Toronto’s most popular pasta place will no longer serve lunch
Your carbonara days are numbered
As of August 14, Torontonians will have one less lineup to stand in. That’s the last day that Famiglia Baldassarre—Geary Avenue’s most excellent pasta spot—will offer lunch service.
No more carbonara, no more ragù, no more plates of crudo di Parma.
Related: PG Clucks is pivoting from fried chicken to pita sandwiches
There is an asterisk here, though: it’s not Baldassarre’s last day of existence. They are not—we repeat, not—closing. It’s just the Italian kitchen’s last day of public lunch service. According to owner Leo Baldassarre, they’re pivoting to focus solely on wholesale: putting their top-notch pasta on grocery store shelves and continuing to supply some of the city’s best restaurants.
Famiglia Baldassarre started in 2017 as a clandestine lunch counter that turned out just two types of pasta a day. The menu eventually expanded, rotating at a rapid clip, dictated by the seasons and by Baldassarre’s infatuations. The classics (carbonara, cacio e pepe, tortellini in brodo) often appeared, as did some deep cuts like trofie and a range of ragùs.
The decision to discontinue dine-in and takeout service was not due to a lack of business. The lineup regularly wound around the block, and pasta-loving Baldassarre stans were more than happy to wait for one of the space’s 10 or so seats or for a takeout clamshell container of pasta to eat in the nearby park.
“Lunch is just such a beast to deal with,” wrote Baldassarre in a recent Instagram post. “It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing it for 10 years. Doing something incredibly against the grain for this long is something to be incredibly proud of.”
Related: Toronto chefs and restaurateurs explain why all your favourite kitchens are pivoting
But there’s still hope: he hasn’t taken reopening totally off the table. “I can’t not cook. It’s going to happen in some way, shape or form.”
Until then, you can get your Baldassarre fix at restaurants like Bar Romy and Birreria Volo; at shops like Fiesta Farms, Good Cheese, Good Behaviour, McEwan and the Butcher Shoppe; and at October’s Sagra di Toronto Italian food festival.
Kate Dingwall is a writer, author and photographer covering spirits, business, culture, fashion and travel. By night, she’s a working sommelier. She has worked with Flare, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Maxim, People, Southern Living, Rolling Stone, Eater, Elle, Toronto Life and the Toronto Star, among other publications. She frequently appears on both CTV and NPR, has co-authored a book on gin, judges Food & Wine’s Tastemakers and has strong opinions on the city’s best martini.
