Simon Bower moved onto Summerhill Avenue in 1999. When Toronto Life profiled the neighborhood in September 2026, he said that for most of the 27 years since, the local restaurants "emptied out by 9 p.m." He also said Terroni was effectively "the only game in town" for anyone who wanted a serious dinner nearby. He got tired of going to Ossington for a good meal, so he opened Seahorse, a seafood and raw bar restaurant, at 1226 Yonge Street. Bower told the magazine that guests now stay "late into the evening."
His reason for opening here explains most of what has changed on the strip between Rosedale and Summerhill stations. The new restaurants and shops did not come looking for passing foot traffic. They followed customers who had been leaving the neighborhood to find them, and they are now open within walking distance of those customers' homes.
Two kitchens that came to their regulars
Seahorse came first. Toronto Life's August 2025 preview said it would open later that month. At the start it planned to serve Tuesday through Saturday, 4 to 10 p.m., and to add a sixth night later. The restaurant's website now lists raw bar service from 4 to 5 p.m. and full dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. The same page lists the restaurant as open until 11 p.m. The published schedules don't match, so it is safer to check the night you want before you go.
Then came Shay Ristorante at 1055 Yonge Street, which officially opened on October 1. Chef Justin Friedlich spent nearly ten years at Buca Yorkville and was its chef de cuisine. Shay is his first restaurant of his own. It took a while to arrive. Streets of Toronto reported the plan in May 2025 and noted that the corner had "seen a few restaurants come and go." The doors opened about 16 months later.
Friedlich has described what he wants Shay to be. "We wanted to bring something that's fresh, new, and comforting that people can call home and visit multiple times a month," he told Streets of Toronto. Pasta is made in-house every day. The menu includes lasagne alla Bolognese, tagliatelle ai funghi and spaghetti alla carbonara, and a curated wine cellar sits behind it. A restaurant that wants guests back several times a month depends on people who live close by. Toronto Life lists it under Rosedale.
Between these two newcomers, Terroni Price still serves dinner at 1095 Yonge Street. Bower once called it the strip's only option, and it is still open.
How to get a table
Nobody hopping between restaurants for an evening on this strip can count on walking in. Shay's policies are the strictest.
| Shay Ristorante | Seahorse | Terroni Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 1055 Yonge St. | 1226 Yonge St. | 1095 Yonge St. |
| Opened | October 1, 2026 | 2025 | Long-standing |
| Dinner | Mon–Sat, 5–10 p.m.; closed Sunday | Raw bar 4–5 p.m., dinner 5–10 p.m. per its site | Dinner service; confirm hours with the restaurant |
| Booking | Reservations only; no walk-ins or waitlist | Site lists hours to 11 p.m.; confirm before going | Check with the restaurant |
At Shay, parties of one to six book on OpenTable up to 21 days ahead. Parties of seven or eight request a table by email up to 30 days out, and groups of nine or more go through the events team. The main dining room seats 89, and a separate room called La Sala seats 16. La Sala makes Shay one of the few places on this part of Yonge that can host a private dinner for a group that size without leaving the neighborhood.
The shops followed the same customers
The same thing has happened in retail on this stretch. Absolutely Fabrics held a gala opening for its 7,000-square-foot flagship at 1091 Yonge Street on Friday, September 18. Founder Kaelen Haworth told Retail Insider that many shoppers had been traveling to her Queen West store from Rosedale, Forest Hill and nearby neighborhoods. Some clients were close enough to the business that staff brought new pieces to their homes. The Summerhill store is the only Absolutely Fabrics location with menswear. Its labels include Studio Nicholson, Martine Rose and Soshiotsuki, which the store says it carries exclusively in Canada.
The other new storefronts opened for the same reason:
- Tanya Taylor, 5 Scrivener Square. The Toronto-born designer opened in New York and Greenwich before coming home. She told Toronto Life she "would never open a shop in a tourist area" and that she learns about her customers by "watching their routines."
- Luxton, 1202 Yonge Street. This is the outerwear label's first permanent store. Dinah Luxton cited the neighborhood's "strong sense of community."
- Body of Work, 219 Avenue Road. The athleisure brand's first store comes after six years of online-only sales. It was designed by Superkül and looks onto Ramsden Park from the back.
- Wynona Studio, 217 Avenue Road. Robert Yarish moved his bespoke menswear studio here from Trinity Bellwoods in 2025. He told Toronto Life he now has "so many local customers we never would have crossed paths with otherwise."
Taken together, a 6 p.m. stop at Luxton or Absolutely Fabrics and a 7:30 table at Shay or Seahorse keeps an evening within a few blocks. Until recently, the same evening meant a trip to Queen West and Ossington.
Scrivener Square is still a construction zone
The construction on Scrivener Square makes the walk harder for now. Toronto and East York Community Council authorized closing both the north and south sidewalks there for the TTC's Summerhill Station second entrance. The closure covers about 60 meters, starting 38 meters east of Yonge, and runs from February 1, 2026 to April 30, 2028, with a temporary pedestrian walkway provided. That works out to roughly 18 more months of detours from this fall. You can read the council decision here.
The construction is building the next phase of the strip. The James at Scrivener Square, a 23-storey rental building by Tricon Residential, will add about 10,500 square feet of ground-floor boutique retail, a pedestrian mews, a public square and a direct connection to the subway station. The announced tenants include Mamakas, Gee Beauty, 6 By Gee Beauty, Nutbar, Dear Grain Bakery, Chocolat de Kat and Bluboho, and Clementine's is moving there. They will join the long-running food shops on the block, including Harvest Wagon, Olliffe Butcher Shop and Pisces Gourmet.
What's still coming
Two more dinner restaurants are on the way. Neither has opened yet.
- Café Crane, 1262 Yonge Street. This French-leaning restaurant comes from the Wynona team. Toronto Life listed it as "expected late 2026" in September. Its website still shows only a sign-up page for opening news.
- Mamakas, 10 Price Street. Thanos Tripi opened his Greek bistro on Ossington in 2014. He is now expanding to Summerhill, in part because, Toronto Life reports, many of Mamakas's long-time customers already live here. In November 2025 the target was 2026. The magazine's September 2026 guide lists it as "expected 2027."
Mamakas fits the same story as Seahorse. Bower said he opened because he was tired of traveling to Ossington, and now one of Ossington's best-known restaurants is coming to Summerhill. Its customers will no longer need to make that trip.
For now, a Saturday night on the strip means choosing among three dinner rooms. One of them books three weeks out, and the walk around the subway construction will last into 2028. Café Crane is the next one to watch, and its sign-up page is the place to check.
Natalie Costello and the team at Clifford Costello follow what opens, moves and closes on Yonge between Rosedale and Summerhill because those details shape everyday life on these streets. If you'd like to know what The James and the second station entrance could mean for your corner of the neighborhood, contact us.
