Website that was once a Toronto foodie obsession is shutting down

The food-obsessed in Toronto have long been visiting one particular website for discerning opinions, but now that website has announced it's shutting down.

Chowhound made an announcement at the beginning of the month that it would be shutting down at the end of March, and it's truly the end of an era.

The website has been a resource for news, recipes and cookbooks with a strong sense of community in its forums. Founded in 1997 by Jim Leff, it's been operating for 25 years.

Though it originated in New York, the site's popularity spread across America and even north of the border.

"This incredibly difficult decision is due to limitations in the capabilities and resources required to maintain the site on an ongoing basis," reads an announcement posted by the Chowhound team on March 7.

"Rather than allowing the site experience to degrade, we have opted to close down the site."

The website initially announced it would officially shut down on March 21, but that date has since been extended to March 28 due to an interest from people wanting enough time to save their favourite archived community content.

"I wish I was surprised by the announcement, however as others have noted, Chowhound has been in a decline for some time," reads a separate thread about the announcement created specially for Toronto/Ontario users by Chowhound member "Dr. John."

"I will miss the sharing of intel and have tried many great places thanks to postings here."

Several people replied to the thread saying they'd be migrating over to Hungry Onion.

Local food expert and frequent Chowhound contributor Charles Yu bid a "special farewell" to his fellow Toronto members in the thread.

"To all the local foodie friends I have the honour to make friends with and who attended some of my chowmeets and hopefully had a great time through out the years," wrote Yu.

He also noted he's the admin of Toronto Facebook group "Chow - Toronto" so people can stay in the loop there.