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(07-19-2024, 01:14 AM)dtkvictim Wrote: (07-18-2024, 11:29 PM)taylortbb Wrote: Grand Trunk is also now open in their new King St space. They now have a wood pizza oven, and a good selection of pizzas on the menu (which I can confirm was delicious!).
The new space is much larger, and feels much higher end. Especially the bar, looks more like a Toronto or NYC cocktail bar than anything that previously existed in KW.
The old space was so warm and cozy. I only looked through the door because it was busy during Cruising on King, but the new space seemed less so, would you agree?
The vibe is definitely a little different, but I'd still call the new space warm. It just adds things like an open kitchen, much better lounge seating, a much larger bar, etc. It feels more designed, less thrown together from what was around, but I don't think that's inherently not warm.
It is definitely less cramped than the old space, and I guess one might call that less cozy? But I think the ability to have proper bar seating, without the wait staff constantly squeezing by, is an upgrade.
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Oh Bombay is opening a location at 29 King E in DTK, offering Hakka (Indian/Chinese fusion) dishes.
Spice n Scoop has a sign up and a URL, but no info yet on what kind of food they will actually be offering. Still, it restores the Duke Food Block back to a food block.
The old Ellison's restaurant will be reopening as Zara Bar and Lounge.
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(08-12-2024, 10:53 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Oh Bombay is opening a location at 29 King E in DTK, offering Hakka (Indian/Chinese fusion) dishes.
Spice n Scoop has a sign up and a URL, but no info yet on what kind of food they will actually be offering. Still, it restores the Duke Food Block back to a food block.
The old Ellison's restaurant will be reopening as Zara Bar and Lounge.
That new little Indian place in the block, Dwarkesh (I guess not that new, Oct 2023 in streetview), is ince, but it's vegan and not air conditioned. Food is yummy, though, and cheap.
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(08-12-2024, 10:53 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Oh Bombay is opening a location at 29 King E in DTK, offering Hakka (Indian/Chinese fusion) dishes.
Spice n Scoop has a sign up and a URL, but no info yet on what kind of food they will actually be offering. Still, it restores the Duke Food Block back to a food block.
The old Ellison's restaurant will be reopening as Zara Bar and Lounge.
That didn't take long.
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(08-12-2024, 07:25 PM)Bytor Wrote: That new little Indian place in the block, Dwarkesh (I guess not that new, Oct 2023 in streetview), is ince, but it's vegan and not air conditioned. Food is yummy, though, and cheap.
A veg Indian restaurant in DTK! Will have to check that out now. Thanks! 
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You'd have to be a real damn good chef to dare opening a new Indian restaurant at this point because there is no way most of these last. At this point no matter where you are in the region, you're probably no more than 10 minutes away from a couple Indian places.
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(08-13-2024, 02:29 PM)ac3r Wrote: You'd have to be a real damn good chef to dare opening a new Indian restaurant at this point because there is no way most of these last. At this point no matter where you are in the region, you're probably no more than 10 minutes away from a couple Indian places.
Last time I stayed in London (UK) there were 12 Indian restaurants within 100m of my hotel ... the reality is that there is a lot of variety in Indian food. South Indian, North Indian, Gujarati and Kashmiri cuisines are quite different. Then there are vegetarian restaurants, bar/restaurants, street food restaurants, buffet restaurants and more. So, once people learn that there is more to Indian food than butter chicken there will be lots of opportunities for different restaurants.
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And Indian food hasn't been fully commoditized by franchises, so it's one of the few remaining types of restaurant that a regular person can go and open on their own without insane financial risk.
local cambridge weirdo
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Ehhhh...? Small restaurants have a pretty high chance of failure, something like 1 in 3 don't last a year (it's hard to track it). It's especially tricky given the precarious macroeconomics taking place at the moment. People are broke, costs are high, wages are stagnant, everything is expensive, the stock market is just waiting to implode. Comparing Waterloo Region to London - one of the top cities for food on the planet - is skewed. London is an incredibly wealthy place with millions of people concentrated in one spot. It's much easier to operate a restaurant there, but it's still very hard.
I can see tons of our local ones failing in the coming years. It kind of reminds me of around 2010, when Middle Eastern food was becoming popular due to emigration during the Arab Spring. Lots of places popped up, then went bust. I can see Indian places slowly losing business and closing, especially with (hopefully) caps now being placed on the amount of immigrants and students that have been dumped in the country en masse. It won't be great for the local economy.
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The point was that not all Indian restaurants are not the same. If that was not clear to you, my apologies.
As to which restaurants will fail in the coming years, we will see. There has not been any perceivable pattern in the past, but it's possible that will change.
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Red House to close its doors after 11 years in Uptown Waterloo
https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2024/08/20...-waterloo/
Sad to see Red House closing up this weekend. one of the better uptown restaurants to eat at.
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Zazu Cafe has opened next to Golden Hearth, across the street from the Kitchener Market. This area is not overserved with coffee shops (apart from market days, there is only Yeti) so there should be enough customers for them to succeed.
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(09-08-2024, 02:55 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Zazu Cafe has opened next to Golden Hearth, across the street from the Kitchener Market. This area is not overserved with coffee shops (apart from market days, there is only Yeti) so there should be enough customers for them to succeed.
There is also a coffee place opening up at Market Flats called East End Annie's and Fresh Ground is supposed to be reopening soon too. As someone who lives in the area, I just hope one of these places will be open on weekends and later hours than the Market.
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This area is really coming back !
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(09-09-2024, 07:55 AM)Rainrider22 Wrote: This area is really coming back !
Shame about Vertikal tho... 😞
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