"When you move off of Bloor Street, you have to build something worth walking to," Harry Rosen President and CEO Ian Rosen told Retail Insider on the day the company's new flagship opened at 153 Cumberland Street.
He was talking about one store, but the same idea applies to almost everything that opened in Yorkville between mid-September and mid-October. A Greek market café went into a Scollard Street building. A caviar and wine shop opened on a second floor on Avenue Road. A Michelin-starred room on Yorkville Avenue reopened with a menu meant to bring people back more often. A sandwich shop arrived inside a food hall that mostly sends meals out the door. None of the places that have actually opened is a Bloor storefront. Bloor Street is still the address for the season's big events, and the busiest corner of the neighbourhood this fall is the stretch around Village of Yorkville Park.
Less Than 200 Metres From the Old Store
Harry Rosen closed its flagship at 82 Bloor Street West on Saturday, September 12, after almost 39 years at that address and more than 55 years trading directly on Bloor. The company's store page says the new location is "less than 200 metres away."
On a map, that move is short. Inside, the store is built quite differently. The Bloor building grew past 50,000 square feet after two floors were added in 2008. The Cumberland flagship is about 38,000 square feet over three storeys, and Retail Insider reports that much more of it goes to inventory, hospitality, private appointments and customer service. The store is smaller and gives more of its floor space to staying than to buying.
The hospitality is easiest to see on the second floor. A lounge and café there serves Illy coffee and opens onto an outdoor terrace overlooking Village of Yorkville Park. The old Bloor flagship had outdoor space too, but Ian Rosen told Retail Insider it was hard to fit into normal store operations. At Cumberland, the terrace sits right in the flow of the floor, next to footwear, leather goods and fragrance.
Most of the third floor is set up for private fittings, made-to-measure, trunk shows, talks and dinners, with a welcome lounge and bar. "We want to be a venue," Rosen said. During the opening tour, the company said it was applying for a liquor licence to support client hosting.
Nothing has been announced yet for 82 Bloor. Retail Insider reports that the property is waiting for eventual redevelopment.
Scollard Street Gets a 20-Year Tenant
The day after Harry Rosen's ribbon cutting, Mamakas Food Group opened Agora at 105 Scollard Street. It has 40 dine-in seats and an outdoor area in what the group calls its back "secret garden."
The building used to be the Scollard Street Diner. Owner Thanos Tripi told Toronto.com that the former tenant, Tom Stavropoulos, first approached him about taking over the space around the time Agora opened on Queen West. Stavropoulos kept asking for years because he felt Agora "could help carry on his family's Greek restaurant legacy there." Tripi said they signed a 20-year lease and at first worked with the existing structure, bringing back Souvla, the group's pop-up, which ran at 105 Scollard from the winter of 2022. In March 2025, a fire on Scollard Street badly damaged the building. Tripi told Toronto.com that he and the landlord used it as a chance to reset, and he took the building "right down to the studs" to build the Agora he had first envisioned.
A 20-year lease on a side street shows how much faith the group has in Scollard. The Mamakas location page lists hours of 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. The menu includes chicken souvla and beef kebab wraps, grilled halloumi pita, Greek salads, pita with dips, and loukoumades. Those hours and that menu make it an everyday stop on a block that has had few casual options this fall.
A Michelin Room Built for More Than One Visit
Aburi Hana at 102 Yorkville Avenue went the other way. It stayed in place and changed what goes on inside. The Michelin-starred restaurant reopened September 17 after nearly a year of waiting. It used to serve only a structured kyō-kaiseki tasting menu. Now it has an à la carte menu for the first time, and head chef So Sakata, who earned Michelin recognition in 2022 and 2023 at Frilu in Thornhill, runs the kitchen.
Executive pastry chef Aiko Uchigoshi explained the change to Streets of Toronto in terms close to Harry Rosen's: "Someone might join us at the bar for a cocktail and a few dishes, while another guest may choose to share several plates and spend the entire evening with us." Guests can still order the tasting menu, and a prix fixe has been promised. On both Cumberland and Yorkville Avenue, the businesses are giving people more reasons to come back on an ordinary evening.
Upstairs on Avenue Road
Salt & Sand chose its spot for the opposite reason. Kasra Khorramnejad and Afton Joy Rentz opened it on the second floor of 92 Avenue Road, with a third floor above. Khorramnejad told Toronto Life that he leased upstairs space on the edge of the neighbourhood instead of an expensive storefront because "nobody really walks in off the street and says, 'Hey, let's buy some caviar.'"
The second floor is the shop. It stocks caviar at every price point, truffles that arrive several times a week, jamón Ibérico, Cantabrian boquerones, conservas, Iranian saffron and bronze-die pasta. The wine shelves reflect Khorramnejad's years as beverage director at Mimi's Chinese. The third floor is for chef residencies, pop-ups and events. When nothing is booked, Khorramnejad will plate the caviar and charcuterie you pick downstairs so you can eat it at a table upstairs. He has said he won't open a full-service restaurant, at least for now. The wine list leans toward small producers in places like Spain and France, and the drinks include handcrafted cocktails and amaro.
The Fall Openings at a Glance
| Place | Address | Opened | What's different |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Rosen | 153 Cumberland St. | Sept. 23 | Illy café and a terrace over the park on the second floor; event space on the third |
| Agora | 105 Scollard St. | Sept. 24 | Former Scollard Street Diner; 20-year lease; open 9 to 8 daily |
| Aburi Hana | 102 Yorkville Ave. | Sept. 17 reopening | First à la carte menu; bar seating for cocktails and a few dishes |
| Salt & Sand | 92 Avenue Rd., 2nd floor | Late September | Caviar, truffle and wine shop; third floor for pop-ups |
| Grandma Loves You | 55 Avenue Rd. | Oct. 17 grand opening | Inside Kitchen Hub's virtual food hall |
A Sandwich Shop Built for Delivery
The newest arrival barely has a storefront. Grandma Loves You held the grand opening of its seventh location on October 17 inside Yorkville Village's Kitchen Hub. The company's contact page lists 55 Avenue Rd. as its Yorkville Village location. Kitchen Hub calls itself a virtual food hall. Independent restaurant brands cook in their own kitchens there, and customers can combine orders from several brands. Founders Sarah and Artin Davoodi told Toronto.com that opening through Kitchen Hub was "quite different from opening our own stores."
Put together, the fall map has five places open so far, all off Bloor. Some sit on a side street, one is upstairs and one is mostly a delivery kitchen. Each was designed to bring people back.
What Bloor Street Still Hosts
RUDSAK is the one fall retail opening aimed at Bloor itself. It is preparing a boutique of about 1,000 square feet within Birks at the Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West. In August, 6ix Retail reported that the hoarding there read "Opening Fall 2026." No date has been announced, so for now Bloor's only new fall storefront is still behind that hoarding.
Bloor still carries the season's big public moments. CANFAR's 30th Bloor Street Entertains takes over venues around Bloor-Yorkville on Thursday, November 19, and ends with an after-party at the Royal Ontario Museum. The street's 60 permanent Urban Campfire Benches, which run between Church Street and Avenue Road, light up when someone sits on them.
November 21, at the Park
The Bloor-Yorkville BIA's free Holiday Magic ceremony runs Saturday, November 21, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Village of Yorkville Park and Cumberland Street. Molly Johnson headlines, the Rosedale Day School Choir is the special guest, and Melissa Grelo hosts. The event is held in support of The Common Table. That puts the season's opening event on the block Harry Rosen's terrace overlooks.
The rest of the season's calendar, from the BIA:
- November 21 to December 31: holiday lights in Village of Yorkville Park and along Bloor Street
- December 2 to 6: Fleurs de Villes JOYEUX, a self-guided floral trail through Bloor-Yorkville, with most installations viewable daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- December 4 to 6, 11 to 13, 18 to 20, and 22 and 23: Candy Cane Carolers
When the lights come on November 21, Agora is a two-minute walk up Scollard, Aburi Hana's bar is around the corner on Yorkville Avenue, and Salt & Sand's upstairs room is on Avenue Road. Event schedules can change, so check the BIA's pages before you head out.
If you're wondering what these new blocks mean for the Yorkville building you live in, or the one you've been watching, Amanda Beecham follows this neighbourhood street by street and is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
