Here's this week's round-up of the latest local food and restaurant news...
Openings:
- You won't be getting any beer with your burger yet as they're still waiting for their liquor license to come through, but that didn't stop Oh Boy Burger Market (571 Queen Street West) from finally opening last Thursday.
- The basement of The Sultan's Tent has been turned into a new restaurant/lounge space called Berber (49 Front Street East).
- From our "imitation may be sincerest form of flattery, but it might also be grounds for a lawsuit" dept., The Designer Cookie (292 Eglinton Avenue West) is a new create-your-own cookie shop that appears to have a whole lot in common with the mega-popular Sweet Flour Bake Shop.
- Littlefish (3080 Dundas Street West) is a cute l'il cafe just opened in the Junction by Carey Wesenberg, ex-owner of Okay Okay Diner.
- Chef Carlos Fuenmayor and friends will be "celebrating Venezuelan urbanity" at Arepa Cafe (490 Queen Street West), starting with a grand opening party on Thursday November 19th. And a couple of blocks west, Harlem Underground (745 Queen Street West) will be opening its doors two nights later.
Closings:
- It seems a bit strange to list this under "Closings" since it never actually opened, but there doesn't seem to be a better category for mentioning that gastropub The Saint (227 Ossington) appears to be dead, or so we're guessing based on the "For Rent" signs that are now in the window. Which kinda makes the folks at Toronto Life and Martini Boys look silly for their fawning and gushing previews a few months ago...
- The Leslieville outpost of i Deal Coffee (1560 Queen Street East) was shuttered unexpectedly a few days ago, but the Kensington and Ossington locations remain open.
- Asian-fusion restaurant Monsoon (100 Simcoe Street) has suddenly shut down, with a dreaded Notice of Distress appearing on the door last week.
Coming Up:
- The opening of Origin (107/109 King Street East) is still at least a few weeks away, but to give an advance taste, chef/owner Claudio Aprile will be previewing the menu as his other restaurant, Colborne Lane, on November 23rd to 28th.
- The storefronts on the northeast corner of Bellevue and Nassau that were recently vacated by shops Heart on Your Sleeve and Left Feet are being combined to become The Bellevue (61A Bellevue Avenue), which is coincidentally (or not?) situated right across the street from a place that used to be The Bellevue Diner before it became KOS Restaurant (61 Bellevue Avenue) a couple of years back
- Apparently not content with charging people too much for groceries at his food shop mcewan in The Shops at Don Mills (1090 Don Mills Road), chef Mark McEwan will be opening a restaurant in the same snooty shopping complex in early 2010. It doesn't have a name yet, but early reports say that the food will be "affordable" (by McEwan's standards, at least) and "rustic Italian". Which sounds pretty damn similar to the recently opened Buca, where former McEwan protégé Rob Gentile is heading the kitchen. Hmmm...
