Team behind familiar Toronto staples are cooking up two new restaurants opening soon

The iconic Toronto team behind The Old Spaghetti Factory and Scotland Yard is opening two brand-new restaurants this summer.

While Graham and Dan Hnatiw may not be total household names in the city, the properties they and their family have owned and operated for decades certainly are.

Boasting a portfolio that includes The Old Spaghetti Factory, Scotland Yard and, more recently, Bar Cathedral, it’s safe to say that the Hnatiw brothers and their hospitality company, Esplanade Restaurants, do local landmark restaurants well. But, they're on a mission to prove that they're more than one-trick ponies.

To achieve that, they're gearing up to open two brand-new concepts, still on their beloved Esplanade, next door to The Old Spaghetti Factory and across the street from Scotland Yard: an elevated comfort food restaurant called Eloise, and Bar Cart, a hidden cocktail lounge tucked right beside it.

The two restaurants signify a new frontier of sorts for the Hnatiw brothers and Esplanade Restaurants as the team's first stab at creating original, elevated concepts after operating comfort food-based institutions since the early '70s.

Bar Cart, which opens on Wednesday, July 30, is a sultry, speakeasy-inspired spot tha'’ll serve up intentional and elegant cocktails, designed in part by Beverage Consultant Andrew Whibley, owner of Montreal's Cloak Bar and Bar Dominion.

"Bar Cart's menu starts with the bones of the classics — drinks whose proportions and flavour archetypes are etched into every bartender's muscle memory," says Whibley. Those familiar foundations are then spruced up and made new again through contemporary practices like fat washing, clarification and rapid infusing.

Similarly, the bar itself nods to traditional design while thrusting it into modern day. Think velvet banquettes, moody lighting and oldies playing delicately over the sound system.

As for Eloise, which is due to open during the week of August 18, expect to be greeted with a space that's at once timeless and contemporary, warm and elegant, packed to the rafters with bold patterns, textures and art.

Eloise's menu is described as one that "refuses to be boxed in," thoroughly embedded in nostalgic dishes in flavours that, much like the drinks at Bar Cart, have been reinterpreted for the modern day.

Both will be located at 42 The Esplanade. Whether or not spaghetti will be making an appearance on the menu, however, remains to be seen.