Church & Wellesley - Yorkville - Annex : Development News

A new Indian restaurant focusing on takeout and delivery is opening this week at 21 Davenport, taking over the space previously occupied by the Ho Lee Chow Chinese food delivery business.

This is the fourth Amaya Express to open in two years. Owned by Hemant Bhagwani, the former sommelier for the CN Tower's 360 restaurant, and Derek Valleau. Amaya is looking to take advantage of the downturn by taking over spaces vacated by failed restaurants.

"You used to have to spend three or four times more money converting a place," says Bhagwani, "but when it used to be a restaurant, it's much less expensive."

Bhagwani says the renovation of the old Ho Lee Chow is costing him about $70,000.

Slightly upscale, with a $30 minimum order and a $3 delivery charge, Amaya Express seems to have tapped an under-served market. In addition to rapid expansion (another location is due to open at Queen and Leslie at the beginning of March, and Bhagwani is negotiating for another space on Queens Quay), Amaya has developed a line of sauces, which customers can currently order with their meals, and which Bhagwani hopes will soon be available in GTA grocery stores.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Hemant Bhagwani

The block of Bloor west of Yonge is one of the highest-end, highest-traffic retails blocks in the nation. But other than The Spotted Dick, the first block east of Yonge has traditionally home only to crickets and tumbleweeds.

But Matthew Corrin is hoping to change that. The entrepreneur behind Freshii (formerly Lettuce) has just signed an agreement with Geoff Polci of Crema Coffee Co., less than two years old and already a Junction staple. For all the freshness of its food and design template, Freshii is not a destination restaurant. It's a place to go for lunch from the office. But Crema, winner of Toronto's 2008 Krupp's best cafe award, has the potential to draw clientele from across the great Yonge divide for its high-end, expertly brewed cups. There's little non-chain competition in the area, which increases the likelihood that a Freshii-Crema team-up might perk up the orphan block.

"It's tough to get into the core," says Polci, who'll have a staff of two to start, and had been considering locations around Summerhill, Richmond and Spadina. "This is a real opportunity. I'll be able to rent a small footprint for a decent amount of money. The co-branding and shared space, I think, is really the future of franchises and these kinds of businesses."

In addition to moving his $12,000 Clover machine to the new location (one of only three Clovers installed in the city before Starbucks bought the company and blocked future sales), Polci's bought a Mirage Idrocompresso, a lever-style espresso machine. Made in Naples and designed by Dutch metalworker Kees Van der Westen (whose machines Mark Prince at coffeegeek.com has declared the best in the world), Polci's a fan of its well engineered extraction process, and says it'll be the only one of its kind in the city.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Geoff Polci

People cycling around the eastern edges of the Annex will have noticed a new house on the corner of Admiral and Bernard that doesn't look at all like its neighbours.

Thanks to architect Nelson Kwong of nkA, the two dentists who lived in the mock-Tudor home that used to sit on the narrow 6.5 x 30 metre lot are now settling in to the city's newest attempt to update its housing style.

Winner of the Canadian Architects Award of Excellence in its planning stages, the house is three planar brick storeys high with a green-roof terrace and a single staircase running up its east side.

"The project itself was not without its challenges in terms of the approvals process," says Kwong, referring to concerns raised by the Annex Residents Association. "There was some opposition to what was proposed. It doesn't pick up on trying to be quasi-Victorian. But I think the owners were quite committed to the process."

The house is in the spiritual centre of the Annex, just down from Margaret Atwood's longtime home, and a few up from the house former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson shares with husband John Ralston Saul.

The lot, on the corner next door to the former German consulate, meant there would be little space for a yard.

"As much as that backyard is their own space, it's still quite a public space, even when you screen it off. Which gave us the idea for the flat-roof terrace with a green-roof application. It's almost given them back a full lot of outdoor amenity space."

Kwong says it's also an example of passive design, meaning the windows and roof minimize the amount of cooling and heating needed.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Nelson Kwong

Church Street's attractions have never been primarily culinary, but at least, for most of its recent history, you could get a decent burger. Once the home of formerly iconic Toronto chain Toby's Good Eats, Zelda's filled the gap nicely with their trailer-trash meets drag-queen take on some very sloppy burgers.

But when rent, rumoured to have been in the $35,000 a month range, finally did them in last year (they moved to a smaller space at 692 Yonge, replacing Arrabiata in the old Living Well space), the boys in the band and the young in one another's arms were burger bereft.

Hero Certified Burgers, Toronto-based cafe chain Lettieri's fast-food brand, is opening up its 21st GTA location in the old Lettieri space (formerly The Body Shop) on the southeast corner of Church and Wellesley.

According to Jeanine McLaughlin, VP of franchising, the father and two sons who bought the franchise, though not gay, are familiar with the gaybourhood (one son lives nearby).

"It'll be predominantly takeout," says McLaughlin of the 1,300 square foot space, which she estimated will have cost about $225,000 to renovate, mostly due to special ventilation requirements to suit the apartment building above, by the time it opens in mid-February.

It will also employ about double the number of people the Lettieri did, or about four during rushes, and two during the slow periods.

"The rent," McLaughlin says, "is reasonable enough to make this a very successful venture."

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Jeanine McLaughlin

For all its Jane Jacobsian charm and vigour, the Annex strip of Bloor Street is not exactly a diner's delight, unless you really, really like sushi. And if you're looking for Italian, that most basic of North American culinary imports, you've been pretty much out of luck since ZiZi Trattoria closed (at the same location that Red House Dim Sum did a few years later).

Now Gabby's brand Hey Lucy, well known as an inexpensive (and as a result often crowded) option on the King West theatre strip, has moved into the space abruptly vacated by Mel's Montreal Delicatessen.

Renovating since October, during which they got rid of everything but the exposed brick and the ceilings, the casual 92-seat restaurant with a wood-burning oven and regular $3.99 martini specials, had a soft opening Dec. 29, and will have its grand opening on Jan. 29.

According to general manager Brian Taylor, it employs 8 back of house staff and another 12 in the front.

Taylor describes the Hey Lucy concept as Gabby's foray into "finer dining," explaining that they "don't want to be fine dining. It's a more casual atmosphere, exclusive to no one."

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: Hey Lucy

The Schoolhouse is part of the recent major overhaul of the section of Brunswick Avenue between Bloor and Barton, which has also seen a former rental house transforrmed into two luxury semi-detached homes (405 and 407 Brunswick), and the Loretto Abbey Lofts, right next door to the Schoolhouse, designed by Quadrangle Architects and architectsAlliance and built by Context Developments out of what used to be a residential component of the Loretto educational complex.

For the past year or so, cranes have been adding storeys to the top of what has for decades looked like an office building (designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects). And for decades, it's mostly been an office building, with "mostly" being the operative term, because for those same decades, since 1961 in fact, there's been a two-storey apartment on top, on the 13^th and 14^th floors. It was built for and occupied exclusively by the late Noah and Rose Torno, who'd made their money as developers (and one of the few places in Toronto designed by famed architect Phillip Johnson).

Nine years ago, Jon Love, whose own family made their money running the publicly held Oxford Properties Group (which in fact once owned the building), decided that one perfect urban apartment might be profitably transformed into 15.

Along with Quadrangle architect Brian Curtner, a team consisting of Love's KingSett Capital and builder Joe Brennan put together Toronto's only equivalent to 740 Park Avenue, home at various times to Edgar Bronfman Sr. (and old friend of the Tornos), John D. Rockefeller and a few Chryslers, and dubbed by author Michael Gross "the world's richest apartment building," where units have been listed recently for as much as $75 million.

Early rumours have the highest asking price at 155 Cumberland closer to $25 million. Most of the units, which range between about 4,500 and 6,000 square feet, sold in the low- to middle seven-figure range. But like 740 Park, this building's biggest asset to its owners is its discretion. You have to know it's there to know it's there, and you have to know who lives there to know who lives there. Love has come clean to say he does, and Brennan bought a place (though whether he's going to live there is another question). As for the others, it's anyone's guess.

Writer: Bert Archer

Source: emporis.com

Cecconi Simone, also known as Oni One, are designers known for clean lines, good textures and interesting materials. They are the last people you'd think would have a new approach to one of Toronto's most abiding and destructive difficulties: sprawl. No matter what you may have heard in Alberta or New Brunswick, Toronto is actually not dense enough. Fly into or out of the city and you'll see what I mean.

The recent spate of condo erections has done a lot to improve the situation, but stroll down any street in Riverdale, the Annex or the Junction and you'll see single family dwellings on 20 x 100 foot lots (or thereabouts). That's a lot of space for a very few people.

When Elaine Cecconi and Anna Simone decided they wanted to branch out into architecture and building, they had capital, but not developer-level capital, so they thought small. With a couple of partners they bought a lot on Lippincott in what's commonly known as the South Annex (but is on the city books as "University"). The former site of the Chicago 58 salami factory, it is slightly larger than a double lot, but not out of line with its mostly semi-detached neighbours. Instead of building a house, or a couple of townhouses, they turned things on their side and built 8 houses with architect Brad Netkin, facing south on a north-south street, quadrupling the utility of the space.

Following in the footsteps of architect Alan Littlewood's project at Queen and Givens, six of the eight infill houses on Lippincott, with their open concept back-to-front spaces have already sold in the $800,000 range. Each has front patio barbeques and glass ground-floor front walls that slide entirely open in good weather.

Though the lot is bigger than most, the design is perfectly suited to replace run-down single family dwellings with similar sophisticated densities, offering greater access to desirable neighbourhoods and potentially higher profit margins for investors and developers. And as the desire for laneway housing increases, variations on Ceccone Simone's solution may be one of the things that keeps Toronto's downtown neighbourhoods vibrant through their next several decades of growth.

Writer: Bert Archer

Eight thousand square feet of Yorkville's ever-shrinking retail space is re-opening on Friday after several months' vacancy.

Briefly known as Flow (for fans of 80s Yorkville, it's the old M�venpick site), Liberty Entertainment Group is opening up Ciao Wine Bar at 133 Yorkville Avenue with a heavy emphasis on all things Italian, including the severs' Diesel wardrobes.

Richmond Hill's Chef Rob Punzo, formerly of Peter Pan, Pronto, Auto Grill and most recently his own Punzo's Restaurant & Catering in Oak Ridges, will be offering standard regional Italian fare made with local ingredients.

Typical of the Liberty properties (which include the Rosewater Supper Club, the Liberty Grand and the Spice Route), the approach is rather grand. The bottom level will be done up like a wine cellar, with a long alabaster pizza bar as its focus. The mezzanine level will be fairly casual, with the street level as the main dining area. Wine will be served using a system (called Enomatic) that preserves opened bottle with inert gas, meaning almost everything will be available by the glass.

Writer: Bert Archer

Sang Kim, one of the forces behind Blowfish and the consultant behind Ki's aggressive training of its staff in the fine art of explaining sake to a still mostly innocent clientele, is bringing a Korean tapas restaurant to Yorkville.

KOKO! Share Bar, on the site of the old walk-down Sushi Bada at 81 Yorkville (below Dolce), will have a staff of 12 in two shifts and feature bossam, which is Korean for wrap. Dishes will feature loose leaf lettuce with steamed rice, and things like roasted pork belly and Korean barbequed meats served, on one side of the restaurant, at two long communal tables (the other side is reserved for the more reserved, with more usual two-seater table options). Following the long tradition of Korean and Japanese culinary hook-ups, KOKO! will also serve tamaki, which is the Japanese version of bossam, with seasoned seaweed instead of lettuce, sushi rice, raw fish and tempura.

A fan of Korean cuisine, but not of Toronto's two "Little Koreas" (on Bloor west of Bathurst and on Yonge north of Sheppard). "They beat up on each other by slashing prices," says Kim, who estimates his lunches for two will be under $40, and dinners about $100,  "and they do Japanese food very poorly. I like not having to compete with pork bone soup pricing."

Demolition started on Jan. 9, with a goal of an early February soft opening and a launch on Feb. 14, in honour of Valentine's Day, as well as Chinese and Korean New Year.

Writer: Bert Archer