Here's this week's round-up of the latest local food and restaurant news...
Openings:
- Pancho's Bakery is now offering Mexican treats in a second location at 214 Augusta Avenue, in the heart of increasingly Latino-flavoured Kensington Market.
- Also in Kensington, Sanagan's Meat Locker (206 Baldwin Street) has taken over the spot recently vacated by the venerable Max & Son Meat Market, and is stocking "quality meats and poultry from small Ontario farms".
- The third location of Mexican restaurant Milagro (783 Queen Street West) is now open in the old Coca space a couple of blocks west of Bathurst.
- The "cafe by day, bar-lounge by night" trend is continuing to gain steam, with the latest addition being Charlie's Gallery (112 Harbord Street).
- Burlington is a bit outside of our usual stomping grounds, but we thought that the impending opening of Eatalia (527 Brant Street, Burlington) was worth a mention given that the owner is Hanif Harji of Kultura, Nyood and Madras Pantry.
Closings:
- Veggie cafe Get Real! (135 Ossington Avenue) was one of the first hip spots to open on Ossington back before the craze began, and now they've sadly become one of the first to close.
- Apparently having a rotating sushi bar wasn't enough to keep Mochizuki (655 Bay Street) in business.
- The Gay Village location of Il Fornello (491 Church Street) has closed, which is an unfortunate development for a neighbourhood that has only a handful of decent restaurants.
- Apparently miscalculating the demand on the Danforth for local, organic and rather expensive meat, Blackstone Organic Meats (207 Danforth Avenue) quietly closed for the final time a couple of weeks ago.
Changes:
- Brassaii (461 King Street West) has a new menu launching tomorrow from new executive chef Bruce Woods (Centro) and chef du cuisine Frank Parhizgar.
Coming Up:
- While it probably wasn't intentional, the name of now-closed Mel's Diner in the Annex always made us think of the old sitcom Alice, and the sitcom theme will be continuing when a second location of Hey Lucy Cafe (440 Bloor Street West) moves in later this month.
- Burger Shoppe is apparently expanding to a third location, although we haven't been able to find out where. If anyone knows more, please drop us a line...
If you have a scoop to share about the local food & restaurant scene, please let us know so we can include it in a future edition of T.O. Tidbits.
