If you measure summer by the amount of time you spend nursing cocktails on lively, sun-strewn patios, you’d be wise to become a regular at The Well. The city’s newest multi-hyphenate development, The Well comprises office and residential space, yes, but is also home to myriad vibrant restaurants and a food hall where every option pushes the boundaries of what constitutes fast-casual fare.
Opened in November, The Well is best described as a city within a city. Huge, by any standards, it spans more than seven acres and three million square feet of space spread across seven towers. Designed with five pillars in mind — Eat. Shop. Work. Live. Play. — the entire place hums with life, from its intriguing mix of shops and restaurants to its creative placemaking, diverse programming and throngs of eager visitors poking about, discovering new things.
Chief among those, is the wealth of flavours that The Well serves daily. It’s no coincidence, it seems, that “Eat” is listed first among the development’s five defining principles. Visit The Well, and eat you will. It’s a place so jam-packed with dining options — including 12 restaurants and 50 merchants at the Wellington Market —it seems entirely possible to live and work there for months without ever tasting the same thing twice.
Like the Ossington strip, King Street West and The Danforth, The Well’s Wellington Place Promenade is the type of destination that defines a city. A broad, tree-lined linear park, it was created by renowned landscape architecture and design firm CCxA to connect Clarence Square with Victoria Memorial Park.
Now home to six singular restaurants, the promenade buzzes with the hum of chatter and clatter of people having an undeniably good time. Take a stroll, and you’ll saunter past The Dorset, Lulu Bar, La Plume and other irresistible entrants into the city’s dining scene. With daily happy hours, the best way to tackle them all is to hopscotch from one to the next, from pub-style pork scratchings, at The Dorset, to sunny Coconut Coolers, at Lulu Bar, and towering, meringue-capped slices of banana pie next door.
Venture inside, to The Well’s lower ground level, and enter the fully-licensed Wellington Market. A food hall with a seriously local bent, this is the spot to sample Hooky’s fish and chips, Isabella’s mochi donuts, La Cubana’s pressed Cubanos and Sweetie Pie’s baked goods. Need a burger? Scurry over to cult favourite Rosie’s Burgers. Hankering for tacos? Sate the need at Gus Tacos. Curated to cover every category of craving, the venue’s commitment to home-grown businesses and cherry-picked international brands, like Japadog and Uncle Tetsu, truly signals the evolution of Toronto’s food scene.
A place that’s never quite quiet, The Well is a bustling destination, no matter the time of day. It’s a place that caters to early risers, with frothy lattes, to harried office workers, with sustaining midday meals, and to revellers, with destination cocktails and food to match.
Discover it now, with the warm breezes blowing and the sun playing peekaboo with the shadows. The summer of The Well is here, and you won’t want to miss out.
