FUSION FLAIR flies under the radar

FLIP, a city-funded initiative, may not be on the foodie map quite yet, but its global bites with a Toronto touch deserve a spot on the legend

There are hidden gems, and then there’s FLIP Kitchens, a year-old food hall just steps away from North York Centre.

This initiative was set up to offer first-time food entrepreneurs with their own kitchen space at the bottom of two adjacent residential and office towers at 5220 Yonge St. One of them is still under construction, but for now FLIP (Food Learning Innovation Place) has four food vendors, each serving a menu that, as a lifelong North Yorker, is refreshing to see for the neighbourhood (injera, at last!).

In theory, this food hall should be busy: it’s close to a subway station with foot traffic, there’s lots of indoor seating and the entire place is run by independent first-time entrepreneurs, adding vibrancy to the neighbourhood. However, I stopped by multiple times and the place was largely quiet. It was hard to find, even for me as someone who frequents the neighbourhood. It’s next to a construction zone and the entrances are either on the side of the building or through an office building. The FLIP sign doesn’t light up at night. When you look into the street-facing window you see a large unused pizza oven that’s part of a demonstration kitchen that never opened, blocking the vendors inside.

Beyond that, now retired Ward 18 Willowdale city councillor John Filion, who was behind getting this project off the ground, says the city needs to do more to put it on the culinary map.

“The vendors have done their part

by creating great food. But the city staff still need to do a lot more to live up to their end of the bargain: make the space attractive and visible from Yonge Street, promote it and provide the business mentorship that was promised,” Filion says. “I’ve tried many times to tell them how urgent this has become.”

Despite the low traffic, the four existing vendors say they’ve been building a loyal following on their own through word-of-mouth and standing out with their fun, personal takes on their heritage cuisines; the kind of food that only comes from living in Toronto, where mashing up global influences is the norm rather than a novelty.

One vendor, Branko Vrbaski, initially started Bunhaus as a hobby after he was laid off from his kitchen job at the start of the pandemic. Bored, he began making his version of piroshki, an eastern-European hand-held stuffed bread, adding unconventional fillings such as butter chicken or cheeseburger toppings. For the latter, think Big Mac but juicier and with more meat and a fluffier bread.

Next to Bunhaus is Teta’s Kitchen, helmed by chefs Mary Freij and Elita (it’s common for Indonesians to not have a surname). The two first met in 2019 at a workshop held for women looking to get into the food business. Freij had a stall serving Levantine cuisine at the World Food Market downtown and offered to share the kitchen with Elita while she got her Indonesian catering business started. The stall closed soon after the pandemic hit, but Freij continued to do pop-ups while Elita opened her own spot called Nai Nai on King Street West. The two reunited at FLIP with Teta’s Kitchen (Teta means grandmother in Arabic).

Freij makes her specialties, like caramelized cauliflower florets drizzled with tahini and cooked-toorder skewers served in a fluffy pita. Elita serves Indonesian staples like beef rendang and grilled-to-order skewers of juicy chicken in a peanut sauce.

Down the line is Chic Peas, a vegan spot helmed by Naza Hasebenebi doing her take on Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine, incorporating Canadian elements like serving stewed coconut chickpeas in a squash bowl or adding maple syrup to add a slightly sweet contrast to her jerk-marinated TVP paired with cardamom-infused rice or injera, adding variety to the strip that leans more toward East Asian restaurants. Like the owners of Teta, Hasebenebi also uses the space to host cooking classes (the next one is Jan. 22).

“My mother’s cooking was my (culinary) school,” says Hasebenebi. “You learn to be her right hand because food has the essence of community and culture. We feed each other and it’s my love language.”

At the end of the food hall is Da Endz, which co-owner Camille Osbourne started during the pandemic after she lost her job as a flight attendant. She and her partner, Oquain Cameron, started cooking and feeding friends and family before opening up shop at FLIP Kitchen.

The menu is loosely Jamaican inspired, with fried-to-order festivals (a slightly sweet fried doughnut) and their take on Rasta pasta, a Jamaican pasta dish with a creamy Parmesan sauce and strips of bell peppers, topped generously with Cajun-seasoned shrimp Diners can see Osbourne and Cameron work the induction stoves, simmering sauces and preparing each dish from the start.

“The food is done to order, and people can see their food being made, that’s why people keep coming back,” Osbourne says, adding that she calls the menu more akin to the comfort food she craves rather than a strictly Jamaican spot.

All the vendors acknowledge that FLIP Kitchens is not as busy as they hoped it would be a year in, but remain optimistic that word-ofmouth is helping spread the word.

“A new business always takes time,” Freij says, “and we haven’t seen the growth we were expecting, but at least we’re seeing repeat customers.”

The idea for FLIP Kitchens came about 15 years ago from Filion, who wanted to bring the vibrancy of food destinations like the St. Lawrence Market to the Yonge Street strip of North York.

“The idea was to find young food entrepreneurs and give them a helping hand and get those businesses started up,” Filion says. “They all have a fantastic story about what food means to them and how they’re passing on things from their cultures.”

Hurdles soon cropped up, as one of the developments is delayed, meaning just one half of this food hall is currently open.

The vendors haven’t been charged rent for the year. The city has spent $35,000 to promote FLIP Kitchens in 2022 through branding and signage, though plans for next year’s budget have yet to be confirmed.

In the meantime, a spokesperson told the Star the city is currently looking for a not-for-profit organization to run FLIP Kitchens — which should be in place early next year.

Even if the food hall isn’t technically fully open, the four vendors are here for lunch and dinner service and hoping to achieve their restaurant dreams. Don’t wait because the food’s already served.