Lake Inez

Lake Inez is a restaurant located on Gerrard Street East that offers a unique dining experience. While the establishment is not without its quirks, including record players that skip and an eclectic mix of music, the food and drinks are consistently praised by visitors.
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Recent social media posts

2026-03-28

.
ok you jabronis

i know i know i know
you didn’t “like” my last post
cause the chalamet stuff was
too fresh and you have an
online image to maintain

and i know i know i know
“likes” aren’t even the
currency of the people
anymore baby it’s all
about whatever it’s all
about now, baby

and maybe you didn’t even
see it cause you were out in
nature or reading a book or
going to the opera or ballet (jk)

or maybe chalamet was
shadowbanned by the
manisphere for not having
the right kind of goatee

or maybe just maybe my
therapist is onto something
when she says my writing has
“taken a severe turn but the earth
is a sphere so there’s nothing
keeping it from swinging back around”

regardless, we’re still turning these mushrooms
every fu***ng day. and because of this
they look like circus tents.
and we can all agree:
that’s psychedelic and cool.
and cass and kristen and lyla took
that motif and brought it to life.
and life, itself, is fragile & scary & sad
but we wouldn’t know how to identify
any of those sensations
if it weren’t also sometimes really good
and we wouldn’t know how
to articulate any of this loneliness
if weren’t also sometimes really full of love

so stop worrying so much about your online image
and have a bowl of mashed potatoes with your buds

2026-03-21

closed tonight for a private event !
we are and shall remain
LOVERS OF LOVE

2026-03-12

.
new dish!
yukon gold mashed potatoes, very good butter, cream of mushroom soup,
roasted & pickled cremini and beech mushrooms, sansho peppercorn, sourdough breadcrumb persillade, ‘Portrait of a Wistful Timothee Chalamet at the Met Gala’ purchased from facebook marketplace (he tunes out the paparazzi for a sec. a learned behaviour once you’ve achieved his level of fame. when timothee was a boy who spelled his name timothy (presumably) he never dreamt he’d make it this far. not because he didn’t believe in himself the way most little kids do - unfettered, delusional, unmarred by the harsh realities life has in store for us all - but because he simply lacked the scope to dream this big.
but it wouldn’t mean squat if he had no one to share it with. impervious to the flashing bulbs and journalists screaming his name he instead gazes horizonward. he wonders if kylie is staring at the same horizon. if she’s thinking of him. if her gratitude is a vibration of warmth like his, one that tingles from her scalp to her spine and down into her toes jammed hastily into tonight’s custom jimmy choo flats. if she too realizes the gravitas of what they share, of what binds them, and if she too feels it all in this moment, a moment just like any other moment, except that it’s not, he thinks, cause it’s this one, ya know? he sighs, softly, and accidentally lets out a little fart. he wonders if anyone heard it. he wonders if he can create a similar sound by dragging his choo’s on the concrete. one just close enough - and ambiguous - to convince the paparazzi that maybe, just maybe, that was the sound they heard previous, too. then he thinks, ‘no, you know what? everyone farts. even those lecherous paparazzis, even me, and maybe even kylie’. he then stops, gazes toward the horizon, and wonders if maybe, just maybe, back in calabasas, kylie’s doing a little fart too.

2026-02-14

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i hope this valentine’s day
you all have somebody
who looks at you
the way timothee chalamet
looks at the horizon/the great unknown
in this painting i bought
on facebook marketplace
now - without rival - my favourite piece
in the dining room
and where i look to
whenever i’m feeling
lonely & lost

2026-01-29

a new dish!
salmon gravlax cured in toasted hay, juniper, & dill
with creme fraiche, yuzu, preseved bergamot, pickled rutabaga, poached quince, & toasted rye loaf

this is a true story:
when we were opening lake inez i was dating a wacky brilliant newf who introduced me to the works of christopher & mary pratt.

i was entranced by the way their styles juxtaposed.
and then also, like, how was that expressed in their love? or in their home. i couldn’t imagine a living room aesthetic they agreed upon.

his paintings so sweet n serene and expansive.
so much quietude and a world full of tender possibilities.

her paintings so acute and harsh and borderline grotesque (in a hot way) and a way of turning minutiae into universality.

and him (presumably) being like ‘no, babe, the muse will reveal herself to us only after gazing at the horizon over the course of one million sunsets’

and her being like, ‘i don’t have time for horizon-gazing as i’m one of a million women who are catching, butchering, and then cooking this glistening salmon so we don’t starve while staring at the sunset’

and how like, the sun somehow melting into a single colour the way it does in his paintings will nourish a part of you.

and how her paintings of jars of preserves and freshly butchered fish and just-peeled citrus will nourish you in another way too.

and how - somewhere, in some living room in newfoundland - both are happening at once.

anyway…..
in 2016, when i was building the website for lake inez, i emailed christopher pratt (lol to be young) and asked permission to use one of his paintings for the landing page.

(as an aside: that painting has since sold for half a million dollars)

the gallery then showing the painting replied on his behalf.
christopher said i could use the painting in exchange for a free meal if he ever made it back to toronto.

mary passed away in ’18 and he in ’22 and to my knowledge never did make it back here to cash in on that meal.

i owe them a salmon dish.
and you owe someone an email.
it never hurts to try

2026-01-10

.
maybe the last night for this salad!
(i don’t know for sure)
(all things impossible to be Known)
we call it little india a love letter
i loved it while it lasted i Know that
(biased!)
bartlett & ya pears
dhal makhani & egg white emulsion
bitter greens
pomelo chutney
manchego

~~~

2026-01-06

.
just cause u feeling broken
doesn’t make you any
less qualified
to be their rock
if they need u tonight
maybe all u have to do
is just show up

2025-12-27

.
a new dish!
house made andouille w/ scallop, shrimp, sassafras,
scallop-shaped puffed pastry

new orleans, NYE, ‘24
crawdads were the cheapest thing we could buy so we subsisted on them the best we could.
they’d come in gigantic paper bags dampened by residual steam.
you’d get a soup container’s worth of neon red hot sauce for dunking
they were delicious but a lot of work
thankfully we had nothing to do really.
a scared ritual:
pop off the head, slurp the juices, gnaw as much meat out of the claws & tail, spit the shells out, sip on a now-warm tall can of sh*tty beer.

seb was tired of me by then.
he was tired of crawfish, tired of being broke, tired of long days of driving, tired of the cds we had in the car, & tired of my stories.

he said being a storyteller meant living in the past & he wanted to make new stories & barrel into the future.

i kinda knew what he meant & i kinda agreed somewhere deep down but i wasn’t in a hurry to grow up & also i was afraid i didn’t have enough to offer & i was afraid of applying myself cause it might mean rejection or worse it might mean just like being boring.

it really hurt me when he said he didn’t think i contributed as much to our friendship as he did.
mainly cause i knew he was right but also cause i never thought of our friendship as a transaction.
but he 𝒘𝒂𝒔 right: he had cooler friends, deeper thoughts, better music, and broader prospects.
so he decided to fly out jan 1 & return to his Adult Life in portland.
i spent my last $150 check from my long-gone landscaping gig on scallops, skinny ci******es, & some very lousy co***ne.
i fired up our camp stove in the sh*tty hotel room and severely overcooked the scallops while he nuked a stick of butter in a styrofoam soup container.
we blew a huge line & talked about our fears, regrets, earliest memories, & the type of dad we’d want to be should that day ever come.

we didn’t leave the hotel room that night and when the sun rose all ambered over vast parking lot i said its dappled reflection on the asphalt looked more like a bayou than a motel 6.
he said he’s gonna remember it that way.
that’ll be the story he tells.
and he hopped in a cab and sped away

2025-12-20

.
happy 9th bday to us :)

to commemorate:
a 𝓭𝓸𝓾𝓫𝓵𝓮 giveaway !

we’ll choose two winners!

#1. dinner for two with pairings on our mystery patio tasting menu in ‘26

#2. dinner for two in our a la carte dining room with cocktails and wine (or NA stuff!)

to enter: in the comments please @ a GTA restaurant that you love and tell us why you love it in 10 words or less!

—-𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓫𝓮:
earnest, literal, abstract, romantic as f**k

—-𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝓮:
lake inez, the wren, the wood owl, or belle isle
(we love nepotism but it can take the day off!)

there are so many wonderful places to dine in this town. sometimes it’s cause you just gotta eat. sometimes you may long for a sliver of escapism. sometimes you just want to spend an evening with the people you love most over a table full of food. whatever your reason, thank you for occasionally sharing it with us these last 9 years. it’s been fun

amendment:
winners will be selected monday dec 22

2025-07-07

cross the sweat threshold at 9am
let it all ooze out of u
reject standards of beauty
glisten in the heat
YOU ARE FREE

2025-07-04

.
green: almonds, chiles, apples, olives, caraflex, raisins, grapes
mr greenjeans, in memorium
mom drops u off at the eaton centre says she’s back at 6 and be ready for her (fat chance) & to check your pager & call her back if she pages you (even fatter chance). gonna meet up w/ EK, nate dog, & danny aka blue ballz (long story lol you had to be there).
we’ll prob start things off with a quick rip thru abercrombie and see what all those a***n manikins with chiseled pecs & hard ni***es are rocking these days. and ya, i am talking about the staff there lol. odds are whatever they’ve got on will be in a neutral tone and say ABERCROMBIE & FITCH on it but im not a betting man.

i know maybe it seems contradictory but then we’ll head to hot topic cause i wanna grab a bigger chain wallet and honestly life holds many truths and multitudes. some days i just wanna vibe out to jack johnson and some days i wanna skank hard to less than jake. some days all i can think about is baseball and making out with kelsey and some days all i can think about is how boring that routine has become. whatever.

orange julius for a monster fu***ng smoothie.
ms. fields for a chocolate chip cookie the size of my dumb ass baby brother’s head.
pac sun and hollister to see what the girls are up to:
…lip gloss, chokers, low rise jeans
…and that’s about it.

then i peel off and hit mr greenjeans with my du***ss baby bro. we sit at the same table we always do. same server we always had. she can’t believe how grown we are now. that i’m old enough to come here without my parents. what a good older brother i am blah blah blah. i cut the burger up for him cause that’s how he likes it. he spills a big thing of coke and i don’t get mad i just go ask for a rag cause he’s just a kid after all. i tip our server in cash cause that’s what my dad told me to do. i take my bro to the bathroom cause he’s shy about peeing when we’re with all my boys.

then we hit claire’s to see what the girls are up to. kelsey looks cute af i’ll probably tell her as much on AIM tonight. she’s so nice to my baby brother it gives me a pang of jealousy i can’t explain & then a swell of shame.

pager buzzes and off we go

2025-06-25

.
wahoo!
time for another weird wine club :)

our dear dogs from
are coming to town to cook their
eastern european vegan food
for all of you sweet sweet wine club
d i n g d o n g s

this sunday, june 29, 7pm, $35
resos can be made using link in bio

for those of you new to weird wine club
here’s some salient info:

Address

1471 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, ON
M4L2A1

To reach the restaurant on Gerrard Street East in Toronto using public transport, you can take the 506 streetcar westbound towards High Park Station and get off at Gerrard St E at Jones Ave. Walk south for approximately 2 minutes and the destination will be on your right.

If you are driving to the location, from downtown Toronto, take Carlton St east to Parliament St, turn left onto Parliament St and continue north until you reach Gerrard St E. Turn right onto Gerrard St E and continue east for approximately 3 km until you reach your destination. Limited street parking is available in the area but there is also a paid public parking lot nearby if needed.

Opening Hours

Wednesday	6pm - 12am
Thursday	6pm - 1am
Friday	6pm - 2am
Saturday	5pm - 2am
Sunday	5pm - 11:59pm

Website

http://lakeinezto.com/

Alerts

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What people say

Lake Inez, located on Gerrard Street East in Toronto, is a restaurant that offers a unique dining experience. The restaurant recently posted about their "weird wine club" event, which promises to be an exciting evening of experimentation and indulgence. For just $35 per person, guests can enjoy six different types of weird wines and a pop-up menu by guest chef Julia. The menu is described as a blend of whimsy, nostalgia, and endearing trashiness - sure to be a memorable culinary experience.

In addition to their special events, Lake Inez also offers delicious dishes year-round. Their striploin tartare with house soy and anchovy is a must-try for meat lovers, while the king oyster mushroom adds a unique twist to the dish. The restaurant's attention to detail extends beyond the food - their presentation is impeccable, as seen in their social media posts featuring beautiful flowers and expertly plated dishes.

Overall, Lake Inez is a great choice for those looking for an adventurous dining experience in Toronto. With creative menus and exciting events like the weird wine club, this restaurant is sure to leave a lasting impression on its guests.

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