The team behind a widely adored Toronto restaurant have been teasing a new spot that’s expected to open soon.
The brain child of co-owners Dennis Kimeda (who is also a co-owner at The Wren), Patrick Ciappara and Zac Schwartz, Little India’s Lake Inez has consistently remained a sought-after reservation in the area for the past 7 years.
Having opened its doors in late 2016, the restaurant quickly caught the attention neighbourhood residents and foodies alike, praising the relaxed-yet-sophisticated spot for its regularly rotating menu and romantic atmosphere.
In the years that followed, much like the culinary landscape in the city at large, though Lake Inez has metamorphisized, but the change, anyone who’s eaten there recently can attest, has only kept the restaurant fresh and enticing.
Now, there’s a new change on the horizon, and it’s coming in the form of a little sister for Lake Inez; a new cocktail bar called Belle Isle.
Though Lake Inez links the bar’s Instagram account in their own bio, the name of the restaurant, along with the fact that it’s going to be a bar, is about all the information that the secretive team has coughed up about it as of now.
While cocktails will surely be the main focus at Belle Isle, I, along with fans of Lake Inez’s cuisine, can only hope that a food menu comes into play at the new spot, too, but it’s looking like we all might just have to wait and see.
Taking over the space left by Toto Sushi at 1455 Gerrard East, the new bar will be neighbours with Lake Inez, adding to the already vibrant food and drink scene in Little Italy — but there’s some discord around when that’ll actually happen.
According to the Lake Inez team, they’re aiming to open the bar on Oct. 11, though, their Instagram bio notes, “don’t hold us to that.”
And so, the mystery of Belle Isle prevails, but it shouldn’t be much longer to see what the team has been cooking, shaking and stirring up. All I know is that, if Lake Inez is any indication, it’s going to be good.
