This Popular Middle Eastern Restaurant In Toronto Is Opening A Towering New 3-Storey Location

One of Toronto's popular Middle Eastern restaurants is opening a massive new three-storey location and you will be able to watch the food being prepared right in front of you.

Parallel is already known for its stone-milled halva and tahini as well as other tasty Middle Eastern dishes and in the spring of 2023, you'll be able to enjoy them in a spacious new environment.

The massive new location will be located in Kensington Market and will feature a bar, event space, restaurant, and more across its three levels.

The stone-mill food production is being moved from the Geary Street location to the new spot in Kensington Market and once the main floor of the restaurant opens you'll be able to watch the mill at work while you dine. This will add to the industrial feel of the new space.

The daytime food and atmosphere at the restaurant will be comparable to the Geary location but come nighttime it will turn into a tapas bar. Most of the tapas menu items will come from the stone mill and you'll be able to enjoy traditional Arak-based cocktails along with the bar food menu.

Narcity spoke with Aharon Ozery, one of the Parallel co-owners who says the bar will be, "only walk in, more, you know, Kensington style." You can expect the late-night menu to change almost weekly as dishes will be made with fresh seasonal ingredients.

The main floor will also have a market-type store where you can purchase dry goods, freshly made items such as halva, and pre-made meals. You'll be able to try a variety of tahini ice cream flavours from the new ice cream machine.

The Ozery brothers have big plans for the other two floors as well. "In the basement, we're planning for a commissary kitchen, but it depends on our permits," he explains. "A kitchen that will be doing our catering and our main preparation for both locations."

“When we get a permit for the second floor, we're going to have an event space there,” Ozery continues.

The new restaurant will also have a spacious outdoor patio that will seat about 40 guests. The indoor dining space will seat about 40 people as well. Once the event space is completed it's expected to hold about 100 guests.

The Parallel owners plan to open the restaurant and market store on the main floor of the new spot in March of 2023, with the event space upstairs to follow later in the year.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.