Saucier, spicier, with a discernible perfume of wood smoke, a new kind of eye candy will soon be drawing fans to the furthest reaches of King West. Lured by an all-day menu peppered with sticky, smoky, barbecued bites, they’ll descend on the corner of King and Spadina for something new from an iconic local spot.
Opening this summer, The Carbon Snack Bar is set to revitalize the heritage space at 460 King Street West, last occupied by Quantum Coffee.
“I fall in love with locations and then I reverse engineer what should go there,” explains owner Yannick Bigourdan. “I fell in love with the corner right away, but then I also had in the back of my mind that somewhere in my life I would open a Carbon Snack Bar or two.”
Still, envisioned as “a baby brother or baby sister to The Carbon Bar,” which first opened in 2013 and is still garnering rave reviews, the new spot, he affirms, will have its own unique personality.
“We want to offer a very fun grab-and-go experience around that very strong barbecue DNA that we have, but it’s not to be confused with a second Carbon Bar,” explains Bigourdan. “It’s not a sit-down, we won’t serve people at the table. It’s grab-and-go. It’s fun.”
Open from morning until night, menus at The Carbon Snack Bar will offer a range of items throughout the day, from breakfast sandwiches layered with double-smoked bacon to pulled pork empanadas and composed lunch salads topped with tender gravlax or mahogany-hued ribbons of brisket.
The idea, adds Bigourdan, is to “use all the proteins and all the learnings from The Carbon Bar in simpler, more accessible ways.”
As for those Texas-style ribs? “It’s not going to be a barbecue joint where you come in and have a rack of ribs, but ribs will be incorporated,” he says.
Fully licensed, The Carbon Snack Bar will serve beer, wine and cocktails, perhaps best enjoyed on the location’s expansive patio.
Inside the space, customers will also find a retail area offering items from Shop the Carbon Bar. “Expect to see our sauces, our spices, and, of course, our famous frozen packaged barbecue,” adds Bigourdan.
The company’s catering arm, The Social Catering & Co., will handle food at the adjoining event spaces, one of which will be used by The Carbon Snack Bar when not booked.
“You could expect to see a coffee tasting. You could expect to see a movie night. Really, really fun things to activate the space for the community.”
An idea blossomed into reality, The Carbon Snack Bar is poised to bring more than just barbecue to one of the city’s key crossroads.
“I want it to be very vibrant, very alive,” says Bigourdan. “There’s going to be a sense that something very cool is happening there.”
