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Little Italy/College Street

King of Kensington

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I noticed that according to street signs, Little Italy has stretched its boundaries eastward a bit - the signs for Markham and Palmerston now say "Little Italy" on them. Before the Little Italy BIA stretched from Euclid to Shaw, I think.

It's also weird how the neighborhood of Little Italy is historically and remains south of College, but for some reason when the city started coming up with larger-scale communities they pushed it northward to "Palmerston-Little Italy" (which is Palmerston, Bickford Park and the Concord-Delaware stretch) and south of College the combined Little Italy and Trinity Bellwoods neighborhoods became "Trinity Bellwoods."

Has anyone picked up a copy of or looked at the illustrated book about College Street?
 
Have you noticed that the restaurant/cafe 'Cucina' has closed down? I know, I know. I think it's been closed now since March. But still. The bloody place never gave itself a chance. I think it was open for a year? Maybe more.

The place had a great look, simple but abeit slightly over priced pasta. But the place seemed packed Thurs-Sun. What happened?
 
I just noticed Cucina was gone yesterday. I don't travel through there often, but thought it was open a few weeks ago, apparently not.

There are a lot of reasons restaurants shut down, even if they are consistently busy. Most likely they faced a big jump in rent for a lease renewal, tried to pull through but couldn't make enough money to pay the bills. Usually yoiu can get investors to back you in those situations, if they think you can be profitable again. Apparently they couldn't show they could be profitable. They might have spent more renovating the place than they could afford to.
 
Cucina has been closed since (at least) April. The notice on the door stated "non payment of rent" as the reason. I think they spent so much on "image" and not enough on good food that they forgot about business basics....

I wonder what would work here? I'd like to see an Aroma Expresso bar....:)
 
I happened to pass by the old Cucina location twice yesterday, once at 9pm and both times there were lots of workers putting finishing touches on a renovation. Looks like something will re-open there in the very near future.
 
Anyone know why the Starbucks next to Kalender (College & Euclid) has closed?

No idea, but I hope it'll be replaced by a nice independent cafe like the Starbucks a few blocks to the west on College.
 
OK I don't know if this comment is 'too soon' but this place was horrible. As is Diplomatico.
 
OK I don't know if this comment is 'too soon' but this place was horrible. As is Diplomatico.

How so? I've never been there.

Cafe Diplomatico I can agree on. The food flat out sucks. I last ate there 2 years ago when I ordered spaghetti with bolognaise sauce, meatballs, and grilled chicken. The noodles were soggy, the sauce was watery, devoid of much meat, and had no flavour (how does an Italian restaurant not add a standard herb like oregano??), the meatballs were more doughy than meaty, and the chicken rubbery. I felt like was eating at one of Honest Ed's crappy 80's restaurants. And that garbage cost like $25!! Never going back - at least not for food anyway - maybe some drinks on their nice patio on summer's day could be justified.
 
How so? I've never been there.

Cafe Diplomatico I can agree on. The food flat out sucks. I last ate there 2 years ago when I ordered spaghetti with bolognaise sauce, meatballs, and grilled chicken. The noodles were soggy, the sauce was watery, devoid of much meat, and had no flavour (how does an Italian restaurant not add a standard herb like oregano??), the meatballs were more doughy than meaty, and the chicken rubbery. I felt like was eating at one of Honest Ed's crappy 80's restaurants. And that garbage cost like $25!! Never going back - at least not for food anyway - maybe some drinks on their nice patio on summer's day could be justified.


Just along the lines of what you wrote for Diplomatico. Stale pastry, overpriced coffee, slow inattentive service etc.
 
Anything French is good by me...unless it's shit, but I'm going with the benefit of the doubt every time. Those arseholes know how to live!
 

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