"We've been here since before the city forgot what a real diner looked like."
Avenue Open Kitchen opened its doors at 7 Camden Street in 1959. Toronto looked different then. The neighbourhood looked different. We didn't.
Walk in today and you'll find the same counter, the same booths, and the same open kitchen where the cook works the grill in front of you. It's a tiny room, and it has been for sixty-seven years. We like it that way.
Our reputation was built on one thing above all: Montreal-style smoked meat. Cured the traditional way, hand-cut to order, piled high on rye with a smear of mustard and a pickle on the side. We've been making the exact same sandwich for the better part of seven decades — and we have no plans to start fixing what isn't broken.
Same recipe.
Same rye bread.
Same sandwich since 1959.
Around it grew a whole bill of fare a Toronto diner ought to have: peameal bacon and eggs, real poutine with proper cheese curds, hot chicken, club sandwiches, breakfast served on a worn-in plate with home fries on the side.
We are not Instagrammable. We are not curated. We are a working diner — the kind your grandfather would walk into, sit at the counter, and recognize immediately. That's the highest compliment we know how to pay our trade.
Come find us. The grill is on.