Beleaguered Toronto restaurant closes permanently months after launching new concept
A Toronto restaurant that's been through its fair share of ups and downs during its four years in business has officially closed its doors for good.
Despite being lauded among the best new restaurants in Toronto of 2022 (and, it should be noted, never diminishing in quality in the years that followed), Danforth's Taverne Tamblyn hasn't exactly had the smoothest run.
Let's face it: the years of 2020 through 2026 haven't been easy for any independent business. For anyone at all, really, and businesses of all shapes and sizes have been left with no choice but to find creative solutions to the operational challenges of today.
For Tavern Tamblyn, in March of 2025, that looked like owner Ben Gundy making the difficult decision to cease eat-in service at the restaurant entirely, pivoting instead to a prepared food operation with in-house bistro dinners every weekend.
At the time, Gundy candidly explained the tough financial realities local restaurants were, and continue to be, facing, citing hair-thin margins at the best of times and mounting overhead costs.
With renewed inspiration, in the summer of 2025, Gundy launched a new pizza concept out of Taverne Tamblyn, serving French-inspired pizzas for takeout every Tuesday through Thursday before bistro nights took over the space on Fridays and Saturdays.
Though both the pizza concept and Tamblyn's bistro nights were undisputable hits, it seems as though they weren't enough to keep the restaurant alive, as, in mid-January 2026, Gundy took to the restaurant's Instagram account to announce he'd be closing the restaurant permanently at the end of January.
"I have sold the business and look forward to a new adventure," Gundy explains in the post.
"My family and I appreciate the wonderful memories that were shaped by such fantastic and enthusiastic guests. Thank you to all who shared in my experience of designing, operating, and dining at Tamblyn Taverne."
On Sunday, Jan. 25, Taverne Tamblyn officially closed its doors.
While Gundy doesn't elaborate on what, exactly, the "new adventure" he references in the post will be, one can only hope it entails further supplying the Toronto community with his impressive suite of French cuisine.
Taverne Tamblyn was formerly located at 1426 Danforth Ave.
Fareen Karim
