Chef Paul Boehmer's long-awaited pseudo-eponymous restaurant
Böhmer has opened on Ossington just north of Queen, and was given its first major reviews, both very positive, in the
Star and the
Globe this past week.
The 4,000-square foot restaurant, 20 feet wide and 120 feet long (including the kitchen) on a single level is a gut renovation of the auto shop that occupied the spot before. Designed by
Roy Banse in collaboration with Boehmer, with furniture by the
Brothers Dressler, the restaurant is the latest and one of the last such spots to open on the booming strip after city council placed a
moratorium on new licenses.
"I'm six-foot-seven, I had it built around myself," says Boehmer, describing the 14 foot ceilings and wide open spaces filled with a single long harvest table. He says he was going after "a very communal feeling, where people could be interactive with their food and each other."
The restaurant also features the Fritz Lounge, space devoted to the artwork of the chef's late father, Fritz, who died in 1992.
The
Star reported the reno cost $750,000, a figure Boehmer told
Yonge Street was inaccurate.
Boehmer expects the shop he's planned, with an espresso bar and offering local cheese, fresh juice and what he describes as "a little butchery" to be ready to open in the same building, but in a separate, next door space (with the same address) sometime this summer.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Paul Boehmer
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