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(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
Hawker Bar joins the likes of The Saint and Bellwoods Brewery on the strip as the new kids on the Ossington block. Run by a pack of longtime friends—Casimir Alyea, Andrew Mistry and brothers Nicholas and Frederic Laliberté, who are also behind Poutini’s—the joint offers up a first for the city: Singaporean street grub.
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The Bitches themselves, Shontelle Pinch and Bianka Matchett (Image: Dave Gillespie)
At a sneak preview event at the Boiler House in the Distillery District earlier this month, the Gourmet Bitches unveiled their new matte-black food truck. With the name printed as a mirror image in bold white print and purple neon lighting, it won’t be hard to find when it hits the streets in May. The cheekily named truck is a collaboration between Shontelle Pinch and Bianka Matchett, who decided to buck some of the bigger trends in mobile dining with healthy options that include gluten- and dairy-free menu items.
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The view from the mezzanine, up above the main floor (Image: Gizelle Lau)
After a bit of a lull in new openings, it seems as though Ossington is in the middle of yet another restaurant and bar boom, with the launch of The Saint, Hawker Bar and now Bellwoods Brewery, the first new brewpub in Toronto after the untimely death of Duggan’s. Despite having opened just last Wednesday, the space was packed before 6 p.m. on Saturday night—in other words, the microbrewery is already a hit. Of course, smack dab as it is in the middle of hipster party central, we didn’t expect anything less.
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Toucan Taco Bar takes over the space once occupied by Le Rossignol
“People in this city love burritos,” says Richard Henry, owner of Riverside’s new Toucan Taco Bar. Henry, the owner of two other bird-themed east-end restaurants (Le Canard Mort and Le Rossignol, currently shacking up together), decided to jump on board the city’s current romance with Mexican food and add a third bird to his flock. But why a toucan? Apparently “Budgie Burrito” just didn’t have quite the same ring to it.
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(Image: Gizelle Lau)
When we first told you about The Saint back in 2009, we said it would open in April—and it will, albeit three years later than expected. After a long licensing battle with the city, during which time most of the Ossington strip was redeveloped, the restaurant is finally slated to open to the public today. We dropped by to get a look behind windows that have been covered for years.
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Owners Fritz Wahl, chef Ben Heaton and Richard Reyes (Image: Renée Suen)
Over the last few years, formerly low-rent areas like Ossington, Parkdale and Dundas West have become culinary destinations, with a spate of new restaurants serving up affordable and inventive cuisine in casual dining rooms. The latest in this line is The Grove, a 50-seat Dundas West restaurant from chef Ben Heaton (One, Colborne Lane, Globe Bistro), Richard Reyes (One) and Fritz Wahl (Senses) that’s aimed at introducing Toronto diners to modern English cuisine.
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(Image: Gizelle Lau)
Nearly six years in the making, the long-awaited Actinolite opened last week on a quiet strip of Ossington at Hallam, just south of Dupont. Behind the restaurant are husband-and-wife team Justin Cournoyer, a cook with over 15 years of experience (including a four-year stint at Susur) and Claudia Bianchi, a culinary producer for Food Network Canada (Top Chef Canada, Cook Like a Chef) and food stylist. Out of a building that was once home to Our Place Café, the couple has created an approachable yet sophisticated neighbourhood restaurant.
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Co-owners Karen Young and Adam Urquhart (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
This End Up is the latest in a series of new Dundas West eateries to colonize the once Portuguese-dominated strip. Co-owners Karen Young and Adam Urquhart serve a menu of sandwiches and easy-to-share options, along with a long list of cocktails (“Ever since he was a little boy, he’s dreamed of having a sandwich shop,” Young tells us). The couple met (and starting dating) 16 years ago while working at All the Best Fine Foods, and after dabbling in the film world, they realized they were spending most of their spare time thinking about food.
Rob Rossi’s new restaurant is no place for carnophobes
The most recent in a slew of west-end spots run by young restaurateurs capitalizing on the affordable rent, Bestellen has finally opened on College West, right next door to Italian eatery Black Skirt (the name is German for “to order”). Chef and co-owner Rob Rossi, who took second place in last year’s season of Top Chef Canada, and business partner Ryan Sarfeld, a trained chef who transitioned to the front of house, modeled their first venture after the kind of place they’d like to hang out in: the music is loud, there are plenty of beers on tap and the menu, designed for sharing, is heavy on the meat.
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A busy night at Queen West’s Chantecler (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
“We talked about opening an itty bitty restaurant forever” says Jacob Wharton-Shukster, co-owner of Parkdale’s latest restaurant, Chantecler. “But it’s tough with a shoestring budget!” Named after Canada’s only heritage breed of chicken, Chantecler is the brainchild of Wharton-Shukster and chef Jonathan Poon (Noma, C5, Delux, Colborne Lane), who serves what the pair have dubbed “progressive Canadian cuisine.” After meeting at Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar in 2005, the friends worked Toronto’s restaurant circuit (and Poon did a few stints abroad) before seeking out a space to call their own (during their frustrating search, Poon launched a Monday night dinner series at the Bellevue in order to keep fresh). When this west-end spot finally came on their radar, they snapped it up immediately.
Victoria Vaccher outside her new Beach bakery (Image: Yves Freypons)
About this time of year, the Beach starts to wake up from its winter slumber, which makes it a great time for Victoria Vaccher to launch her new vegan bakery café, Tori’s Bakeshop. Vaccher became a vegan seven years ago, but it wasn’t until last year that the concept of an eat-in vegan café and bakery occurred to her (previously, she’d had aspirations of a career on Broadway). When she took over the space, there were paint marks from miniature hands all over the primary-coloured walls (it was previously The Art Garage). Almost eight months later, the space looks like something designed by Martha Stewart’s Anthropologie-loving niece. We dropped by to check it out.
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Inside the latest iteration of what was once Planet Kensington (Image: Caroline Aksich)
The craft beer renaissance is taking Ontario by storm (about a decade after it hit the U.S.), and this month saw the launch of another watering hole boasting a respectable list of microbrews from home and abroad: Kensington Market’s Thirsty and Miserable. When Katie Whittaker took over this Baldwin Street space, previously home to Havana Cuba, the place was in shambles: there was rotting food everywhere and a huge roach problem. After a month’s hard work (they only received access to the space on January 16) Whittaker and her business partner, Martin Farkas, have gotten their new project to just the right level of shabbiness.
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(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
After a quiet opening last week, The Federal Reserve experienced a whirlwind first weekend, with Dundas West’s fevered brunch crowd gamely filling up the space (with NoNo’s and This End Up soon to open on the same strip, Dundas’s rate of restaurant openings is nearing Roncesvalles-like heights). Running the ship is a band of friends—Zach Slootsky, Duncan MacNeill, Joe Zabukovec and Adam Janes—all of whom are balancing their time at the Federal with other jobs both in and out of the restaurant industry (MacNeill’s currently at Woodlot and Slootsky, a sometime photographer, is at Swan).
(Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
“We wanted to get pre-packaged food away from the gas station stigma,” says Jordana Appugliesi, co-owner of the new Bay Street takeout joint Sliced. Along with her husband, Nabil Zakaria (Sassafraz, Monte Cristo), and mom, Mary Jo Appugliesi, Jordana offers healthy, preservative-free soups and sandwiches that are made fresh daily (end-of-day leftovers donated to Second Harvest). We dropped by to check the place out.
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Inside the newly renovated Catch on St. Clair (Image: Meaghan Binstock)
A year and a half after St. Clair fixture Filippo’s ended its more than 20-year run, the paper has finally come off the windows to reveal Catch, a new seafood restaurant. Owner Frank Pronesti had already made his mark on the St. Clair West restaurant strip as owner of The Rushton and one of the original partners at Ferro. After a year-long renovation that left nothing of the original space aside from the exposed brick, the elegant 40-seat room is a far cry from its predecessor. Pronesti has assembled a team stacked with East Coasters to execute his Mediterranean-inspired concept.
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