General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[mpd618]

Oh there's one restaurant that's open for dinner on the duke food block now, Spice Tree seems to be open until 9 or so, but they aren't licensed so no beer or anything but it's nice to have a good Indian restaurant downtown finally.

Exclamation, which is on the corner of Duke and Frederick, is also open for dinner until 10pm. Be sure to check out their Chinese menu.

[519]

Are they good?  I've been wanting to try it, but was waiting to hear from others - I love Indian food, but bad Indian is the pits.

I did a take-out lunch buffet a couple of months ago.  The foods taste like the stuff you get from a frozen dinner or a curry sauce in jar that you find in grocery stores. 

It's like going to a restaurant and eating some instant/frozen food that they just reheat for you.  I realize that some restaurants operate that way but I'm not expecting that from an Indian restaurant.

I'm not planning to go back anytime soon.

This was also my beef with the burger joint on that block (My Burgers?).  I went there once, ordered a turkey burger and saw the guy pull out a box of PC's Blue Menu turkey burgers from the freezer.  That was my first and only time there.  That was under the last owner.  Not sure if things have changed since.

[panamaniac]

There's some digging being done at the corner of Frederick and Weber Streets, beside the Registry Theatre/County Courthouse renovation. Does anyone know what they are up to? I suspect it's related to services for the Courthouse renovation, but I'm kind of hoping that they might eliminate the parking lot on that site.

[clasher]

Are they good?  I've been wanting to try it, but was waiting to hear from others - I love Indian food, but bad Indian is the pits.

I've only eaten the veg food but I enjoyed it. Given the small kitchenette it seems pretty obvious to me that most of the stuff is prepared offsite (at Classic Indian I'm assuming) a couple of times I've tried ordering other veg dishes and they'd be out of okra or whatever so it seems the place is still mostly geared toward being a lunch buffet spot.

[mpd618]

I've only eaten the veg food but I enjoyed it. Given the small kitchenette it seems pretty obvious to me that most of the stuff is prepared offsite (at Classic Indian I'm assuming) a couple of times I've tried ordering other veg dishes and they'd be out of okra or whatever so it seems the place is still mostly geared toward being a lunch buffet spot.

There's no basement? Holy Guacamole seems to have a kitchen in their basement.

[519]

I've only eaten the veg food but I enjoyed it. Given the small kitchenette it seems pretty obvious to me that most of the stuff is prepared offsite (at Classic Indian I'm assuming) a couple of times I've tried ordering other veg dishes and they'd be out of okra or whatever so it seems the place is still mostly geared toward being a lunch buffet spot.

There's no basement? Holy Guacamole seems to have a kitchen in their basement.

Holy Guacamole prepare all their meats and sauces off site at their other locations according to a recent article from the Record that profiled them.

The predecessor of Spice Tree (Duke Muse?) used the basement as additional dining area according to a vegetarian friend who used to go there a lot. 

[Markster]

The United Church at 72 Frederick is considering a condo project.

Their website has a page dedicated to the project.

Church will support itself with $40M condo project

KITCHENER — A downtown church has plans to transform its aging site into a $40-million development with at least one 20-storey condo tower.

[...]

It has toyed with the idea of redeveloping a few times in the past few decades, but this latest effort began in earnest in 2009.

[...]

Plans are still in the early stages, but the church hopes to build at least one, possibly two, buildings of up to 20 storeys, with small units suitable for one or two people and limited parking. In keeping with the church's social mission, Trinity would like the units to be modest and relatively affordable.

As well, the developer would build 14,000-18,000 square feet of space that the church could use for its worship and offices, designed as flexible, multi-use space that other community groups could use for meetings and activities during the week when the congregation doesn't need it.

The plan meets several of the church's key goals, Rutherford said: it uses the space more efficiently, so that it isn't sitting empty much of the time; it allows the congregation to provide outreach and to worship downtown; it creates a space that's more easily shared with community groups who can't afford to build their own buildings; it adds to the supply of affordable housing downtown.

[...]

The existing 42,000-square-foot 1905 building, which has no significant architectural or heritage value, would be torn down. The church is working on plans to preserve essential elements of the congregation's heritage, such as stained-glass windows and church archives.

The church is still working out how to ensure at least some of the homes on the site are affordable, Rutherford said, since federal and provincial money for subsidized housing can be difficult to secure. Possibly the church might retain ownership of some of the units, which it would then rent out at affordable rates, he said.

[rangersfan]

Very interested to see what Trinity ends up doing with this project, sounds like it could be pretty solid for Downtown

[panamaniac]

I'm a bit surprised about the apparent lack of heritage value (although the addition on the front badly damaged the original façade), but this seems a wonderful opportunity.  Hopefully they can include both market and social housing into the complex, along with other uses.  If this works out it could serve as a precedent for some of the other churches downtown that are sitting on valuable land and may be having trouble making ends meet.  In this case, it could save a Downtown congregation that was looking at having to move or disband.

[Markster]

They had a rough concept idea in this document:

   

It looks like it includes the building currently containing Exclaimation.

[KevinL]

With an LRT stop set to go in a couple minutes' walk away, this is very prudent thinking. Wishing them full success.

[Spokes]

They've been talking/thinking about this dating back to the original Four Churches Project which eventually died.  They were always one of the congregations that really pushed for it while the others weren't as excited.  Could be a very valuable addition to downtown.

[white_brian]

http://m.thespec.com/news-story/4943718-...ce=twitter

@RENOMii had posted this and I thought it was an excellent partnership, would be interesting to see how this project is progressing...

[REnerd]

"The existing 42,000-square-foot 1905 building, which has no significant architectural or heritage value, would be torn down.


Every time I read/hear something like this I think that this same argument was once made about the old city hall.  Such a subjective opinion.

[BuildingScout]

"The existing 42,000-square-foot 1905 building, which has no significant architectural or heritage value, would be torn down.

Every time I read/hear something like this I think that this same argument was once made about the old city hall.  Such a subjective opinion.

Have you seen the thing? It was really cobbled together half-haphazardly. I have to agree that this would be no loss.