(Image: Fraser Abe)

Dish readers gazing out the windows of their westbound 501 streetcar might have noticed the recent boards covering the entrance to Brooklynn at Queen and Northcote. No, the bar, co-owned by Zak Kellar and Ryan Boudah (and definitely not named after hipster ground zero), isn’t shuttering forever—in fact, it’s expanding. We spoke with Kellar, who told us that when the neighbouring Dufferin-Queen Animal Clinic moved across the street, the building’s landlord offered them the opportunity to grow. The place will now house a small art gallery, mostly featuring the work of their friend Krista MacFarlane, and the capacity will increase from slightly over 100 people to slightly over 200. So in case you ever felt there weren’t enough places on Queen West to get sloppily drunk before taking in a little art, your prayers will be answered. The renovated space is expected to open by this weekend.

Happy campers: Business Woman’s Special (Image: Jay Shuster)

A request for bottle service, that ostentatious nightclub cliché, will get you run out of Queen West bars. Mickeys are another story. For $45, groups of 30-somethings decompress at the end of the week with shared bottles of Jack Daniel’s, Jameson and Jäger­meister. Sip from shooter glasses (mixer is for wusses).

If Church and Wellesley is strangely quiet on the second Saturday of the month, that’s because everyone is at this party in Kensington Market. By midnight, the room is a mosh pit of 20-something bearded gays and multiculti lesbians, bumping and grinding to mid-’90s hip-hop classics with some Kesha thrown in. Labatt 50 is the unpretentious drink of choice, and the ironic dress code runs to bow ties, baseball caps and high-tops. $5 cover.

Claudio Aprile’s high-concept restaurant is also an elegant bar serving cocktails potent enough to transform the dullest colleague into the life of the party. A mojito ($12) of Meyer lemon, mint and white rum gets added zip from fresh ginger. If the permits come in, they’ll open a patio with unobstructed sun all afternoon, a rarity downtown.

Proprietor Michael Duggan earned a following as brewmaster at Mill Street, where he was responsible for its Tankhouse ale and organic lager. At his new home, he has a hit with a dark amber India pale ale made with nine varieties of malt. The bar itself is in an airy and elegant 1908 building (the former Strand Hotel), with Duggan’s gleaming beer apparatus the room’s centrepiece. $4.85 a pint.

Viva! Cuban food and drink come to Little Portugal (Photo by Omid Tavallai)

This weekend, West Queen West goes Cubano with the second annual Havana Cultura Festival. There will be music, cigar rolling and, most importantly, Cuban-inspired culinary experiences from 16 restaurants and bars along Ossington, Queen and Dundas. One unlikely participant this year is Poutini’s. For the first time since opening, they will be offering something other than their standard menu dish: a “Cuban-style frijole” poutine consisting of black beans, onions, garlic, peppers, tomato and herbs over fries, and topped with sour cream and cilantro (it’s traditionally served over rice). On Saturday night, the staff will be manning a booth across the street in order to serve the same frijole over a baked potato instead of fries.

Aside from its famous Cuban sandwich, Delux will be offering poetry readings from chef Corinna Mozo’s poet father, Emilio, who is flying in from Boston. Down the street, Levack Block and The Ossington plan on making Cuban beverages: rum-based punch at the latter and mojitos at the former (not exactly a stretch from a typical cocktail menu, but they’re Cuban nonetheless). The Gladstone Hotel will also have a special menu, but chef Marc Breton had yet to prepare anything when we checked in yesterday. “Yeah, it’s something I’ll have to get started on,” says the chef.

The participating restaurants and bars are:

• Gladstone Hotel (food, music, cocktails)
• Wrongbar (cocktails)
• Parkdale Unit Snackbar (cocktails)
• Brooklynn (cocktails, music, bartending clinic)
• Cinnamon Girls (food)
• Lot 16 (cocktails)
• Poutini’s (food)
• The Social (cocktails)
• Julie’s Cuban Restaurant (food, cocktails)
• The Ossington (art, food, cocktails)
• Levack Block (music, cocktails)
• Delux (food, cocktails, poetry)
• Crooked Star (music, art, food, cocktails)
• Sweaty Betty’s (music)
• Lula Lounge (Cigar rolling, music)
• The Parkdale Drink (Cigar rolling)

The Havana Cultura Festival, Sept. 24 to 27, various locations on Ossington Ave. and Queen St. W., havana-cultura.com.

Cat power: Zak Kellar and Ryan Boudah named their new bar after Kellar's kitty

West Queen West seems less like hip strip and more like a series of failed, shuttered bars of late. Cock and Tail, The Kitchen have closed, and many others, like Midpoint, are stalled at various stages of renovation. Curious, we started looking into what the next generation of joints in the Drake district would look like. First, we previewed The Bar with No Name, and now we’re looking at Brooklynn—a boozery with swagger that’s soon to take over where The Kitchen left off.

After working under other bar owners for more than a decade, long-time friends Zak Keller (Brant House) and Ryan Boudah (The Hideout) are opening their own place. Brooklynn, despite its name, will have nothing to do with New York, says Keller, noting that the place is named after his cat. Instead of black and white murals of the Brooklyn Bridge, the space that was once The Kitchen (turns out people aren’t crazy for chocolate ribs) will have a rock ’n’ roll theme, with the top of the bar covered in Rolling Stone covers, guitar cases signed by everyone who worked on the place and large prints of rocker chicks aptly named Brooke and Lynn. The exposed brick remains untouched but The Kitchen’s cold, white walls and stainless steel have been replaced with warmer red tones.

The bar menu is classic rawk: “The Mickey” will contain Jack, Jameson, Jager and vodka ($40!); $4 shots and $6 pints will also be served. As for food, there will be the standard steak frites and burgers, but Keller says their specialty will be the “jacked potatoes”— a twist on jacket potatoes—with smoked salmon, tuna melt, chicken pot pie and poutine varieties.

“The vibe in here is a seven-day-a-week neighbourhood bar. It’s not a Thursday to Saturday club where it’s promoter driven. We’re also going to do Sunday brunch for families, and of course, those with hangovers,” says Keller. “We don’t have room for full-out bands yet, but we have friends who are musicians so we’d like to do acoustic sets…It’s going to be set up so people can just walk up and request anything they want to hear. Everyone is a part of the party.”

Brooklynn, 1186 Queen St. W. (at Northcote Ave.) opens tomorrow.

• Know anything about new (or old) establishments on the West Queen West strip? Let us know via e-mail: tips@torontolife.com.