News   Mar 28, 2024
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The Keg (5009-5021 Yonge St, ?, 2s)

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It's a nice-looking building. I assume they want to get this opened by the end of the month, for the nearby offices' lunch and dinner events in December.

Is there a thread for the construction happening a few blocks farther north on the east side of Yonge? It looks like a similar 3-storey restaurant space is going in.
 
But if a juicy steak isn't your thing,.... perhaps Michelin recommended ramen noodle is,.... soft opening today,... a few doors north at former South St.Burger place next to DairyQueen
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Hours show 3pm - 1am weekly... are these temporary? Many Keg’s open for lunch, I imagined there would be an office crowd on Yonge St. to support that.

My wife works in one of the office buildings and doesn't understand the logic of 3pm to 1am. I think THE KEG will eventually change their hours - the lunch time office crowd is pretty popular. BATON ROUGE across from street from THE KEG has lunch hours, but I heard their lease is coming up and they are not renewing (makes sense).
 
The restaurants in the area are not doing well. I don't think there's enough offices to support them all. I doubt there'd be enough demand for a Keg lunch in the area.
 
The restaurants in the area are not doing well. I don't think there's enough offices to support them all. I doubt there'd be enough demand for a Keg lunch in the area.

I think the problem is there's no demand for expensive chain restaurants. Those are the ones that seem to struggle most - Milestones closed down, Baton Rouge is apparently closing, Moxies never seems to be busy. There's a lot of offices nearby but they don't have the employees who will regularly be eating $40 lunches. I don't know what the Keg sees in the area but obviously they see a good reason to buy two expensive lots and custom build a restaurant.

Cheaper chain restaurants are doing well though. St Louis has been a staple since the 2000s, Union Social and Boston Pizza are always busy, and Jack Astors is really popular (in the summer they're known for having one of the best patios in all of Toronto). Three Brewers is trying to break in somewhere but I think they're having issues with the area's commercial/residential zoning (technically they're industrial if they make beer on-site).
 
Yikes, that Keg location looks like it was plucked and airlifted from some Smart Centre in Milton. Really looks out of place.

I think the problem is there's no demand for expensive chain restaurants. Those are the ones that seem to struggle most - Milestones closed down, Baton Rouge is apparently closing, Moxies never seems to be busy. There's a lot of offices nearby but they don't have the employees who will regularly be eating $40 lunches.

I think you nailed it. Plus, there are a disproportionate number of public sector offices nearby - Government of Canada, City of Toronto, TDSB HQ and some smaller provincial ministry offices. Public sector employees don't have huge expense accounts and they certainly don't have to 'wine and dine' clients.
 
The restaurants in the area are not doing well. I don't think there's enough offices to support them all. I doubt there'd be enough demand for a Keg lunch in the area.

Since amalgamation 20 years ago, there's been 60 new residential condo towers built in North York Centre but only one full office tower,.... North York Centre has become a vertical sleeping community! Thus, there's 2 parts that come into play here,... condo VS office/employment area.

Then you consider the ethnic demographic of those moving into the condo towers VS the local restaurants that are closing. The new restaurants that are thriving caters more to the ethnic demographic of the newer condo folks.

Anyways,.... over the last few years, North York Centre has been losing about 500-700 local jobs each year! (while gaining about 3,000 new residents annually)
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Note: NorthYorkCentre flat-lined in 2015 but last year's gain was mainly a one-time 6,250 increase "attributed to the inclusion of Toronto District School Board (TDSB) employees not previously counted, as both Centres contain TDSB district offices where those employees without a regular place of work are generally based." (in other words NorthYorkCentre employment data is still declining 500-700 local jobs each year) Page 14:
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2017/pg/bgrd/backgroundfile-99543.pdf
 

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I think you nailed it. Plus, there are a disproportionate number of public sector offices nearby - Government of Canada, City of Toronto, TDSB HQ and some smaller provincial ministry offices. Public sector employees don't have huge expense accounts and they certainly don't have to 'wine and dine' clients.

A lot of private sector employes - mostly banks, insurance companies and law firms - have employees in the area too. It's just not their employees who will be eating out at expensive restaurants very often. The only firm in the area that does much wining-and-dining is Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

Anyways, SRT's typical comments on North York being full of Asians who don't want "white food" are (as usual) wrong. There's a lot of restaurants in the area that do well despite serving "American" food. People just aren't regularly spending $100+ on a dinner for two here, because nobody is regularly doing that unless someone else is paying for it. The Asian restaurants are also all pretty cheap, other than a few fancy sushi places between Empress and Sheppard.
 
The restaurants in the area are not doing well. I don't think there's enough offices to support them all. I doubt there'd be enough demand for a Keg lunch in the area.

I’m not sure if demand would be high per se, but even the next closest Keg on Leslie near York Mills opens for Lunch at 11:30am on weekdays... then again 99% of people who visit that location drive there from someplace else.

And @amnesiajune , you have a point about some of the ‘American/Canadian/Western’ joints in the area, but they are still vastly outnumbered by Asian and Middle Eastern options - where demand has been surging and shifting for a long time now.
 

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