Toronto just got a new restaurant with tasting menus and memberships
Published April 9, 2024 at 4:30 pm
Memberships aren’t a typical feature at restaurants, but a new spot that just opened up in Toronto makes them a big part of their concept.
Ficoa recently opened in the space where Il Covo used to be. It bills itself as a tasting menu restaurant that highlights the micro-seasons of Ontario and the multicultural landscape of Toronto. The menu could include anything from mole to jerk fish, duck, and carne asada. It’s the brainchild of Gerry Quintero, who’s also behind Alma + Gil.
The restaurant offers two different types of memberships and three tasting menus. The memberships are monthly or annual, and include the ability to convert membership fees into credits at the restaurant, direct reservation access, priority access to exclusive events and best of all, the perk of never waiting for a bill at the end of a meal again. With a payment method on file, your bill is handled privately with no need to wait.
The two memberships are the Golden Ticket membership, which grants access to Ficoa’s all-inclusive three to four-hour menu experience for either two or four people, and the Corporate Membership. The two-ticket membership is priced at $900, billed every 12 months, and the four-ticket membership is priced at $1,800 every 12 months. The Corporate Membership grants access to all reservations a year in advance for your team or clients and allows you to buy out the restaurant for your own party, and starts at $1,300 per month when billed annually.
Members can reserve the Golden Ticket experience at any time, which is an experience of food and beverage pairings lasting up to four hours that you leave completely up to the chef’s creativity. Limited quantities of tickets for this experience are sometimes released for $500 per person.
As for the exclusive events, there are a ton to take advantage of with a membership, which gets you one complimentary ticket for all events. They include menu previews, beverage previews, wine tastings, coffee tastings and fermentation workshops.
As for boring old non-members, there are still two other tasting menu experiences that don’t require membership, but they’re still pretty epic. The Ficoa Tasting Menu is seasonal, changes weekly and consists of 16 plates in seven courses doled out over a span of about two hours. An example tasting menu on Ficoa’s website includes plates like squash hummus, crudo, beet tartare, truffle summer sausage, ravioli and PEI striploin with caviar.
This menu costs $250 per person with the option to add on a chef’s beverage pairing for $150 or a wine pairing for $100. Reservations for the Ficoa Tasting Menu also have to be made two days in advance.
If that’s still a little rich for your blood, the Neighbourhood Menu is a six-plate experience served in four courses that’s available starting at 5 p.m. While still highlighting the seasons, it’s a quicker experience and comes with a welcome drink. For $100 per person, reservations can be made up to two hours in advance.