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The latest restaurant buzz, including what’s opening, what’s closing, and where to eat, drink and be seen
Yonge Street’s poshest stretch, from Ramsden Park up to the Summerhill LCBO, has two strong suits: food and decor. Locals from the tree-lined side streets keep the shops going during the week, while the weekend brings floods of shoppers from further afield. Here, our list of 23 essential restaurants, food shops, furniture stores, clothing boutiques and beauty parlours along tony Toronto’s main drag.
The shop lights on Gerrard Street East stay on till nine—a late-night tradition that started out with the old Bollywood movie house that originally brought Indian merchants to the strip. Now sari shops, glowing neon signs for Kashmiri tea and sidewalk stands selling spiced corn on the cob keep the area filled with Pakistani Canadians from nearby Victoria Park, South Asian families in from the burbs, and residents from the slowly-but-surely gentrifying side streets. The retail bustle is creeping west of Jones, where several new businesses are revitalizing a dreary stretch of empty storefronts, noodle houses, laundromats and hair salons.
Though solidly yuppified, this erstwhile eastern European enclave has held on to its tradition of thriving small businesses. Neighbours are genuinely chummy, moms trade intel on good nannies and bad teachers (between Pilates classes in the park), and the main drag offers almost everything.
The St. Clair West strip between Bathurst and Oakwood is known for its diverse population, interminable TTC construction, and that classic Toronto mix of urban grit, Old World–authentic mom and pop shops, and yuppie startups. Our list of 20 can’t-miss stops is the best way to get to know the area.
The strip of Dundas West between Ossington and Lansdowne has not been immune to the wild gentrification going on directly south of it. New restaurants, stores and bars have been cropping up for the past couple of years (Red Canoe, a swank Canadiana shop, opened two weeks ago), but there is a hesitation in the ’hood to turn Little Portugal and Brockton Village into the next Ossington. Incoming business owners make a point of blending in with the long-standing family-owned bakeries, soccer bars and pho stops. Even in new establishments, the decor has a thrift shop feel, and the prices cater to locals rather than destination diners. From east to west, here are our 21 favourite Dundas West spots for cheap eats, good music and authentic Portuguese cuisine.
The east end’s main thoroughfare has long been known for two things: Greek food and the Taste of the Danforth. Over the past many years, though, homebuyers drawn to the subway line have slowly turned the long strip of two-storey brick buildings into a bustling neighbourhood that has attracted a rich selection of fine shops, independent coffee houses, Thai joints and haute cuisine restaurants. The Danforth has reached a wonderful maturity that we think should be celebrated. Here are 21 of the best reasons to cross the viaduct.
Referred to as Little Poland by long-time residents and Roncey by the younger crowd, the Roncesvalles strip is one of the few neighbourhoods in the city that has earned its “hip” label without been invaded by raucous nightlifers. Progress keeps marching forward here, despite an ongoing road rehabilitation project that has claimed a few business causalities. We recommend spending a spring Saturday visiting these 25 spots.
(Thumbnail credit: 416 style)
The beat goes on: Church Street ignores terminal prognosis (Image: Neal Jennings)
Last year was a rough one for the gaybourhood. Zelda’s, Bigliardi’s, Pita Pen, Il Fornello, Carman’s, Lettieri, Statlers and Crews and Tango all shut down, leaving the Post and the Star to speculate that the Village was on its last legs. Well, according to an overstatement in Xtra (“Overwhelming prosperity grips neighbourhood in midst of death throes”), the Great Flame-Out of ’09 is over, and the district is quickly turning around. Maple Leaf Gardens will be reopening, the iconic Church Street Diner has expanded, Chic-Ko-Roo has taken Il Fornello’s old spot, and a liquor licence application has just appeared in the window of Crews and Tango. There’s still no word on the official reopening date of Crews (it has seemed to be on the verge of reopening every month since last summer), but the bar was accepting résumés last week. We’re sure there’s a diva reinvention metaphor in this story, but couldn’t decide which was more apt: Whitney or Madonna. Only time will tell.
(All photos by Karon Liu)
Even those who were born and raised in Toronto have a hard time navigating the city’s underground labyrinth, with its dead ends, identical food courts and utterly useless maps—not to mention the complete lack of sunlight, which can drive a person mad. Still, the world’s largest below-ground shopping complex is like a city of its own, with lots of unique shops, restaurants and attractions that are worth the slight possibility of getting cabin fever. An added incentive for people going to a game or a concert: most of the restaurants offer free parking. Here are 24 places to check out.
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