Here's this week's round-up of the latest local food and restaurant news...
Openings:
- If your hacked up old Henckels just aren't cutting it anymore, new specialty shop Knife (658 Queen Street West, 2nd Floor) can set you up with some of the best high-end blades from Japan.
- While it's tempting to play the "we were hanging out on Queen West before it turned into an outdoor shopping mall!" card, we'll resist it this time, and simply report that both Hoops Sports Bar & Grill (735 Queen Street West) and Hot Wings Grill & Rib House (563 Queen Street West) and now open for all of your artery-clogging comfort food needs.
- Meanwhile, over in Parkdale, the spirit of Queen West both new and old school are mashed up at Parts & Labour (1566 Queen Street West), the hotly anticipated combination of highish-end resto-lounge (upstairs) and punk rock bar (downstairs) that opened this past Friday.
Closings:
- Cozy sweet and sandwich shop Osogood Pastries & Sandwiches (874 College Street) has closed.
- Le Gourmand is back down to a single café on Spadina near Queen after the recent closure of the HBC food court location (20 Bloor Street East), which follows the shuttering of their LG3 restaurant at Yonge & Eglinton earlier this year.
Changes:
- Chef Pat Riley (ex-Perigee) is now in the kitchen at Amuse Bistro (1975A Queen Street East), where he is offering two menus dubbed "The Familiar" and "The Road Less Travelled".
- Facing reticence from Windsor Arms owner George Friedmann over plans to transform the hotel's restaurant Prime (18 St. Thomas Street) from high-end steakhouse to a more casual bistro, J.P. Challet has left the hotel after just a few months as "guest executive chef", with Richard Andino (ex-Flow) stepping in to take over the kitchen. Challet and team are now back to concentrating on their long-delayed Ici Bistro (538 Manning Avenue), where they're aiming for a July opening.
Coming Up:
- West coast casual dining chain Earls has some big expansion plans for the GTA, with the current Square One location in Mississauga to be joined by locations at Mapleview Shopping Centre in Burlington (900 Maple Avenue) this summer, downtown Toronto (150 King Street West) in the fall, and Woodbridge (30 Colossus Drive) in early 2011.
- Sushi is returning to the corner of Bay & Elm, with the former Mochizuki soon to be a second location of Sushi Queen (655 Bay Street).
- Chef/owner of 93 Harbord Isam Kaisi is branching out, and will be opening a Middle Eastern tapas spot at 842 College Street, the former home of Portuguese restaurant and nightclub Cervejaria.
- Carlos Hernandez has confirmed that the chicken & ribs take-out joint he's opening where Igor Kenk's Bicycle Clinic used to stand will be called Inigo (927 Queen Street). Watch for it to open in late summer.
- Johan Maes and Tonya Reid of Le Petit Dejeuner have taken over the lease of Semolina Bakery and will be reviving Goed Eten (188 Ossington Avenue), expanding beyond the waffles they featured at the now closed Kensington location to also offer Belgian frites and other items.
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.
I am always amazed at how much material you two keep churning out for TasteTO...Like rust, you never seem to sleep.
Restaurantsales.ca is listing Coco Lezzone for sale.
The secret anti-spam word today is: butter
Not "never", Dean - but 6 hours is usually the best I can hope for most nights. :)
Always interesting to keep an eye on that site for possible future developments, but I tend not to report things here until an actual sale has taken place. Some places stay listed there for ages, with business going on as usual in the meantime. Still see some surprises there occasionally, though.