Hospitality vet Dan Gunam suffered two heartbreaks on King Street West.
First, he had to close his beloved Love Child Social House in 2022 due to Metrolinx expansion. King West was vibrant at the time, he says: everyone wanted to be there. So he opened swanky Japanese-inspired listening bar Kissa a half-block away so he could keep some of his staff and stay on King West.
“But,” he says, “King West changed.” Kissa lasted two years.
After a more than a decade as Toronto’s nightlife epicentre, King Street West is changing — quickly. The result has been a wave of closures and concept pivots, as spending habits shift and a younger, more value-conscious crowd reshapes the strip. Rents continue to climb; one 2025 study discovered commercial rents spiked roughly 140 per cent over five years.
Kissa is just one of a startling number of restaurant and nightlife casualties on King Street West over the last year and change: Vela, Buca, Dasha, Lapinou, District Eatery, Casa Mezcal and Nihari Inn have all shuttered.
“We tried everything,” Gunam says. Invested in marketing and promotions. Refreshed the menu and brought in a new chef. Worked with promoters. But rent soared from $35,000 to over $50,000; given that most successful restaurants operate with a roughly 10% net profit margin after all expenses, he says, rent needs to stay below 10% of total sales. If it hits closer to, say, 30%, it becomes unsustainable. “We continued to invest in the business even while it was losing money, but eventually we had to cut our losses because it was no longer worth it,” he says. “When you have guests who come to take pictures and don’t really spend much, and with a small-capacity venue, every bit counts.”
What is happening to King Street West?
According to Gunam, the demographic of people coming into King West changed; many previous partygoers gravitated toward Yorkville instead, and those who remained preferred cheaper options.
“Many of the once-popular places on King West ended up closing, making way for chains like Earl’s, King Taps, and more casual businesses,” Gunam says. “Independent owners struggled to keep up with high rents and low spending, especially when investing millions into renovations. So bigger chains funded by pension funds and large equity firms can sustain even if they are not making money in slower months.”
Like many operators, INK Entertainment founder and CEO Charles Khabouth remembers the post-COVID boom. “People were very hungry to go out and spend money and blow money like crazy,” he says, adding that 2022 was one of his all-time best years.
But by the end of 2023, things started declining.
“In the last 12 months, we’ve seen a huge decline in attendance and spending habits, and the average per head has dropped quite a bit,” Khabouth says. “People are a lot more frugal with their spending, and everybody’s being careful. This year, I think, will be one of the toughest years in the hospitality industry.”
He cites the financial climate, including the cratering condo market, global uncertainty around wars and tariffs, as contributing to general spending anxiety.
Robin Goodfellow co-founded Bar Raval and has designed other high-profile bars at the Paradise Theatre and El Mocambo — but he has spent the last few years doing large-scale consulting for big corporate restaurant groups mainly focused in the King St. W. area. Goodfellow also is the former operator of contemporary restaurant and bar Vela. He remembers when Vela opened in 2021 and was as busy on Mondays as Saturdays. Then the lockdowns continued. By the time the third one hit, he says, “a lot of the people who frequented the King West area got fed up. They saved their money to visit other cities, or they invested in their homes, and got used to staying away from the area.”
Construction compounded the challenges. Portland Street was dug up in 2022 for a new watermain, amping up traffic and reducing patio time. “It was pretty devastating,” he says. “The blows were constant and almost comical.” Vela eked its way through two more years until a fire burnt the place down. They did not reopen.
“I don’t think people who went there 2015 to 2022 go (to King West) anymore. I think it’s a younger crowd that wants more casual and less committal options,” Goodfellow says. “But the spaces built in King West have gargantuan build-outs that cannot be changed so quickly. And the neighbourhood didn’t change slowly. The change was brought about fast because of the set of challenges between 2021 and 2023. King West has been where the party has been happening for so many years, but the party has changed.”
Some operators are attempting to adapt rather than exit. Khabouth converted three of his high-profile eateries into new concepts: seafood spot Pink Sky became restaurant and vinyl bar Vinny; Chica switched to budget-friendly Amal offshoot Little Baba; and Patria evolved into Beso by Patria.
He swapped out heavy main courses for fun tapas and lower prices at Patria’s reboot. Vinny’s menu is about 50 per cent cheaper than Pink Sky’s, he says. (Pink Sky sold $52 lobster spaghetti, $125 24-ounce grilled ribeye, and a $285 seafood tower. Vinny may still offer a $89 14-ounce ribeye, but they also have a variety of mains between $24 and $35 plus a slate of cheeky apps like cheese pie for $14 and pigs in a blanket for $22.)
“The neighbourhood as we know it now has become a little more pedestrian than it was before: a lot of bars, a lot of younger people live in the area now, so we put a little DJ booth with a DJ playing vinyl, which is a lot of fun, a very nostalgic music and energy. The space feels a bit like ‘70s basement, and it’s proven to be a huge success,” Khabouth says.
“Today, people are looking for something that’s very approachable as well as very worthy of the money they spend,” he continues. “It’s definitely a sign of the times, to be more value-friendly to people.”
Goodfellow headed north to Queen West, where in March he is opening his new high-volume cocktail bar slash Tex-Mex eatery, The Dirty Laundry, with attached daytime spot Café Gigi, where Cold Tea used to be; affordability is his key mandate. Gunam is also betting on Queen West; his restaurant and bar Soluna has been at Queen and Peter for three-and-a-half years (he, too, recently relaunched their menu).
Journalist and restaurant writer Stephanie Dickison, who tracks closures on her website Toronto Restaurants, says the turmoil extends well beyond King Street West.
“This is not an issue exclusive to King West,” she told the Star. “The fact that the area is chockablock with larger restaurants and late-night destinations distinguishes it from other neighbourhoods downtown … As the establishments take up such big square footage and are in close proximity to one another, it feels more impactful.”
Will King Street West ever return to its rollicking roots? Gunam isn’t sure.
“I wish one day King West could thrive as it once did, but given how it’s going, I’m not sure if that nightlife experience will ever come back,” he says.
For Goodfellow, the neighbourhood’s trajectory raises bigger questions about the city itself.
“If the issue was with King West, then another area would take it’s place, but that’s not really happening,” he says.
“If not, should the city care? I think so. I think the city should really understand what happens if small businesses are not able to survive in a city like Toronto.”
“Without fun venues, and neighbourhoods like King West from 2015 to 2022, this city is boring and may continue to decline.”
