T.O. Tidbits – Sunday, December 6th

Here's this week's round-up of the latest local food and restaurant news...

Openings:

• We're not sure how they kept it quiet given the amount of anticipation that had been building for the place, but Black Hoof owners Grant van Gameren and Jennifer Agg managed to keep the launch date of their across-the-street offshoot The Hoof Café (923 Dundas Street West) under wraps until the doors opened for the first time yesterday.
• Restaurant-lounge Fuzion 99 (810 St. Clair Avenue West) will open this coming Friday, with a menu featuring a fusion of Italian and Latin flavours.
• Jimmy's Coffee (107 Portland Street) is a new java joint opening this week from owner Phil Morrison (former partner at Healey's) and manager/chief barista Ashleigh “Max” Waters (ex-Hank's Café).
• Now open on College is The Auld Spot (633 College Street), a spin-off of the popular Danforth pub of the same name, and on the verge of opening is sustainable fair trade coffee & tea house The Green Grind (567 College Street).
• The long-gestating second location of popular Korean BBQ restaurant Miga (584 Bloor Street West) has finally opened, meaning downtowners no longer have to trek to Mississauga for their delicious grilled meats.
• Indigo Masala Room (137 Avenue Road) has taken over from the recently closed Era Ora.
• Smokin' Bones (117 Dundas Street East) is set to open this week, with an aim to become "the premier take-out and delivery restaurant of Southern comfort food in the GTA".
• Perhaps trying to snag some business from the nearby Keg Mansion, casual dining chain Honey's Beestro has opened The Grand Hive (504 Jarvis Street) in the Gooderham House historic mansion, formerly home to Italian restaurant Angelini's.

Closings:

• Apparently it's a bad time to own a restaurant with "Monsoon" in the name, as not only have Gorilla Monsoon and Monsoon both been shut down in the last couple of months, but now the downtown location of Asian Monsoon (785 Queen Street West) has followed.
• Iconic Queen West nightclub and concert venue The Big Bop (651 Queen Street West) will be closing in January, with rumours swirling that the building will be taken over by American housewares and furniture chain Crate and Barrel for the first Canadian location of their hipper CB2 brand.
• Vdara (735 Queen Street West) has followed in the footsteps of previous tenant Satori and closed less than a year after opening.
• The glut of cheap lunch spots on Dundas between Bay and University has been reduced by one with the closure of Aka Sushi (171 Dundas Street West).

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.