The week’s two big food stories both fall on the negative side of the ledger: Pusateri’s Avenue Rd. location will have to close for the foreseeable future after a major fire there over the weekend and Nathan Isberg’s unconventional restaurant, The Atlantic, has also closed.
Just Opened
- Dooney's, a Toronto institution from a time before free wifi and the near-total dominance of Starbucks, has opened a new location near Bloor and Ossington. The original Annex café closed five years ago.
- Once sleepy Leslieville is becoming a powerhosue for new restaurants in Toronto like the newly-opened Descendant Detroit-style Pizza.
- Lime Asian Kitchen continues to angle for a lock on the midtown market for pan-Asian cuisine. Their second location, at 3243 Yonge St., has just opened.
Coming Soon
- Paramount is adding Fresh East, a Middle Eastern deli-style operation at Yonge and Dundas, to their 15-location chain. The media release described it as a “health-conscious, halal-certified, quick-serve sandwich shop.”
Restaurant Coverage
- Every year CNE food vendors do their utmost to out-glutton the previous year’s offerings. Ultimately, they are all competing against the original — the ice cream waffle sandwich — and we check in with the two primary sources for this month’s Too Close to Call.
- Karolyne Ellacott picked the jerk chicken sandwich, one of the lightest, hot-weather friendly options at Albert’s Real Jamaican.
- Joanne Kates loves (most of) the food at Hanmoto but wishes they paid more attention to bygone niceties like reservations, a phone number and a sign out front.
- We have a First Look at Toronto’s first Detroit-style pizzeria. What’s Detroit-style pizza? Click through to find out.
- King West has a Vietnamese canteen, Bac Ky, that goes well beyond pho. Have a read of our First Look.
- The much-lauded Thobors is opening a second location for their bakery-meets-café concept on Eglinton West.
- In other midtown restaurant news, Istanbul’s Tulip is the area’s first Turkish restaurant.
- It takes time for trends to expand out to the less-than-cool neighbourhoods, and with their recent opening, Drink Juice Co. has brought cold-pressed juice to Leaside.
- In this month’s Strip Mall Gourmet, Suresh Doss heads to Patisserie Royale’s fancy new digs on Kennedy Rd.
Changes and Other News
- On Saturday night, Pusateri’s flagship grocery store on Avenue Rd. was the scene of a three-alarm fire. No one was seriously injured and they have promised to rebuild.
- Nathan Isberg’s experiment of a restaurant — no menus, no booze and pay what you want —The Atlantic, has come to a conclusion.
