Boutique hotel & restaurant coming to Lower Ossington

The shuttered LeVack Block night spot at the corner of Ossington and Humbert is going to reopen as a restaurant and hotel in 2015. Almost a year after the popular restaurant and bar closed its doors, new owners are finalizing plans to bring food, drink, and sleep back to the 120-year-old building.

Details are still thin on the hotel, but the currently unnamed downstairs restaurant is expected to seat about 60 people and include a lounge and event space in the style of a "modern speakeasy." Toronto-based interior designer Lisa Ho, whose work is most visible on the main level and rooftop patio of EFS nightclub at King and Bathurst, will be responsible for the look of the eatery.

It will be "somewhere people can hang out and feel at home," a partner in the project said in an email.

The LeVack Block building was previously the home of a popular eponymously titled restaurant and club. The business closed in January after six years on Ossington Ave., leaving the future use of the historic row uncertain.

Built between 1889 and 1891 to designs by architect Frank Heakes, the block is named for a family that ran a stockyard at Givins and Bruce. It was designated a Toronto heritage property in February 2005.

What do you think of the plans to bring nightlife back to 88 Ossington?

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo by Matthew Borrett