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Architects: Giannone Petricone Associates Inc. Architects
- Area: 21500 ft²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Doublespace Photography, Stephanie Palmer, Riley Snelling
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Manufacturers: Benjamin Moore, Bennet Mills, CIOT, Filotimo, FilzFelt, HAY, La Bastille, Nella, Saliente Design
Text description provided by the architects. This culinary emporium – the first collaboration between two of Giannone Petricone Associates'
long-time clients, Toronto food empresarios Cosimo Mammolitti of Terroni/SUD Forno and Stephen Alexander of Cumbrae's – began with a conversation about creating an original gastronomic experience offering fine ingredients, prepared foods, and vibrant dining. Giannone Petricone's response began with a name: STOCK T.C implies stocked shelves, chicken stock, stockyards — essential building blocks from which to create a theatre of food, considered and presented in a trajectory from raw to refined.
Within a landmark postal station, STOCK T.C offers an open market at grade, a 200-seat bistro on the second floor, and a third-floor garden room event space with a circular bar and roof terrace. To restore and repurpose the 1936 limestone building, the design team lined the perimeter walls with a second skin spaced from the original shell, and from it hung shelving, lighting, and acoustic dampening textures. The omnipresence of food preparation, with a clear 'backstage' treatment, mixes with the building materials to entertain the senses.
Just as bountiful shelves and counters display raw ingredients and comestibles, and the restaurant serves artfully finished plates, Giannone Petricone introduces materials and architectural elements interpreted in degrees of unrefined to refined. This progression unfolds as one move from the ground-level market and self-serve tavola calda to the bistro, bar, and event experiences on the second and third levels. The stacking of spaces, and the charged thresholds between them, are enriched by vestiges of the historic building's original purpose, such as custom 'coffer' lights; postage stamp-patterned mosaic flooring, and felt ceiling baffles reminiscent of filing cabinet dividers.
The ground level introduces the experience with a relaxed but intoxicating kitchen and pantry, filled with personally selected provisions such as sundries, dried goods, fresh produce, specialty items, and cut flowers displayed on stock room-style shelving. Anchored by large butchery and bakery counters, the space is collected under a rippling felt proscenium. Aromas and glimpses into the 'backstage' kitchens lead patrons to ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook takeaway counters. A mix of seating invites lingering to enjoy the fresh offerings on the spot.
The second-floor bistro presents an orchestra of kitchens, open to a gallery of butter-yellow tufted leather banquettes and cork paneling. The center bar is designed to bridge day-to-night experiences, framed by a glittering mosaic proscenium depicting a sublime pink sunrise. The third floor is a purpose-built, glass garden room. Almost 100 seats in the main dining area are flexible to accommodate arrangements for various functions all year round. This exclusive event space takes full advantage of its roof-top view and is surrounded by a lush terrace along the vintage cornice of its host building. From the potential of hand-chosen ingredients to the pleasure of gathering around a table, STOCK T.C's design celebrates the transformative possibilities of where and what we eat.
According to Giannone Petricone Partner, Ralph Giannone, "STOCK T.C is about city-building." He explains, "People come to Toronto for its heritage and for its multiculturalism. We love food; we love 'messy'; we love the mixing of cultures and expectations. With this project, we stewarded the heritage postal station — once a center for connectivity and transformed it into an unusual gastronomic emporium that draws people together to share in a wonderful new cultural experience."
