Fifth Town’s retail shop (Image: Sutha Kamal)
Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company, the much-loved artisanal Prince Edward County cheese company, has wound down its operations—for now at least. Founder Petra Kassun-Mutch made the announcement on Facebook:
“Over the past two years, I watched the colour slowly drain out of something that was special [and] innovative and [that] pushed the envelope on several important environmental and social fronts–and something I felt was possible because of all the things others had taught me along the way. Now [there’s] nothing left to drain. The doors have closed on FT. My gratitude to all the staff, present and former, and the community who participated in making it happen over the past four years, and a special thanks to those who tried to tough it out in hopes of a better next phase. Even with doors closed, and whether you loved it or were of the ‘Told you so’ crowd, we together created something positive that will, in spite of its physical closing, endure for years to come.”
Torontonians have earned the right to be a tad cynical about the opening of yet another ye olde Irish/Scottish/English pub, with their mini-kilt-clad babes, sweet potato fries and calamari rings. But Ted and Mary (née McGugan) Koutsogiannopoulos, along with executive chef Bryan Burke, are hoping to bring something a little more authentic with McGugan’s, their new Scottish tavern on Gerrard Street. The trio, which is also behind Hank’s, Wine Bar and Great Burger Kitchen, secured the place late last summer, and has been sweating away to get it ready for launch ever since (indeed, Burke and Koutsogiannopulis did the woodwork themselves). We dropped in to check it out. 
