It’s one thing to champion a farm-to-table philosophy in the agricultural abundance of Italy’s Amalfi Coast — home to Don Alfonso 1890, the legendary Michelin-starred restaurant founded by the Iaccarino family in the small village of Sant’Agata sui Due Golfi. There, lemons, herbs, olives and vegetables spill from an abundant landscape seemingly designed for culinary excellence. But how does that ethos translate thousands of kilometres away, in a climate far less forgiving?
At Don Alfonso 1890 in Toronto, it’s not possible to import Italy’s perpetual sunshine or the family’s Le Peracciole estate. Instead, the restaurant reconstructs the philosophy from the ground up, with the urban farm at Casa Loma at the core of its efforts. Here, innovation meets tradition — Amalfi’s sun-kissed spirit translated into a distinctly Canadian terroir.
On a crisp fall day, I’m invited to visit the farm — a lush garden located across the street from Casa Loma, the restaurant’s original site before its move to the top floor of the Westin Harbour Castle in 2022. Executive chef Davide Ciavattella, a native of the Amalfi Coast, greets us and leads the group to a picnic table laden with baskets and gardening tools.
The Italian-born chef has worked in some of the world’s most respected kitchens and is a former student of the Iaccarinos — a family that has been in the restaurant business for four generations and has earned multiple Michelin stars. When chefs Ernesto and Alfonso Iaccarino asked him to move to Toronto, Ciavattella admits he jumped at the opportunity.
Part of the appeal was the garden program, which supplies herbs, edible flowers, microgreens, vegetables and heritage varietals directly to the kitchen. Ciavattella encourages us to get our hands dirty, gesturing to rows of carrots and scallions and vines heavy with juicy red tomatoes.
Casa Loma employs a dedicated team to manage the gardens, and it’s these same staff who graciously answer our questions and demonstrate how to dig for greens, pull root vegetables and snip artichokes from their stalks.
With our baskets full, it’s time for a refreshment from Jacob Martin, Liberty Group's bar director and a former World Class Global Bartender of the Year. Like the rest of the team, Martin has been tasked with drawing inspiration from the garden’s unique terroir. His bright yellow non-alcoholic cocktail sings with herb infusions and garden garnishes — a glassful of late-season sunshine.
Refreshed, we wander through the indoor portion of the gardens, where herbs and seedlings thrive beneath bright lights and a tented dome. It’s a clever adaptation — and one that makes Don Alfonso 1890’s farm-to-table ethos a year-round reality, even in the depths of a Canadian winter.
For the final portion of our day, we head downtown to the Westin Harbour Castle. Whisked up 38 floors, we arrive at Don Alfonso 1890’s home — usually closed in the middle of the day, but today open for a special lunch created from our harvest. The circular dining room glows with natural light and offers 360-degree views of the city, from the skyline to the shimmer of Lake Ontario.
A full bread service kicks things off: focaccia, breadsticks and other delights, all paired with an unreal truffle butter, carved — inexplicably — into the shape of a skull. Next, we step into the kitchen to watch Ciavattella prepare one of the best salads I’ve ever eaten.
Don Alfonso 1890 embraces transparency, inviting guests to wander through the kitchen and watch the architects of their meal at work. When the salad lands in front of me, the freshness is unmistakable — a symphony of beans, carrots and artichokes plucked just hours earlier.
Next, a rustic tomato sauce comes together from the spoils of our garden tour — sweet, rich and deeply satisfying when twisted through handmade pasta. I mop up the last of it with a scrap of bread, performing the Italian “scarpetta” ritual with a smile. Finally, a selection of house-made petit fours arrives in a plume of dry ice, a dramatic and playful finale to an unforgettable afternoon.
It’s clear that while Toronto may never replicate Amalfi’s effortless bounty, Don Alfonso 1890 has cultivated something uniquely its own — a living, breathing bridge between land, kitchen and city. From the soil at Casa Loma to the sky-high dining room above Lake Ontario, the restaurant proves that farm-to-table isn’t about geography — it’s about dedication and good taste.
