Where to eat, drink and shop in the Junction

Written By

Michael Sommers

2 years ago

That the name itself – the Junction – conjures up the Wild West is telling. For most of its 150-year history, this neighbourhood way out in Toronto’s west end has possessed somewhat of an edgy, frontier ethos.

The Junction was born, and named for, the intersection of four railway lines, which spawned the area’s growth and determined its subsequent booms and busts. The initial boom began in the late 1800s, when factories, mills, and meat packing plants sprang up along the tracks, drawing scores of labourers, as well as enterprising bars and brothels. The party was so out-of-control that in 1909 – a year after the independent town of West Toronto Junction joined the city of Toronto – residents petitioned for a total ban on booze – which lasted until 1999!

It wasn’t until the 21st century that the busted Junction, its factories shuttered and stockyards converted into big box stores, began to boom again. With the end of its century-long dry spell, bars and restaurants began popping up, along with cool cafes, craft breweries, art galleries and vintage stores. Lured by eternal western promises, priced-out artists arrived, followed by young families, and, for better or worse, a certain degree of gentrification and hipsterfication.

Today’s Junction still feels west, but not quite so wild. Yet its mixture of old school-Ontario grit and gracious red brick Victoriana, its mash-up of leafy parks, industrial warehouses and train tracks, still give off a bit of a frontier aura. If you travel out to the area north of Annette Street and south of St. Clair West, running east from Runnymede Road to the CP railway before extending east and south to the Junction Triangle, you’ll find establishments that, whether old-school or too-cool-for-school, have a distinctive neighbourhood vibe. A Junction vibe.

Writing for The Toronto Star, proud Junctionite Edward Keenan noted that, of all Toronto’s hoods, only in the Junction can you ride the Junction 40 bus to a party at The Junction City Music Hall where you can sip Junction Craft Brewery beer, express grief that the Junction Farmers’ Market is closed for the winter, and get into a heated debate over the building of the new Junction House condo complex – a story covered by local news blog, The Junctioneer.

As he confessed, “I’m pretty sure I’ve never lived in a neighbourhood where residents spend as much time talking about how much they like living in the neighbourhood. And saying its name while doing so. It’s fun to say. Try it: Junction.”

Where to eat

Chica's Nashville Hot Chicken

2853 Dundas Street West

Of the many junctions within the Junction, the main hub is the crossroads of Dundas West and Keele, a landmark graced by the presence of a historic greasy spoon that, following a careful yet minimal renovation, shelters Toronto’s most acclaimed Southern fried “hot” chicken joint (in 2022, it scored a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand rating).

After being blown (or rather blasted) away by some scorchingly good chicken he wolfed down in the outskirts of Nashville, Chica’s chef and co-owner Matt Pelachaty was fired up to bring the delicacy north of the 49th parallel. His meticulously tweaked version makes use of locally farmed Ontario chickens, dry brined for 48 hours in a secret spice mix, then fried to a gorgeous crisp according to your desired heat level; mild, medium, or Hot AF (the “AF” rating comes courtesy of ghost and Carolina Reaper peppers).

Those in a hurry can grab a quickly assembled chicken sandwich or box of chicken bites. Otherwise, chill out while you wait for fried-to-order wings and two-to-four-piece platters. Chica’s menu is compact. But between the deep-fried pickles, coleslaw and cajun waffle fries, there are enough sides and extras to personalize the experience – and temper the heat.

When The Pig Came Home

384 Keele Street

Before it had a place to come home to, WTPCH spent its early nomadic existence roaming around Toronto’s farmers’ markets in the guise of a BBQ stand. However, once its peameal bacon sandwiches achieved cult status, founders Ryan Gatner and Kimberly Hannam felt behooved to invest in a full-fledged deli-butcher shop, which they opened in the Junction.

Gatner’s roots are Eastern European and Hannam’s are Caribbean, which explains why WTPCH’s offerings run the gamut from porchetta and smoked brisket to jerk chicken and Jamaican patties. Yet while the culinary influences may vary, a fundamental constant is the (responsibly sourced) meats they offer. You can order them by the half-pound or as a meal platter, with sides such as potato-kale salad, kimchi and creamy slaw. But what really gets customers’ juices flowing are the sandwiches.

The sandwich trade starts early, with the breakfast crowds clamouring for the original (now legendary) peameal sandwich made from house-brined peameal, cured for seven days, and topped with tomato, kale and maple aioli. Options get increasingly robust as the day advances. Heavily layered with slices of 12-hour smoked and roasted brisket, the smoked meat sandwich has been known to incite the envy of the most chauvinistic of Montrealers. Similarly, hard-core Pennsylvanians regularly marvel at the Philly cheesesteak, whose distinctively flavoured beef is the result of using PEI-sourced cattle (raised on a diet of PEI potatoes!).

As if the regular menu offerings weren’t enough, a secret menu of “Sandwiches Named after Wonderful People” pay edible homage to Junctionite regulars, among them business owners, artists, and even kids.

Honest Weight

2766 Dundas Street West

According to Junction legend, John Bil never wanted to open a restaurant that people would make a fuss over. So instead, with his partner Victoria Bazan, he opened a cozy neighbourhood fishmonger – with seating for 20.

The idea was to come in, snatch up the catch of the day and either take it home – or have it cooked up on the spot. A one-time PEI oyster farmer and New Brunswick salmon farm manager, Bil was extremely skilled at tracking down the highest quality, sustainably-sourced fish and seafood in Canada (including Ontario shrimp raised by a former hog farmer!). His prowess ensured that, despite his modest ambitions, fish-aholics were going to insistently brave lineups to score a table at Honest Weight.

Although Bil passed away in 2018, the fuss continues over Honest Weight’s expertly and imaginatively prepared fish and seafood dishes. While a focus on whatever’s freshest on any given day precludes a set menu, certain prized staples appear with reassuring regularity. Among them: fragrant steamed mussels and clams, creamy seafood chowder and Japanese okonomiyaki, made with the fish of the day and sprinkled with a small sea of glistening bonito flakes.

NODO Junction

2885 Dundas Street West

In Italian, a nodo is a knot. It also means “junction,” which makes it fitting that the original outpost of this burgeoning empire of casually elevated Italian eateries opened in the Junction just as the neighbourhood was starting to get its groove on.

For close to a decade now, NODO’s long, high-ceilinged and checkerboard-floored dining room has been sought after for its subtly refined but thoroughly in-the-hood ambiance along with its modern takes on traditional Italian fare, prepared with quality ingredients.

While pizzas and pastas are the main draw, over the years, several other dishes have become veritable obsessions. These include Sicilian arancini, filled with molten mozzarella, peas and a meat ragu and the “new school” gnocchi, pan-fried with wild mushrooms, corn and a truffle crema. Taking the comfort level of the food up a few sips is an extensive list of Italian wines and beer, aperitivos and digestivos. Ensuring la dolce vita are classic cannoli and tiramisù.

Mattachioni

1617 Dupont Street

Back in 2015, when David Mattachioni opened his namesake bodega/trattoria/bakery/bar, he brought along a certain amount of baggage from his former life as “the principal pizza guy” at Terroni. This included some very cool vintage orange swivel stools he’d salvaged from one of the restaurants as well as expertise acquired with wood-burning ovens and sourdough starters.

The former frame Mattachioni’s cheery lunch counter, ensuring patrons are comfortable as they sit and sip espressos, biodynamic wines and Negronis. The latter not only keeps them devouring pizza, panini, and sandwiches made on the sought-after, daily-baked sourdough bread, but ensures they come back for more.

And there’s definitely more: Heaving antipasti boards, glistening with olives and layered with bresaola, copa, sopressata. Rustic peasant salads with farm fresh veg, dusted in Parm and drenched in finger-licking EVOOs. Creamy burrata served with slice upon slice of the aforementioned sourdough.

Mattachioni is about hanging out – for brunch, lunch, a quick drink or a languid, wine-fueled dinner. But it’s also about takeout. In addition to everything to go, there are crates of market-fresh produce and shelves stocked with house-made pickled veg, bomba and Bolognese sauce. If your timing’s right, there are also freshly made bomboloni and zepole, gooey with fillings such as pear butter and lemon curd, and often (frustratingly, but understandably) sold out before noon.

Where to Drink

The Hole In The Wall T.O.

2867 Dundas Street West

This veritable hole in the wall – it’s way too easy to unsuspectingly walk past the skinny entrance – is one of the Junction’s best-kept secret watering holes. In the words of owners and brothers, Ben and Jack Wilkinson (who also own the more visible Botham’s restaurant next door): “If you know, you know. If you don’t, come by and we will show you around.”

Any tour of the narrow, but cozy turn-of-the-20th-century hole – whose former incarnations included toy store, dress shop and private apartment – won’t take long. But unless you’re severely claustrophobic, you’ll be hard-pressed not to take a seat, in a booth or at the bar and kick back for a few hours amid the rustic red brick and even more rustic stuffed deer head.

It will take a while just to peruse the drinks menu, which includes nine pages of wines, craft beers and spirits. There are also jovially-named cocktails; these range from “classic” to “modern,” although some of the latter – such as The Grand Optimist (gin, yellow Chartreuse, lemon, chamomile tincture, cardamom bitters, frothy egg whites and a green Chartreuse rinse) – are thoroughly post-modern.

Despite the snug quarters, there’s a small stage for live music performances, and a kitchen, from which hearty bar grub emerges. During the week, there are nightly specials for burgers, pizzas, and even fresh Malpeque oysters. Come the weekend, Sunday night is Roast Night, but as the owners stress, “every night is Drinks Night.”

Dotty's

1588 Dupont Street

With its soaring windows and clean whitewashed walls, Dotty’s is the sort of light, bright, comfortable neighbourhood spot that everybody seems to crave in these troubling times. Co-owners Jay Carter and Susan Beckett certainly were, which is why following the pandemic-driven demise of their restaurant Dandylion, they opened the kind of place they themselves wanted to spend time in.

Although you’ll want to spend time sampling Jay’s deliberately “unchefy,” but flawlessly executed comfort food, Dotty’s menu is also replete with snacks, the type (such as Ritz crackers with house-made pimento cheese dip) that beg for some form of alcoholic accompaniment. A crack sommelier, Beckett has sourced some offbeat and interesting bottles, including a few affordable house wines. In addition to local craft beer on tap, there’s also “the kind of beer our dads would want to drink.”

There are also a handful of stand-out signature and seasonal cocktails. Clever riffs on standards, include popular concoctions such as the pink and piquant Agua Hidalgo (tequila and mezcal all shook up with grapefruit, pink peppercorns, agave, lime and salt). Lap it up while perched on a vintage soda stool at the long bar – or linger at a sidewalk patio table where you can soak up late afternoon rays and the local scene.

Famous Last Words

392 Pacific Avenue

Famous Last Words takes its mission as a literary bar extremely literally. The walls are alternately lined with bookshelf wallpaper as well as actual bookshelves. The bar is ingeniously inlaid with 11,000 Scrabble tiles. Then there’s the menu, a small volume divided into multiple chapters – Beach Reads, Adventures, Epics – each devoted to thematically-created cocktails (with a YA chapter featuring mocktails), inspired by well-known literary works.

Those in the mood for something light and refreshing will appreciate The Rum Diary, a piña colada-dark ‘n stormy mash-up. For something more stirred and spirited, try A Glass of Darkness, described as a Negroni “from an alternate reality.”

Snacks such as chips and guac are supplied by nearby Cool Hand of a Girl. But Famous Last Words is less about pairing drinks with food than with books. The bar hosts an ongoing series of literary-libational events, including Silent Book Club, Drop-in Book Club and Book Trivia nights. It also runs cocktail classes with imaginative themes such as “License to Shake” (James Bond-inspired drinks). And if you need more incentive to read, just show up with your own book club; not only are drinks 10 per cent off, but the bartenders will whip up an original cocktail inspired by the novel under discussion.

Where to grab a coffee

Cafe Con Leche

1571 Dupont Street

Back in 2012, when the designation “Junction Triangle” was still brand new, Sandra and Carlos Flores scouted out the area, randomly asking residents how they’d feel about having an espresso bar in the neighbourhood. The enthusiastic response was enough to propel them to open Cafe Con Leche in a former laundromat – and to keep it filled with sipping, nibbling, texting and typing locals all these years later.

At Cafe Con Leche, the café itself is supplied by Ruffino. Sin or con leche, it comes in many iterations, including highly coveted salted caramel and Nutella lattes. For a bite, snack or full-on meal, there are a tempting assortment of artisanal cookies, muffins and pastries as well as savoury fare such as breakfast burritos and sandwiches.

The convivial atmosphere is conducive to lingering (and working). But if you’re in a grab-and-go frame of mind, shelves are stocked with local delicacies to take home with you. Among them are bottles of the Flores’ other culinary enterprise, No. 7 Mexican Hot sauce, which became a nationwide phenomenon after the Flores carried out taste tests with Cafe Con Leche’s community and – once again – met with an enthusiastic response.

Full Stop Coffee

2910 Dundas Street West

For over a decade now, java-seeking Junctionites have been coming to the Full Stop, where instead of just passing through and taking away, they’ve been lulled into grabbing a seat and stopping for a long, full, while.

Making it easy to stick around are enticements, including a sun-soaked back patio and complimentary Double Bubble gum (no matter what your age), as well as whimsical decorative flourishes such as a wall lined with round mirrors and another with protruding pencils sticking out from the plaster. Impossible to ignore is the bright, bold, Pop-py mural asking the eternal existentialist cafe question: “SUP”?

The answer to this question is all manners of hot and chilled coffee beverages (the iced latte with cinnamon brown sugar syrup gets a lot of love). What’s also up is breakfast fare and delicious, baked-in-house sweet treats such as lemon ricotta loaf, gluten-free brownies and “accidentally” outsized peanut butter banana chip cookies. Once you get started, as the name promises, you likely won’t stop until you’re full.

The Good Neighbour Espresso Bar

238 Annette Street

Talk about good neighbourly vibes. Open since 2010; this pioneering Junction cafe sits on the resolutely residential corner of Annette Street and Quebec Avenue. For its many regulars, it’s like a welcoming and well-caffeinated second home. But those just passing by – Annette has a popular dedicated bike lane – also can’t resist its lures.

In warmer times, the most evident lure is the outdoor patio that feels like being invited into a neighbour’s backyard. However, year-round, the interior also beckons; the fireplace and exposed brick walls, couches and wooden tables all conspiring to conjure up your best friend’s living room (imagine your best friend is blessed with a house and good taste).

Of course, there’s also the coffee. The Good Neighbour uses its own brand of single-origin and blended beans to make everything from classic cortados to seasonal creations such as iced caramel crunch lattes and gingerbread lattes with whipped cream and candied ginger chunks. Beyond java, there are teas, chais, and hot cocoa, as well as fresh pastries and some hearty, home-style breakfast and lunch sandwiches. For long-lasting happiness, try the infinity scones.

Where to shop

Spaccio West

128A Sterling Road

Sometimes it’s not enough to eat a good Italian meal out – you want to take the entire menu home with you. If you’re really ambitious, you’ll also want to take all the premium quality, oft-imported and sometimes hard-to-get-your-hands-on ingredients home to cook up your own version. At Spaccio West you can do all of the above, and then some.

Owned by the constantly expanding Terroni Group, Spaccio West brings together an Italian commissary kitchen (where pasta and pizza products used in all Terroni restaurants are made) along with a cafe, restaurant and food market, spread throughout a massive 8,000-foot former factory in the Junction Triangle.

Obviously, there’s no need to shop on an empty stomach. In fact, you’re better off succumbing to at least a small snack of cacio e pepe croissants or Sicilican cannolis before hitting the shelves. Here, you’ll find Italian pantry items, including fresh produce and meats, seafood and cheeses, as well as fridges and freezers packed with fresh and frozen Terroni and Sud Forno products, ready to heat and eat. Of particular note is the bottle shop; many of the Italian vintages are sourced by Cavinona, Terroni’s wine import agency, and can’t be found anywhere else in Toronto.

Noctua Bakery

3014 Dundas Street West

Since 2021, one compelling reason for Junctionites to wake up early is that they can roll out of bed and down to Noctua Bakery, where hot-from-the-oven bread, buns and pastries await, their just-baked-fragrance wafting out onto Dundas.

There’s no better start to the day than the aptly named Morning Buns, a reconstructed cinnamon roll made with croissant dough and filled with cane sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom and citrus zest. If your morning cravings lean savoury, the Bacon and Egg Brioche Bun packs an entire breakfast – cheddar, Harissa-dusted eggs, bacon – into a hollowed-out, baked brioche.

However, there’s plenty for laggards as well, starting with loaves of rye, sourdough and walnut campesino, made with natural fermentation and Ontario-harvested whole and ancient grains. There are also plenty of sweet surprises. Many – such as golfeados (cheesy sticky buns) – bear some influences from owner (and Cordon Bleu grad) Daniel Saenz’s Venezuelan upbringing. Others – notably the Junction Mama cookie, filled with a triple threat of white, dark and roasted milk chocolate – is truly (and addictively) of the hood.

Osler Fish Market

16 Osler Street

Located in an unassuming Junction Triangle warehouse, Osler Fish Market is the kind of off-the-grid, but also off-the-charts fresh fish and seafood purveyor you’d likely hear about from your colleague’s cousin’s wife who happens to own a multi-starred seafood restaurant. When you walk inside, it’s cold, damp and smells downright fishy (in the best way possible). Don’t be intimidated by some of the six-foot-long fish specimens. The friendly staff will not only clean, cut everything down to size and pack it up in ice, but also provide storage and cooking instructions.

Immersed in the fish business since 1973, Osler’s Portuguese owner, Antonio Belas, sources the freshest, and sometimes rarest, fish in the sea, from Canada and around the globe, but also with a strong emphasis on Portugal and the Azores. His Portuguese roots explain the selection of bacalhau and other salted fish as well as pantry goods sold in the adjacent grocery store, which include cheeses, chouriços, and can’t-wait-to-fry-them-up frozen bolinhos de bacalhau (salt cod fritters).

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