Dooney’s café is making (another) comeback

Dooney’s was an Annex institution back in the days when non-mega-millionaires could still afford to own property in the Annex. Now, according to the CBC, it’s making a comeback—only not in the Annex.

The café, which opened in 1982, was owned and operated for over two decades by Graziano Marchese (brother to former MPP Rosario Marchese) before being sold to new owners in 2008 and soon after rebranded. A few years later, Marchese tried to revive the café‘s legacy at his new neighbourhood hangout, Annex Live; however, the identity shift didn’t really stick.

This time, he’s going for a new neighbourhood. The CBC reports that Dooney’s 3.0 will be opening in the next month or so at 866 Bloor West, just east of Ossington—an area that probably looks and feels something like the Annex, circa 1984ish. And from the sounds of it, former Dooney’s regulars will find themselves right at home in the new space, which, according to Marchese, will be a spitting image of the original, right down to the cool neon sign.