lisa marie toronto

Popular Toronto brunch spot Lisa Marie is closing

One of the best places on Queen Street West for stacks of pancakes and hulking burgers is calling it quits. 

After six years, Lisa Marie—the restaurant from Chef Matt Basile's food brand Fidel Gastro—will be closing on April 14. 

1/2 Today. Waking up today just felt different for @kylazanardi and myself. Maybe because it was the final piece to a process that seemed like it was never ending. I’ve written this post in my head about 100 times but now that I’m actually tasked to write it, It seems less real. So here we go... After 6 absolutely amazing, memorable, impactful and collaborative years we have decided that the era of @BarLisaMarie has come an end. This decision was an incredibly difficult one, but after 6 years of putting everything into one project, the time has come to pivot that energy into different places. When explaining to a friend recently, simply put, Ive put my entire life into this restaurant, now it’s time to take some of my life back. Our last official day of service is April 14th, coincidentally 6 years from the day we opened. Services this week will remain normal but starting April 8th, our entire last week of service will be all-day brunches, day time, night time, and everything in between all brunch all the time right up until our final day of service ending on the most fitting, Sunday brunch. The good news, because I promise there is some, our Food Truck, catering and events division will not only continue but it has grown in ways we never thought possible. We are partnering on a space that will act as our new home base and commissary for all the events we do, and in fact we have recently formed some partnerships that will allow our Foodtruck to be out even more this year than in previous ones. As for what’s next, along with The continued growth of our catering and events business, we are excited to share that we are launching a new project with two amazing and intelligent people, @natashankpr and @a_mantella , of NKPR and @An8. I can’t share the specifics of the project just yet, but I can say it will be our biggest to date as it combines experiential food marketing, tech and digital content, and packaged goods around some our most popular items (cough, cough pad Thai fries) 6 incredible years, on Queen West no less. We never even planned on opening a restaurant, and inevitability became part of the 5% on Queen Street that survived beyond 2 years. So ...

A post shared by Matt basile (@fidelgastros) on

"This decision was an incredibly difficult one, but after 6 years of putting everything into one project, the time has come to pivot that energy into different places," wrote Basile in an Instagram post this morning. 

"We never even planned on opening a restaurant, and inevitability became part of the 5% on Queen Street that survived beyond 2 years." 

According to Basile (who also hosts Rebel Without a Kitchen on Netflix), Fidel Gastro will continue to expand as a food truck and catering company. 

There's also a new project in the works in collaboration with husband-and-wife duo Natasha Koifman, founder of PR firm NKPR, and Anthony Mantella. What the new endeavour will be has yet to be announced.

"I can't share the specifics of the project just yet, but I can say it will be our biggest to date as it combines experiential food marketing, tech and digital content, and packaged goods around some our most popular items (cough, cough pad Thai fries)." 

Lisa Marie will continue regular service until Monday, when it switches to solely serving brunch from morning until night.

Lead photo by

@brunchbabesto


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