Local residents may have been dismayed to hear that Regina’s Catering and Fine Foods, the 49-year-old North York mainstay, would be closing its doors for good in April, leaving a gaping, kishka-shaped void in the Jewish food community. So it will be great news for Toronto’s resident gefilte-fish-heads to learn that Regina’s is reopening, albeit under new ownership and with a brand new name: Regina’s Kitchen.
The grand opening is slated to take place on June 30, but Regina’s Kitchen has been open and serving food unofficially for over a week. Rebecca Stanley, one of the new owners, tells us that Regina’s will have the same menu of traditional Jewish comfort food that patrons know and love, and has retained the same team of chefs. Still, a number of new modernizing touches are in the works, including new gluten and lactose-free offerings, designed to bring Regina’s “up to modern family requirements.”
Along with the menu updates, the restaurant will get a redesigned interior, featuring a bigger kitchen, brand new appliances and a brighter, lighter space.
“We’re calling ourselves a modern-retro takeout eatery,” Stanley says. “We want to take the food that bubbie used to make, the comfort food that brought Regina’s all this fame and popularity, and bring it in to the 21st century.”
And what of the former owners? From their website, it looks as though they are less than happy with the rebranding, and have made a statement firmly distancing themselves from the new Regina’s regime.
Do we detect a battle of the bubbies brewing?
Regina’s Kitchen, 844 Sheppard Ave. W., 416-636-6446
