A Toronto restaurant known for its savoury Vietnamese snacks has decided not to extend its stay at a new high-profile food hall.
Vit Béo, located at 858 Bloor St W., is a late-night snack bar serving up shareables like shrimp toast and dumplings, banh mi sandwiches, piping hot bowls of pho, congee, and fried rice.
In July, the restaurant opened its pop-up at the Waterworks Food Hall, a 55,000-square-foot Art Deco building located at 50 Brant St. that’s home to a diverse lineup full of some of the city’s favourite food vendors, including Courage Cookies, Harry’s Charbroiled, Musoshin Ramen, Taco Lupita, and The Arepa Republic.
Vit Béo closed its stand at the food hall late last month, with staff explaining to blogTO that the location was only planned to be a three-month pop-up, although the business had the chance to extend it by one month.
“We were already playing with a concept on bánh xèo, we thought it was a great opportunity to try something new,” staff told blogTO. The signature menu item was a Vietnamese crispy stuffed rice pancake made of rice flour, water, and turmeric powder.
“We had an amazing team to bring the vision to life with the mandate to explore, experiment, have fun, and play with the food. The result was our handheld bánh xèo! We had an amazing time doing it.”
Despite the closure, many of the pop-up’s employees found permanent employment at Vit Béo’s flagship Bloorcourt location or other parts of the company.
“This probably isn’t the last you’ll see of our bánh xèo, but for now, we are just grateful for the ride and newfound community in the guests we met along the way!”
