Here's this week's round-up of the latest local food and restaurant news...
Openings:
- earth (1055 Yonge Street), the midtown off-shoot of Ed Ho's Globe Bistro, had a couple of preview nights early last week followed by its official opening on Thursday. Like its sibling, earth is focused on fresh and local food, with a menu that includes wood oven flatbreads, a rib eye burger with curds and pancetta, and an assortment of hand cut meats available by the ounce.
- To-ne Sushi (414 Queen Street West) is a new arrival near Spadina, taking over from a recently closed location of the Sushi2Go chain. And a similar switch has happened a few doors east, where Shwarma Time Halal (392 Queen Street West) has moved in where King Shawarma used to be.
- Cloud Free Agent Espresso Bar (968 Queen Street West), a physical world extension of online ad agency Cloud Advertising Agents, has been in soft opening preview mode this weekend, and will be officially opening any day now.
- Sonic (60 Cecil Street) is a "bike-friendly" cafe opening on December 1st near College and Spadina.
- Downtown boozehounds rejoice - the big new LCBO at King and Spadina is opening on Friday, just in time for holiday shopping madness.
Closings:
- The first Canadian location of Miami Subs Pizza & Grill (563 Queen Street West) has closed after less than two months in business, leaving behind a remarkably garish and ugly storefront.
- It's been a tough couple of months on Church Street with the closure of Il Fornello and the move of Zelda's to Yonge, and now more bad news: Statler's Piano Lounge (487 Church Street) has bitten the dust.
Coming Up:
- The local indie music scene went nuts last week when the sign and classic RUNT mural on the front of Lee's Palace (529 Bloor Street West) was suddenly removed, but fears that the venerable bar and music venue was closing were quickly put to rest when it was announced that the façade was being refurbished and will be replaced with a new work of art by RUNT soon enough. And for those who regularly stagger out of Lee's after a night of loud music and too much booze, there's even better news: a second location of Big Fat Burrito is opening soon in the street-facing section of Lee's.
- Salvatore Mele, owner of Capocaccia, has taken over the space recently vacated by Lakes, and is aiming to open a new restaurant there in early 2010. Tentatively named Capo (1112 Yonge Street), the menu will reportedly be focused on stuzzichini (Italian tapas), charcuterie and other small plates, all paired with appropriate wines.
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.
