Rise of the phoenix
Chantecler restaurant owner to open pop-up after fire,
Just under two months since a three-alarm fire broke out at a three-storey building in Parkdale that housed Chantecler restaurant and owner Jacob Wharton-Shukster is opening a new venture: a six-month pop-up restaurant across the street while Chantecler rebuilds over the next months.
Appropriately called Restaurant Le Phénix, a nod to the mythological bird reborn from a fire’s ashes, Wharton-Shukster says it will be a separate business from Chantecler with a new menu. He says he is aiming for the new restaurant to open for dinner service Jan. 16.
“The Chantecler space has been fairly destroyed and in fairly rough shape, so it’ll take some time to get it back open,” says Wharton-Shukster over the phone. “People missed the restaurant in the neighbourhood and asked how they could support us through this time.”
For the next six months, Restaurant Le Phénix will take over the recently shuttered IST Eatery, located just across the street from Chantecler and its sister butcher shop, Chantecler Boucherie, which briefly closed due to the fire but has since reopened.
The menu for the new restaurant is still being finalized, but Wharton-Shukster says it will have some dishes from Chantecler, such as the beef tartare.
“We were doing great business up until the fire, and I don’t want to lose the momentum of that by not having a place,” he says.
“Chantecler is coming up to eight years in March and this is a way to support some of the staff who were put out of work.”