The online foodie community is reeling after news spread that one of Kensington Market’s go-to takeout spots has apparently closed.
Rasta Pasta, the beloved Jamaican-Italian fusion restaurant at 61 Kensington Ave., was found shuttered this week with a notice of tenant termination due to unpaid rent dated Oct. 30 posted on the door. Another sign calls the closure temporary and directs customers to Rasta Pasta’s other outpost inside the Waterworks Food Hall.
Dozens of comments appeared on local subreddits within hours Friday afternoon as users expressed shock and sadness over the apparent closure. The restaurant’s Instagram page, which was last updated on Oct. 12, made no mention of the Kensington Market shutdown.
The Star contacted owner Magnus Patterson for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The closure marks the possible end — or at least a pause — for one of Kensington’s most recognizable small restaurants, a business that has come to embody the neighbourhood’s mix of cultures and its reputation for affordable, flavour-packed eats.
Since opening in 2012, Rasta Pasta has been a popular spot for locals its jerk chicken, oxtail and pasta dishes topped with spicy shrimp. The restaurant also enjoyed a bit of virality in 2022 with the creation of a softball-sized fried dumpling stuffed with jerk chicken. The year before, it was featured in a video from the Toronto Raptors to highlight the city’s culinary diversity. Patterson continued to highlight the vastness of Toronto cooking when he shared with the Star his favourite places to eat back in August.
“They say you can smell it from Dundas (Street West) and people follow their nose,” Patterson told the Star back in 2022 about the aroma of his jerk drum piercing through the cold winter air. “You’re almost on vacation when you’re (standing at the drum). It’s just the sand and the heat that’s missing.”
For now, fans can still find their jerk dinners and Italian-Jamaican mashups at Rasta Pasta’s Waterworks location at 50 Brant St., which opened this past spring.
