Wondering what will happen to the College St near Ossington location which hasn’t opened yet!
The plan post-bankruptcy appears to be to keep only the Avenue/Lawrence store (the original store) open. The store at Saks Food Hall in the Toronto Eaton Centre is a minor outlet that will also remain open for now. The proposed Little Italy store will not open. So sad.
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The little Barocco x Nino (d’Aversa) closed , I think because Pusateri’s was coming.
I’d love for a small satellite Fiesta Farms or Lady Yorke to open up in that new Pusateri’s space on College St. Or a Grande Cheese.
Gateau Ghost is operating in the former Barocco x Nino space on the north side.
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I don’t think they fully recovered from the rodent scandal or the other pestilence that hit them, also way too mush competition now from Eataly, McEwan, Farm Boy etc…
Update: According to BlogTO, Pusateri’s Lawrence / Ave. Rd. store may be demolished to make room for a condo complex being proposed for development.
If this submission proposal is approved, it will include a Pusateri’s reopening inside the complex, but since condo development will take many years to build, it means Pusateri’s will be closed at least for that long. During this time, that leaves only the tiny Saks Food Hall @Eaton Centre as the only Pusateri’s remaining.
I talked to a staff member at McEwan in Don Mills Centre and he said business has actually picked up since Eataly opened across the street. The thinking is many who came to visit Eataly also visited McEwan, creating more traffic there.
Re Pusateri’s @ Bayview Village, they aren’t the only one to have closed down operations there. Others that have recently closed there were Oliver & Bonacini, Pink Pearl and South Street Burgers to name three. Bayview Village mall will also be part of a new (of many!) condo development project scheduled to begin.
From what I’ve heard, the Eataly at Don Mills is tiny with not much to offer, so I doubt it’ll pose much threat to McEwans
Yeah, good riddance to bad rubbish. I’m still disgusted Pusateri’s made their employees work in that environment. Their patrons didn’t know about it at the time so they could relax. The staff must have just dreaded going to work. Pay back’s a you-know-what.
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Ah yes, the Ossington Theory. Create a neighbourhood and people will show up.
We were wondering about this. We had a reservation and then it was cancelled, but they indicated at the time that the closing was temporary. Too bad. It was within walking distance for us.
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I think a lot of upscale restaurants and restauteurs are adjusting to the current economy.
The wine bar approach has a higher margin and most dishes served are lower cost, take less effort and less time to plate, I suspect . Plus, people tend to order more wine by the glass.
The Vinoteca Pompette turnaround was very quick. Around 2 weeks from Restaurant Pompette closing, to Vinoteca Pompette opening. I haven’t been yet.
I’m surprised Bar Alo has been getting away with the $23 scallop and $46 pasta, to be honest.
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Haha. Wait till you see the menu prices at the new Nobu. We were at Nobu Sydney or was it Melbourne and was throughly disappointed. In a city with access to the freshest seafood to boot!
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The funniest part of my dinner at Bar Alo on Bay:
I took a few photos of my friend, who likes to have her photo taken so she can post when she visits nice places on Instagram or FB. I didn’t have her take any photos of me.
I was trying my best to get a good photo, at an angle where we wouldn’t capture the party of 4 middle- aged men that were at the table behind ours in the background. I sent my friend 5 or 6 shots.
She posted one on FB and IG.
I don’t know if one of the men thought I was trying to take a photo of him innocuously. In the photo my friend posted, here’s this middle-aged guy with a scowl on his face, giving the camera his finger in the background.
I let my friend know. She happened to think his behaviour was hilarious. 
So - that gentleman is one of the types who goes to Alo Bar with his buddies on a Saturday night.
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After around 20-something years in operation, Golden Court Chinese Restaurant on West Beaver Creek in Richmond Hill has closed down.
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Asian Legend will be closing down all their restaurants in September, except for 418 Dundas W. and 900 Don Mills, both of which will stay in operation.
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Wow.
I remember when they opened. They had a good run.
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The landlord locked them out due to non-payment of rent!
There may be more to this than meets the eye. Apparently, a dispute between Golden Court and the landlord that caused them to withhold rent and subsequent eviction and they are suing each other.
Golden Court had already decided to close anyway, so all this did was accelerate the closing. Interesting thing Golden Court had owned the property until they sold it to this landlord a few years ago.
They were actually pretty decent at the beginning and then they deteriorated. Also lots more competition these days definitely hurt them. I understand they are going to concentrate more on frozen food products but they still have a couple of outlets remaining open.
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