Conejo Negro

Fire and citrus at the pass

Firecracker shrimp leaves the pass under scallions and heat at Conejo Negro, in the Little Italy district of Toronto, in the former Pray Tell address at 838 College Street. The kitchen moves through Caribbean, Creole, and Latin references without flattening them into theme. The house opened in November 2023 and found its rhythm quickly, with a kitchen built around scratch-made ingredients, shared plates, and food that arrives with enough generosity to change the table’s pace.

The kitchen is led by executive chef Alycia Wahn, who works from Creole, Latin and Caribbean traditions and holds the line on scratch-made ingredients. She runs the place with her husband Lamine Martindale on the floor and his school friend Diego Diaz behind the bar, three long-time industry hands whose exchanges stay visible from the tables. The signatures do not hide their labour: fried shrimp dressed while still hot, braised beef set against smoky cheddar grits and collard greens, fried chicken pulled into balance by smoked hot honey and jicama-papaya slaw.

Share plates with weight behind them

The menu is built for passing, but not for grazing without attention. Small plates, salads, large plates, sides, and desserts carry the structure; larger groups can move into a family-style prix fixe format, which keeps the kitchen’s rhythm intact and lets the table settle. Caribbean-style braised beef gives way to pepper sauce, smoky cheddar grits, and wilted collards. Brazilian cheese puffs arrive as tapioca and aged cheddar orbs with garlic butter, molten at the centre. Squash dumplings sit with corn, ancho cream, poblano, and cotija, a vegetarian plate with enough weight to hold the middle of the meal.

What matters here is contrast held in the hand: mango, avocado, chilis, lemon, and corn chips in the tuna-shrimp ceviche; radicchio, goat cheese, pistachios, and sorrel vinaigrette against grilled pineapple and beet; praline, brown sugar, ice cream, and warm toasted banana bread at the close. The restaurant holds a Bib Gourmand, and the award belongs to this address. Behind the label is the discipline it recognises, food with fire, portion, and balance, served without turning comfort into nostalgia. Martindale took the 2024 Michelin Guide Toronto Outstanding Service Award, which puts the room on the same footing as the pass.

Wood paneling, candlelight, and the counter’s pace

The room is intimate, wood-paneled, and low-lit, with candlelight doing more than decoration. It softens the edges of a restaurant that can feel lively without losing conversation. Latin beats sit in the background; plates cross the floor often enough to keep the air moving. On the breezy backyard patio, warm lighting changes the register again, less enclosed, still close to the kitchen’s pulse.

Cocktails carry the same cultural line as the food, with rum, citrus, and zero-proof options keeping pace with spice and smoke. Diaz’s bar does not sit apart from the kitchen. It answers it, and the meal closes on warm toasted banana bread, praline, brown sugar, and ice cream at Conejo Negro.