… that is until places like Union Chicken started showing up!
Union Chicken—The Best Thing to Come Out of Etobicoke in a While!
Nestled in Cadillac Fairview Sherway Gardens’ south-west corner, Union Chicken‘s the brainchild of four owners—Yannick Bigourdan, Adam Teolis, Michael Angeloni and Dan Kennedy. Between the four of them, you get a huge range of insights and approaches to restaurant culture, with lessons learned from places like Splendido, Grand Electric, nationwide chains, and—most notably—The Carbon Bar coming together to build Union Chicken‘s mystique.
Though smaller in stature than some independents who try to be any- and everything to all people, Union Chicken uses its compact square footage, a focused menu and straightforward ambience to get you focusing on one thing and one thing alone—enjoying delicious food!
After conning my best friends into watching the boys, Sarah and I made the crosstown trip to Union, where Adam promptly greeted us, introduced us to Mike (and the Robs) in the kitchen, and Dan, a fellow Dad from the east side who joined us later in the night. (I assumed Yannick was busy doling out deliciousness at The Carbon Bar where the food’s well worth the price, but I digress.) Our seats were a food photographer’s dream: two very comfortable raised seats overlooking the front kitchen, where I took in the simmering rotisserie chicken and food prep with ease.
But the team made sure taking photos was the last thing on my mind—it was time to try the savoury treats Union Chicken had to offer!