There’s soon to be a brand-new spot for heartwarming (and belly-filling) southern Italian fare in Toronto, and it’s the love child between the folks behind some trendy local businesses.
As someone whose daily protein regularly occupies the single-digits, easily dwarfed by that of carbohydrates, anything attatched to Jess Maiorano, who you may recognize better by her Dundas West restaurant, Pasta Forever, immediately piques my interest.
Ever since Jess started her pasta-based business when work for many chefs dried up back in 2020, she’s made a splash around the city with a variety of pop-ups, collaborations and a brick-and-mortar on Dundas West, and now she’s gearing up to open a new place in one of the city’s most stylish neighbourhoods this year.
It’s going to be called Zia’s Place and, Jess tells me, “the inspiration behind it, is that feeling when you go to your zia‘s […] for a Sunday lunch,” referring to the Italian word for aunt, “maybe you eat too much food, maybe you have an extra glass of wine, everyone talking over eachother.”
The interior of the space (more on that in a moment) is still “very 70’s,” Jess says, and intends to stay that way, to transport scores of carb-hungry diners, like me, to a “traditional Italian house.”
Taking over the space that formerly housed Stop (also known as The Ossington Stop) at 1543 Dundas West, the restaurant would have already been perfectly positioned for worship from the Little Portugal crowd even if it weren’t for Jess’s street cred, as well as that of her collaborators, the team behind Parkdale’s Happy Coffee and Wine.
With such well-established fan bases in the city, though, Zia’s Place seems like a shoe-in for one of the most popular spots of the year, which could only further be enhanced by their “casual fine dining,” approach.
Oh yes, locals are going to eat this one up.
The cuisine is set to skew decidedly southern Italian, with a focus on local seasonal ingredients that will result in a menu that shifts and rotates regularly, but the spot will also be easygoing enough, Jess hopes, for people to swing by for a quick cocktail, glass of wine, or snack at the bar.
Jess tells me that they’re hoping to open up this spring, though the exact opening date has yet to be determined. As if there wasn’t enough reason for my heart to yearn for the return of springtime, my stomach has now entered the fight, too.
In the meantime, you can visit Pasta Forever at 1693 Dundas West and Happy Coffee and Wine at 1304 King West for a taste of what’s to come.
