At 105 Scollard Street the door now opens at 9 a.m. There's coffee, fresh pastries and canned iced coffee made to order. Inside are 40 seats, and a back "secret garden" sits behind the counter. In March 2025 this building was badly damaged in the fire on Scollard. Today it's Agora, a Greek market from Mamakas Food Group, and it has been open since September 24, 2026.
Agora is one of several places that opened in Yorkville this fall, and most of them share a pattern. Operators known for destination dining are reshaping their rooms for repeat visits: a morning coffee, a bar seat, a sandwich to take home. One new opening on Cumberland Street goes the other way, with a 12-seat counter and a fixed menu.
| Opening | Address | Opened | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agora | 105 Scollard St. | September 24 | Greek market and café, 40 seats, opens 9 a.m. |
| Aburi Hana | 102 Yorkville Ave. | Soft open September 4, grand opening September 17 | À la carte, bar and tasting menu |
| She Flirts Beauty Bar | 80 Scollard St. | Grand opening September 26 | Beauty services by appointment |
| Grandma Loves You | 55 Avenue Rd., Kitchen Hub | Grand opening October 17 | Sandwiches inside a virtual food hall |
| Yakitori Momiji | 156 Cumberland St. | Soft open in September | 12-seat omakase counter, 15 courses, $248 per person |
The Scollard building that came back as a neighborhood room
Agora's history at this address goes back further than this fall. In a Toronto.com interview about the opening, owner Thanos Tripi said the space used to be the Scollard Street Diner. Its tenant, Tom Stavropoulos, approached him about taking it over around the time the first Agora opened on Queen Street West, eight years ago. According to the same report, Stavropoulos kept asking for years because he felt Agora could carry on his family's Greek restaurant legacy at the address. Tripi eventually signed a 20-year lease.
At first his team worked with the building as they found it. They brought in Souvla, the Mamakas pop-up, which arrived at 105 Scollard in the winter of 2022 and stayed much longer than planned. Then came the fire. CBC Toronto reported that on March 5, 2025, six townhomes under construction on Scollard were gutted and neighboring buildings were badly damaged.
Tripi told Toronto.com that he and the landlord used the damage as a chance to reset. They took the building down to the studs and built the Agora he had pictured from the start. The Yorkville version has something the Queen West original never had: proper seating. Add the 9 a.m. café program and the purpose is clear. Tripi said he wanted this Agora to be "a more comfortable neighbourhood/community spot," a place where guests sit down and "really spend some time with us." The menu covers fresh pita, house-made dips, souvlaki and salads. Mamakas lists the Yorkville location's hours and menu on its Agora page.
A Michelin room that added a bar
Aburi Hana's change is the clearest sign of the shift because the restaurant had the least reason to make it. The room at 102 Yorkville Avenue has held one Michelin star in every edition of the Guide since the Guide came to Toronto in 2022. It was known for tasting menus. It closed in the fall of 2025 for an extensive renovation after its previous chef's departure.
It returned in September as what Aburi Restaurants Canada calls an Edo-era inspired Japanese dining salon. A tasting menu is still offered, but à la carte dishes now sit alongside it, and the bar has a bigger role. The new team is culinary director Aiko Uchigoshi, head chef So Sakata and beverage director Troy Gilchrist.
Noriaki Okubo, president of Aburi Restaurants Canada, set out the goal in Toronto.com's reopening coverage: "We want Aburi Hana to be a place people return to for different reasons, whether for a celebratory dinner, a business meal, a few dishes with friends or a cocktail at the bar. Our ambition is to become part of our guests' everyday lives as well as their special occasions." The team says the precision behind the star is unchanged and the experience is now "more fluid and personalized." Reservations are taken online.
A Michelin-starred room adding bar seats and à la carte dishes is the same move Agora made with its 9 a.m. café, made at a much higher price point.
Two more openings for a weekday errand
The other two openings carry the same idea into simpler errands.
Grandma Loves You held the grand opening of its seventh location on October 17, 2026. It sits inside Kitchen Hub at Yorkville Village, 55 Avenue Road. Toronto.com describes Kitchen Hub as Canada's first virtual food hall: one takeout order can draw from several restaurant brands at once. Founders Sarah and Artin Davoodi told Toronto.com that opening through Kitchen Hub was quite different from opening their own stores, but the food is the same: "Fresh ingredients, generous portions and food prepared with love." The Bloor-Yorkville BIA now lists the shop as open at Yorkville Village.
She Flirts Beauty Bar held its grand opening at 80 Scollard Street on September 26, 2026, on the same street as Agora. The BIA listed the event, and the studio's own website shows hours and appointment booking at the Scollard address. It puts a second new daytime reason to be on Scollard within the same few weeks.
The 12-seat exception on Cumberland
One fall opening does what Yorkville has long been known for. Yakitori Momiji soft-opened at 156 Cumberland Street in September. It's the newest venture from Masaki Saito and William Cheng, whose Yorkville restaurants already include Sushi Masaki Saito, MSSM and Ramen Tabetai. Toronto Life reported that chef and co-owner Takuma Mukouzaka serves a 15-course yakitori menu at a 12-seat omakase counter for $248 per person.
The details are exacting. The heritage chicken is raised on an Ontario farm only for Momiji. It's fresh, never frozen, and grilled over imported binchotan. Skewers come out one at a time so each is eaten at its peak. Mukouzaka told Toronto Life the opening came "after two years of working to bring that vision to life."
Put the numbers next to each other. Momiji has 12 seats and one $248 menu. Agora has 40 seats, a garden and a 9 a.m. coffee counter. Momiji is the occasion. Most of what else arrived this fall is built to be used on an ordinary day.
Four events through the tree lighting
The calendar from now to late November uses the same handful of streets, and most of it is free or close by.
- ROM After Dark, October 30 and 31. The Royal Ontario Museum at 100 Queen's Park hosts two Halloween nights, All Hallow's Eve on Friday and Trick or Treat on Saturday, both from 7:30 to 11 p.m., per the BIA's events listing.
- Confluence Concerts, November 12 and 13. "In Our Nature" plays Heliconian Hall at 35 Hazelton Avenue at 7:30 p.m. both nights.
- Bloor Street Entertains, November 19. CANFAR's 30th edition spreads across more than 25 Bloor-Yorkville venues, with an after-party at the ROM. Details are on CANFAR's event page.
- Holiday Magic, Saturday, November 21. The BIA's free lighting ceremony runs from 5 to 7 p.m. in Village of Yorkville Park at Cumberland and Bellair. Molly Johnson and the Rosedale Day School Choir perform, Melissa Grelo hosts, and the evening supports The Common Table. The official Holiday Magic page has the current 2026 lineup.
Holiday Magic shows the pattern best. The park sits on Cumberland, the same street as Momiji's counter. The event ends at 7 p.m. on a Saturday, and this year the dinner choices in the neighborhood run from pita and dips in a rebuilt diner to a reworked Michelin bar to a 12-seat yakitori counter, and two of those three were built for repeat visits.
For more on how the street changed earlier this year, our late-summer Yorkville weekend guide covers the openings before these, and the Yorkville neighborhood page has the wider picture.
Anita Springate-Renaud is glad to walk you through what has opened on Scollard, Cumberland and the streets around a particular Yorkville address. Let's Connect.
