Hanif Harji and Charles Khabouth plot to take over King West

A few months back, we reported that restaurateur and nightlife impresario Charles Khabouth was planning to open two new restaurants on King Street West. Over the weekend, we found out that Khabouth has partnered with Hanif Harji to make a run on the neighbourhood with a handful of projects.

First, there’s Stories (or perhaps Storys; there seems to be some disagreement), slated to open June 2012 next year. The new four-level complex on Duncan Street, home to Grey Goose Soho House during this year’s TIFF, will offer a restaurant and tavern on the main floor, event space on the second and third floors and a rooftop cocktail bar on the fourth. On King Street itself, just west of Spadina, there are two other Khabouth-Harji properties in the works for the new year, possibly as soon as January. One will be the pair’s take on a modern saloon. The other will be a Spanish-influenced restaurant that Harji promises will be quite different from Cava and the other Spanish restos in the city. With a bar at the front serving pinchos and tapas, the space’s back area will offer jamón ibérico de bellota—the super-fatty ham from black Iberian pigs— as well as Spanish sardines and serrano ham, and rioja and cava to drink.