On the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Woburn Avenue, an original 1920s bank vault has been turned into a giant wall of disposable-camera photographs of the owners' friends, family and regulars. The vault sits inside Baba, which seats 37 to 40 people around dark wood, blue-and-white accents and a seven-seat bar.
The address is 3204 Yonge St. Until this summer it held the Yonge and Lawrence flagship of Chop Hop x Pantry, a salad spinoff tied to the Food Dudes group. Stephanie Dickison's July 9 roundup reported that it had closed and that three of its locations remained in the Financial District. A downtown concept with a satellite in the neighbourhood was replaced by a first restaurant from two people who cook and host in it every day.
The same thing happened along Bedford Park's two main streets all year. When an address emptied on Yonge north of Lawrence or on Avenue Road, a small room run by its owners usually took it.
| Address | What it was | What it is now | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3204 Yonge St. | Chop Hop x Pantry | Baba | 37 to 40 seats, seven at the bar |
| 1943 Avenue Rd. | Scotthill Caribbean Fusion & Pizzeria | La Tavola Ristorante | 30 seats |
| 2066 Avenue Rd. | LSL, nine seats | ONZE | 11 seats |
A Corner Built for Two Shifts
Baba is the first solo venture from Michael Medeiros and Kevin Chen. The two met while working at One Hazelton and then spent years moving around Toronto's restaurant scene. Streets of Toronto reported that Medeiros runs the kitchen as head chef. Mr. Will Wong's preview adds that Chen runs the front of house.
In the morning it is a casual café with quick brunch dishes and coffee from Library Coffee, a micro-roaster that recently placed No. 54 on The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list. In the evening it becomes a snack bar. The open charcoal grill turns out skewers, there is Mapo tofu with eggs, and a coffee-marinated striploin uses chocolate from Moakable. Nick Hao of Uh Bar wrote the cocktail and mocktail lists. Cocktails top out at $20, and the largest plates are around $40 to $45.
The name means father. It honours the mentors who shaped both owners' careers. Medeiros told Streets of Toronto that the goal is a room people return to at different hours: "We want Baba to feel familiar from the first visit…a place where people can stop in during the day and return at night for a completely different energy." He added in Mr. Will Wong's preview: "The concept is personal to us, but we want it to become part of the neighbourhood."
A room with forty seats needs the same neighbours at breakfast and after dark, so it is built to be used twice a day. The rest of this year's openings follow the same logic.
The Same Trade on Avenue Road
Over on Avenue Road, 1943 Avenue Rd. changed hands the same way. Dickison's July 16 roundup reported that Scotthill Caribbean Fusion & Pizzeria had closed and named La Tavola Ristorante as Upper Avenue's newest arrival at the same address.
La Tavola is owned by Daniela Pagliaroli, who has worked in food for more than 30 years. The dining room has 30 seats. Streets of Toronto's July profile described the project as a deliberate step away from building a restaurant group, "something smaller, more personal and, in its own way, a chance to slow down." The room takes its cues from Tuscany, with navy-blue banquettes, cream finishes, gold accents and dark marble tables. Executive chef and partner Cristian Murciano, who was born and raised in Italy, cooks rigatoni alla bolognese, ravioli alla veneta and crispy arancini, with handmade pasta, sauces made from scratch and rotating regional features.
Pagliaroli described it to Streets of Toronto this way: "It's about friends getting together, enjoying a glass of wine and just relaxing. That's really what La Tavola is all about."
Baba changes over the course of the day. La Tavola is designed for long dinners. Both are run by owners who are in the room.
Eleven Seats Farther North
The smallest of this year's new rooms is at 2066 Avenue Rd. LSL opened there as a nine-seat French-Japanese counter from Didier Leroy, Masaki Saito and Christian Le Squer. It earned a place among Toronto's Michelin-recommended restaurants in 2025. When Leroy stepped away from the kitchen at the end of 2025, the restaurant was renamed ONZE, since the old name partly used his initials.
Streets of Toronto reported in May that ONZE opened this spring with 11 seats, two more than LSL, at $495 per person, down from LSL's $680. Saito and Le Squer still back it. Alexandre Sadowczyk, who has 15 years of fine-dining experience in France, now leads the kitchen alongside Hiroki Aikawa, who has worked in Michelin-starred kitchens in France and Japan. The team also bought an Ontario farm to grow its own vegetables.
So a $495 tasting counter answered its own transition the same way the rest of the street did. It kept the room tiny and tied the kitchen more closely to its own supply.
What Closed Dave's Genuine Deli
Not every small room made it through the year. Dave's Genuine Deli at 1763 Avenue Rd. closed on Saturday, March 14, after five years. Chef and owner Dave Isen had started it as a curbside pickup operation on St. Clair during the pandemic, then moved into a dine-in space on Avenue Road. It was known for fresh-baked rye, smoked meat, pastrami and a big grilled Reuben.
blogTO listed the reasons: rising food costs, shifts in consumer spending, high delivery-app commissions, and planned renovations to the building's upper floors that would have forced a move. Each of those pressures lands on whoever is paying for the room. That helps explain why this year's openings are built around few seats, owners who are present, and a menu that can work at more than one hour of the day. Dickison's April 30 roundup named Avo Organic Kitchen as the next tenant at 1763 Avenue Rd.
The Rest of This Year's Arrivals
Three more openings round out the year. Each fits the same scale.
- The Indian Kitchen, 3334 Yonge St. Dickison reported its grand opening on July 30. It focuses on biryani and dosa, but the menu also runs from Manchow soup and Madras filter coffee to butter chicken and ghee roast mutton. The space has held Indian restaurants before, including Biryani Barbecue and My Roti Place.
- Bello Italian Sandwich Co., 3305 Yonge St. This is a focaccia sandwich counter from the creative team connected to Vero Sandwich Co. on Queen West. Its other locations are at The Well and, more unusually, at the Big Apple in Colborne. Bello's locations page lists the Yonge Street shop as open for dine-in and online orders.
- Hakka Khazana, 2003 Avenue Rd. Indian, Hakka Chinese and Nepali dishes under one roof, just south of Wilson. Dickison noted that it is 100% halal.
Bello is the one arrival that is still expanding as a brand. Even so, it took a single storefront on a stretch of Yonge where most of the new openings are counters, cafés and dining rooms that seat a few dozen.
A Cold-Weather Evening Across Both Streets
For a November evening, the new rooms connect:
- Coffee in the morning at Baba, where the beans come from Library Coffee and the photo-covered vault sits inside the room.
- A focaccia sandwich at Bello or a dosa at The Indian Kitchen for lunch, both farther up Yonge from Woburn.
- Dinner over on Avenue Road at La Tavola, a 30-seat room that Pagliaroli built for long meals.
- Back to Baba after dark for a $20 cocktail and charcoal skewers at the seven-seat bar.
Barry Cohen Homes keeps a close eye on these streets, down to which addresses turn over and who takes them. If you would like to know how the corner nearest your home factors into what it is worth today, request a complimentary valuation or schedule a confidential consultation.
