The birth of a new hot spot
I include this article because Kensington Market's north boundary is College Street, Bathurst on the west side.
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/417518
The College and Bathurst area has gotten little love – until now
Apr 24, 2008 04:30 AM
MATHEW KATZ
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
In the three years I've lived in the area around Bathurst and College Sts., it's been a neighbourhood in flux. The strip of shops, restaurants and bars on College west of Bathurst are a null space – not quite Kensington Market, not quite Little Italy, overshadowed by both.
Lacking any concrete neighbourhood identity, storefronts have changed time and again. With the exception of Sneaky Dee's and a few other mainstays, stores on the strip have appeared destined to turn over within six months. Recently, there's been a marked change in the beleaguered stretch.
Once-failing pubs, greasy spoons and too-cheap-to-survive Chinese buffets have transformed into successful businesses, drawing vibrancy to Bathurst and College at last.
Leading the change is Manic Coffee, which has gained a loyal core of aficionados in less than a year. It opened in September and now past the six-month threshold, it's still going strong.
Owner Matthew Lee thinks it's due to its unique offerings, unlike some of the location's predecessors. "We use equipment that's new to the city and coffee that's never been brought to the city as well," says Lee, who turned the former Cobalt martini bar into a hip café.
Lee's not new at the coffee business. He fell in love with a good cup of joe while working in Vancouver's famous Elysian Room.
Working with a Clover coffee brewer, which brews every individual cup on the spot, Lee is serving up something that discerning java-lovers are proud to drink. For now, Manic is the only place in Toronto to boast a Clover. Despite the exclusive brews, Manic doesn't just draw beaniacs. It's also a popular hangout for students, bike couriers and hipsters fleeing the corporatization of Queen St. W.
Manic is not alone in providing unique neighbourhood fare. Just down the street is Kahawa Coffee House, which offers its own twist on the traditional café, offering smooth African coffee that doesn't often get the spotlight in other coffee shops.
Across the street, Karen Viva-Haynes, owner of gourmet-to-go food store Viva Tastings, offers local, quality and mostly organic cuisine for College and Bathurst's foodies. Her sumptuous, intensely flavoured prepared meals have turned the area into a gourmet haunt, calmer than the bustling outdoor bazaars of Kensington.
"It's almost like tapas here. It's really food art. We don't make the normal things. We make things with local integrity, that make you say `Wow,'" says Viva-Haynes, who has lived in the neighbourhood for years.
Like Lee, Viva-Haynes isn't a novice.
She had a successful booth in the farmers market at St. Lawrence, moving into the space, a floundering Quiznos for months until she opened Viva Tastings in November, 2006.
Experience seems to be the key. Unlike some of the failed locations of the strip's past, most of these new ventures have been started by experienced business people who can survive – and even grow – in the previously beleaguered neighbourhood.
A Toby's Famous Eatery popped up a few weeks ago, in a space that has alternated between being a pool hall and seemingly abandoned storefront.
The folks behind Red Room on Spadina Ave. have opened Nirvana, an upscale take on the darkly lit restaurant/lounge in the space where KOS and Piccadilly used to be. It adds balance to the gruff Sneaky's across the street.
"It's all been very recent," says George Diamantouros, Sneaky's manager for six years and a neighbourhood regular for even longer. "Usually these places just open up and shut down – the strip was very vacant."
The strip is also more a destination, as opposed to a way station for those visiting the Market and Little Italy, something Diamantouros is optimistic about.
"It's becoming less local," he says. "There are new faces every day and we all benefit when new people come. We don't really view the new places as competition."
There are a few dissenting voices in the sea of optimism over the neighbourhood's future. Nantah Rasiah, a manager of Mars Food Ltd., a café that's been at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor since 1951, remains skeptical.
"It's all basically the same. Restaurants are just coming and going as always," he says.
He may have a point. Viva Tastings and Manic Coffee have survived longer than their predecessors, but that's not saying much.
The true test is time and whether the strip can become a true neighbourhood, drawing a sustained group of loyalists and visitors, finally becoming more than just a blank space between Kensington and Little Italy.
