St. Nicholas Street feels like an anomaly in the city, especially given its locale. Not even a minute’s walk west of the bustling Yonge Street strip is this 400-metre side street, lined with trees and Victorian cottages with names like Rose, Hazel and Elm. The noise of city life is muffled as soon as you step foot on to its brick road. The traffic dwindles down to a handful of cars and the occasional delivery truck. It’s a tranquil respite hidden in plain sight, even amongst lifelong Torontonians.
It’s also where you can find some of the best dining spots in the city.
“It feels like we’re in a little pocket that doesn’t belong to any neighbourhood,” said Seng Luong, co-owner of Lao Lao Bar with his business and life partner Jason Jiang. “We’re north of the downtown core, south of Yorkville, west of Church and Wellesley, we have all these old buildings next to the new builds and ultra modern storefronts on Yonge.” Their Lao restaurant at 5 St. Joseph St. is among the first spots you’ll see when you start at the southern end of St. Nicholas Street that branches from Wellesley Street West.
For such a short stretch of street, St. Nicholas has an outsized number of entries in the Star’s Top 100 Under $100 guide: Lao Lao Bar, Avelo and Okonomi House all made the list.
As one of the few dedicated Lao restaurants downtown, let alone the GTA, Lao Lao Bar isn’t exactly a hidden gem (Michelle Yeoh ate here while in town for TIFF), but the exposed brick walls and cathedral-style windows add a lived-in warmth that’s rare among the sterile glass skyscrapers and rushed pace of nearby Yonge Street.
The food is served family-style, with dishes designed to be shared across the table.
House-made beef jerky, glazed with a ginger-coriander sweet soy sauce, starts with lean cut top sirloin that’s dehydrated and then deep-fried to render any lingering bits of tough fat. Tum Mak Hoong (papaya salad) is less sweet than its Thai counterpart with a bigger emphasis on lime juice and lip-smacking umami via a combination of crab and shrimp pastes and fermented fish sauce.
Lao Lao’s owners insist on Khao Poon Gai, thin vermicelli noodles in a light, red coconut curry with chicken and fragrant with lime, Thai basil and mint. For something with more punch, the Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodles) starts with fresh sheets of steamed rice noodles delivered to the restaurant every day. They’re then handcut to large squares and wok-tossed with soy sauce, lime leaf, Thai basil, garlic and green peppercorns.
But there’s more to St. Nicholas Street’s history than its current crop of restaurants. The street hasn’t always had this small-town feeling: in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the area was home to several beloved LGBTQ-friendly nightclubs. “This was the club district in the ‘80s and ‘90s and then it became more residential friendly. I remember lining outside the front in the winter,” Luong said, pointing to the restaurant’s entrance where he and Jiang used to wait to get into the former afterhours club, 5ive.
In the same building as Lao Lao Bar, craft beer enthusiasts will undoubtedly know the restaurant’s neighbour, Bar Volo (17 St. Nicholas St.). The longstanding craft brewery reopened on St. Nicholas Street in 2019 after spending more 30 years just a block away on Yonge Street (that space is now a condo). The old location is missed, but the current digs is an upgrade with more seating and a patio with fewer car fumes. Same for Ramen Raijin across from the brewery, trading in Yonge and Gerrard for quieter surroundings (24 Wellesley St. W., located in the rear).
Sipping cocktails in a Victorian row house
Keep heading north on St. Nicholas Street until you hit the appropriately named Cottage Lane, lined with 10 heritage-designated Victorian row houses built in 1884, each named after local flora such as Maple, Ivy, Beech, Rose and Ash that’s inscribed just above the second-floor window. House no. 51, Hazel, is home to Avelo (“hazelnut” in Esperanto), a fine-dining vegan restaurant under the helm of chef Fernando Arango. On the second floor is Bar Avelo, a cosy and ultra-romantic bar.
“We’re close to Yorkville, but people don’t think of us when it comes to Yorkville,” said bar manager Matt Stefan. “We’re small and we only have 21 seats up here so people like coming here because it’s calm, a respite from the crazy on Yonge Street.”
The cocktails lean toward herbaceous and drier notes to complement the food. Stefan’s drinks range from the light and floral Dew Petal Martini to the more autumnal Old Jack Fashioned, made with coffee-infused Gooderham & Worts whisky, pumpkin syrup and chocolate mole bitters. Even the bar’s cheese platter is worth noting: Arango makes its own cashew-milk Camembert and almond-milk Boursin.
For meat lovers, Cabano’s Cheeseburgers is less than a minute’s walk north of the historic cottages at 75 St. Nicholas St., Unit 104. The Cabano Burger — two crispy, lacy quarter-pound beef patties with melted cheese, lettuce, fried jalapeños and secret sauce — makes a strong case for the burger joint’s place among the city’s standouts. Pair it with a side of piping-hot beef-tallow fries.
The last stop on St. Nicholas Street is Okonomi House at 23 Charles St. W., a local favourite that has stayed in business for almost 50 years by specializing in just two things: okonomiyaki (savoury Japanese pancakes) and yakisoba. The restaurant is currently closed for building maintenance, but it’s slated to reopen on Sept. 28. The entire restaurant is illuminated in a moody, hypnotizing glow from its red paper lanterns at night, a prime place to get yourself in the mood for fall.
Despite being a street you can walk end-to-end in five minutes, St. Nicholas Street punches well above its weight in culinary and historical offerings, packing plenty into a small stretch without ever feeling crowded.
