Agave y Aguacate closes in Kensington but will be popping up here and there
After just over a year of delighting Kensington Market with his meticulous Mexican street food, Francisco Alejandri, the affable but intense perfectionist behind Agave y Aguacate, has closed down his stall in the El Gordo food court at 214 Augusta Avenue. In an interview with Post City, Alejandri said that he just couldn’t deal with the chaos and grunginess of the venue (other vendors have also left recently). The market’s owner, Alfonso Segovia, argued that Alejandri’s unpredictable opening hours might have been a bigger reason for Agave y Aguacate’s difficulties in the space, although he also conceded that keeping the tiny market clean and organized is a challenge. In any case, Agave y Aguacate’s many fans need not fear: Alejandri has a few pop-up gigs scheduled. On September 9, he’ll be appearing at the Awestruck food truck awards, and starting next month he’ll be cooking at The Raq on Queen West on Thursdays. He had also been engaged to cook at Harbourfront’s Lifestyle Zone for the next two weekends, but will now be unable to attend. As ever, he’s looking for a more permanent restaurant space. Meanwhile, the Star’s Eat blog is reporting that Seven Lives, a taco concern, will be setting up shop in the El Gordo space. [Post City]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/food/agave-y-aguacate-closes/&title=Agave y Aguacate closes in Kensington but will be popping up here and there&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/agave-tostada.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_159338" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Agave y Aguacate’s tinga tostada, a 2011 weekly lunch pick (Image: Renée Suen)"][/caption]
After just over a year of delighting Kensington Market with his meticulous Mexican street food, Francisco Alejandri, the affable but intense perfectionist behind Agave y Aguacate, has closed down his stall in the El Gordo food court at 214 Augusta Avenue. In an interview with Post City, Alejandri said that he just couldn’t deal with the chaos and grunginess of the venue (other vendors have also left recently). The market’s owner, Alfonso Segovia, argued that Alejandri’s unpredictable opening hours might have been a bigger reason for Agave y Aguacate’s difficulties in the space, although he also conceded that keeping the tiny market clean and organized is a challenge. In any case, Agave y Aguacate’s many fans need not fear: Alejandri has a few pop-up gigs scheduled. On September 9, he’ll be appearing at the Awestruck food truck awards, and starting next month he’ll be cooking at The Raq on Queen West on Thursdays. He had also been engaged to cook at Harbourfront’s Lifestyle Zone for the next two weekends, but will now be unable to attend. As ever, he’s looking for a more permanent restaurant space. Meanwhile, the Star’s Eat blog is reporting that Seven Lives, a taco concern, will be setting up shop in the El Gordo space. [Post City]){kind=link}
Noooooooooo!
Hola Francisco, you should move ‘Agave’ to Stratford each summer! Looking forward to your incarnation. Sinceremente, Ricardo
Well with dubious character always hanging around and local restaurants keep housing the homelessit is any wonder that restaurants are having trouble in Kensington. The Weed shop does the area no favours either. To use the bank in this area is sketchy and overall grunginess isn’t funny. It may keep the rents down but it’s lack of gentrification is what is keeping people from eating around there. I shop there very rarely if I am feeling brazen enough to try it but I think a rethink is in order for the local BIA if they want people who work for a living to come around there whether shopping or eating. Have a look at Notting Hill in London a similar type area they have cleaned it up quite a bit in recent years making it less attractive for vagrants to hang around. I say remove the liquor store first on Spadina would a good start.
long overdue……to call a person a chef when he would never be on time; open when he wanted and best of all take ridiculous amounts of time to feed 4 people…….laughable that the most detail he paid was painstakingly adjusting his uniform while people waited for the artiste to hurry up……went four times and only once was he open during advertised business hours…..