Signs posted at 164 Ossington signal the impending opening of Hawker Bar. The space, which used to house Crepes and More, and before that, le Bar a Soupe, is adjacent to Ideal Coffee and, with good management, should do well in the location.
According to a posted sign written to the neighbours, Hawker Bar will be a full-service restaurant serving lunch and dinner. The menu will be an “exciting mix of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian flavours… inspired by the local street food… of… Singapore”. Opening date TBD.
Soon-to-open new restaurant The Grove, next to Churchill on Dundas at Lakeview, is already getting preview attention for its English menu.
The local art scene is also getting some coverage, starting with a story about art which mentions some street art on Queen near Ossington. It’s a cool picture – definitely want to check it out!
About this time of year, we like to look back and see what people have been reading on the site and highlight the most popular posts of the year by traffic.
The list is interesting, reflecting not only what’s been popular, but also highlighting places and events we have covered first, been the only ones to cover, or which do not have their own web presence.
1) The Port – updated local spot keeps traditional Beef Shishkabob The first on the list is actually a post written in 2010 about The Port on Dundas. They did an overhaul at the end of last year but decided to keep the one menu item the new managers thought would sell, a delicious beef shishkabob which comes to the table on a sword.
2) Fishbar Opens their Doors – In second place was our post about the long awaited Fishbar, which opened in May and has been going strong ever since. We especially like their Oyster matinee on weekend afternoons.
3) Havana Cultura Starts Today! – This post, written in 2010 for the first edition of the festival, is still more popular than the post we wrote about this year’s festival in July. We’re looking forward to many more years of this Cuban cultural festival remaining in the neighbourhood.
4) Beau Lieu Bistro is Now Open – We wrote this post in September 2010 and it’s still popular. It’s probably because this quiet French bistro hasn’t had much publicity in other media and audiences online are looking to know more.
5) The evolution of Dundas off Ossington – Another post from October 2010 remained popular through 2011. As the moratorium came to a close in 2010, we noticed the quick transition of Dundas to a more food-centric strip. At that time, many new places were opening, including Churchill, Enoteca Sociale, Brockton General, The Red Light, The Port, Camp 4, and more, all taking the local food and drink culture which had started on Ossington to a new place around the corner on Dundas.
6) Opening Soon: Amaya Express – There’s no doubt it takes a long time to get a restaurant open. We wrote about this Indian restaurant chain soon-to-be opening in March. Here it is December and we’re still waiting.
7) Cosmopolis shoot brings stars to Ossington and Dundas – It seems vampires are popular. When we wrote in May about how Robert Pattinson was filming in the neighbourhood, his fans immediately retweeted and shared our post. The day we posted this was one of the busiest days this year for traffic on the site.
Psst – There’s an Ossington Village Alleyway Party – In early August, local musician and bartender at Communist’s Daughter and organizer Michael Louis Johnson organized a party in the alleyway between Argyle and Foxley. This post was shared widely, letting people know of this no-so-secret event.
9) Yours Truly Now Open – Despite only being on the site for about 14 days, this post, written on December 16th about the new restaurant Yours Truly, is still in our top 10. We ended up stopping by later in the week and the food was outstanding. We’ll be back there a lot.
Over the past year, we welcomed a number of new businesses to the neighborhood, not as many as in 2010, but quite a few! We hope they’ll grow and succeed, so to help, we’ll remind you of these restaurants, stores and art galleries. If you haven’t visited them, you can add them to your “check out” list for 2012.
More than Pasta opened it’s doors officially at 121 Ossington in March 2011, but we got an advance look at the delicious pastas, sauces and prepared foods they make in-house.
Fishbaropened in May, serving happy hour and dinner at 217 Ossington Ave, and since then they’ve added a lunch menu for all the fish lovers around. Also in May, the Lakeview Storehouse opened, selling produce and groceries, along with poutine, adjacent to the Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas.
Just in time for summer, Eagle’s Nest Espresso and Ice Cream opened at 1199 Dundas Street West.
November was a busy month for openings: we noted the return of Lennox Contemporary, now at 44 Ossington, and the opening of The Dog Bowl at 984 Dundas West. Also new is G Gallery in the back at 134 Ossington.
In December we welcomedtwo of the newest businesses on the street: Yours Truly is now open 6 nights a week (closed Tuesday) for dinner at 229 Ossington, and Don’t Tell Mama is a gallery and art space.
There are also a lot of places we’ve been talking about opening but are still waiting for - like Amaya, The Saint and Bellwoods Brewery. More to look forward to in the new year!
We continue our series of “buy local” gift ideas in Ossington Village with another easy and plentiful option: a gift certificate for dinner.
With the plethora of restaurants in our neighborhood, you can buy a gift card to suit anyone’s tastes. All you have to do is stop by one of these establishments one night this week and buy a gift certificate, put it in a card, and you’re done. Maybe if you’re lucky, the recipient will take you for a meal! Bon appetit!
The gift: Restaurant gift certificate
Where to get it: Fishbar for seafood lovers, Boehmer for the traditional, Union for the meat eater, Delux for Cuban, Foxley for Asian tapas, Salt for Portuguese tapas, Pizza Libretto and Enoteca Sociale for Italian. If you want to introduce them to somewhere they haven’t tried, Yours Trulyjust opened, and don’t forget Beau Lieu Bistro for the Francophile. The list goes on and on.
Price range: Up to you
Who would like it: People who like to eat out. The range of choices in our neighborhood make it easy to please the people on your list.
New restaurant Yours Truly opened quietly this week at 229 Ossington, just south of Dundas. The menu is posted in the window, and it starts with a prix fixe card offering seasonal meat and veggie options. There is also a section of small plates. When we dropped by and spoke to a hostess, she told us they will soon show their menu online as it will change often.
We took some photos of the menu for your reference. You can also stop in and taste for yourselves! Let us know if you do go: we have some holiday parties this weekend, so won’t be able to try right away.
It’s only a few weeks away, and you still don’t have plans for New Year’s? No matter how cold it is, at least on Ossington you know you’ll find a cab home! Here are some great ways to celebrate the start of 2012.
Bohmer Restaurant is holding a Speakeasy New Year’s Eve, with a 5 course tasting menu with a glass of bubbly, for $75 pp.
At this year’s Dakota Tavern New Year’s party, CATL will have everyone dancing with a show starting at 10PM.
The Painted Lady sticks to what it does best, with music by Salazar and burlesque from Anastasia Burlesque.
The Ossington is planning an 80s boogie funk New Year with “Love Handle NYE Edition” with DJs starting at 10PM.
Opera Bob’s is hosting their 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve-Stravaganza, with live music from The Unknown Culprits and guests. Admission is $20 but go buy tickets in advance as they sold out well before the big night last year.
The Garrison‘s Annual New Year’s Eve party features Chronologic and Shit la Merde and tickets are available at Soundscapes and Rotate This for $20.
Lower Ossington Theatre‘s new event space, LOT, is hosting a New Year’s party for $10 with dancing all night. Tickets on sale now and the party starts at 10p.
UPDATE: Fishbar has announced their dinner menu for New Year’s (scroll down) and for $55 pp they are offering a 4 course meal, drinks not included.
People will be dancing at Levack Block. Featuring DJ Dougie Boom in the backroom with special guests in the front. Entry is $20 in advance, $30 at the door, plus there’s a $40 VIP wristband = entry to second floor & champagne toast at midnite. Doors open @ 10pm, serving till 3AM.
Tickets available at the bar from Thursday to Saturday from 5pm or through PayPal via levackblock@yahoo.com
We’ll keep updating this post as we learn of more happenings in the neighborhood.
Toronto weekly Now Magazine has released the results of its annual poll of the “Best of Toronto” and this year they shook things up with neighborhood awards and a few city-wide prizes. The awards are based on a reader survey, and we’d like to congratulate those local businesses who won kudos in 2011. Our coverage area gets divided between the “Queen West” and “Dundas West” neighborhoods in the poll.
Gallery TPW tops the Art category as Best Independent Art Gallery citywide and for Queen West. Show & Tell Gallery won the same category for Dundas West.
Not surprisingly, our neighborhood had a few Citywide Winners in the food category: Pizzeria Libretto for best pizza, The Dakota Tavern for best bar and pub, The Lakeview for best diner/greasy spoon. All three are also the tops in the Dundas West neighborhood. Pizzeria Libretto, The Lakeview and The Dakota are repeat winners in these categories – they were voted Toronto’s best in 2010.
2011 is a good year for The Dakota Tavern, which won a second award as the Best Blues Club city-wide.
There are many more winners now that they’re awarding every category in every neighborhood, so to see if your favourite is there, just look up Dundas West or Queen West. Congrats to all the winners!
Next Sunday night, November 6th, Salt Wine Bar is holding an evening of dining, cocktails, music and fun supporting Nazareth House.
The evening will start at 6pm with a 5 course dinner which includes wine pairings. If you haven’t tried their food, this is the best way to learn about the great small dishes offered at Salt, a progressive version of Portuguese and Iberian tapas. At 8pm the room will open up for The Boxcar Boys, a Flapper Dance Troupe, cocktails, silent auctions, live auctions, a 50/50 draw and a lot of fun.
The dinner is priced at $100, and tickets are in limited supply (and available here). At time of writing there were only 13 seats left so make sure you sign up soon. If you just want to come for the drinks and party after 8pm it’s only $20 – which all goes to a great cause.
The night is in support of Nazareth House, a support house for women at risk and their infants. Located at Bathurst and Bloor, for over 25 years Nazareth House has been providing support and a safe place to over 1000 women and over 160 children. If you can’t make it to the dinner, and just want to support a great cause, click here and give directly to them.
Here’s an update on some businesses that have closed or are about to close or move from their Ossington locations.
The restaurant Paramour is currently closed; their voice mail message says they are closed for renovation and will be reopening next month. Based on a recent article, the space is now called “94 Ossington,” after it’s address. At this time, all the space is being used for is some “pop up” shops in the next few weeks.
We also just learned that retailer and designer Virginia Johnson is closing up her Ossington shop and moving to a space at 970 College St, just west of Dovercourt. Her last day on Ossington will be Saturday, October 22. She will be throwing her semi-annual sample sale on Ossington on November 18-19, at 76 Ossington. Otherwise, head on up to College after November 1.
EDIT: A commenter to our site says Beau Lieu Bistro (59 Ossington) was open on Saturday, October 15. We don’t know the status of the restaurant, and are trying to find out, because it is a bit unusual. We have walked by a couple of nights when they should have been open but were not, so as they write on their website, call ahead:
Our restaurant may no longer be in operation.
Please call in to see whether we’re open or closed.
Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.
Meanwhile, we will keep you posted when new businesses come in to replace these. Have any news of your own? Please post in the comments.
The space, which used to house Crepes and More, and before that, le Bar a Soupe, is adjacent to Ideal Coffee and, with good management, should do well in the location.
New restaurant 
