After closing six years ago, Harlem Restaurant has returned to Queen West

Name: Harlem Contact: 745 Queen St. W., harlemrestaurant.com, @harlemrestaurant
Neighbourhood: Queen West
Owners: Carl Cassell Chef: Sasiban Kulsegaram Accessibility: Not fully accessible

In 2006, the original Harlem opened at Church and Richmond—part restaurant, part venue and an all around buzzing creative space for Toronto’s Black community. Above the dining room, the second floor hosted live musical acts and spoken word performances. Artists from across the city came to perform and share their work.

While the flagship Harlem was thriving, Cassell and his wife opened a second location—Harlem Underground—on Queen West in 2010. As the city’s live music scene waned, Harlem Underground leaned in to DJs and jazz-night Mondays. In 2017, the original Harlem closed, and all that energy shifted west.

In 2019, Cassell and his wife, Anna, had just finished building Toronto’s first shipping container home above their Queen West restaurant when they closed it to focus on a new project: a yoga retreat near Cookstown. It was a quiet, intentional exit from the restaurant world. Until it wasn’t.

One night, Cassell found himself at a Halloween party surrounded by strangers who lit up at the mention of Harlem. In what felt more like a message from the universe than a mere coincidence, three couples at the party had actually met at Cassell’s former spot. Around the same time, the tenant in their Queen West space moved out. Cassell briefly considered leasing it out to someone new, but every pitch—from hookah lounges to generic fusion restaurants—felt wrong. He knew how it would turn out: another forgettable place with no roots in the neighbourhood and no memory of what Harlem had meant. So he decided to take over the space once again and reopen.

The menu is updated, but Harlem’s ethos of community and connection over polish and prestige remains the same. The smell of jerk chicken permeates the air, the drinks sparkle with edible glitter and the music still moves the walls. In short, Harlem is back—older and wiser, maybe, but still ready to party.

The Food

The menu is a blend of Caribbean and Southern influences and includes reworked dishes from Harlem’s history. There’s jerk chicken, marinated for two days, smoked over applewood in a traditional jerk pan and finished with a miso-chili glaze—a recipe Cassell fine-tuned during his years away from the kitchen.The Shrimp Rundown, adapted from his grandmother’s recipe, is simmered in coconut milk and scotch bonnet peppers and served over mashed potatoes with sweet corn. Sides like coconut rice and peas, lemony slaw, and ultra-rich mac and cheese (made with 18 per cent cream and topped with parmesan) round it all out. Coming soon: more vegetarian dishes.

The Drinks

There’s a solid lineup of classic cocktails along with house specialties featuring playful twists. The Likkle Lavender is made with lavender syrup and finished with edible glitter for a subtle shimmer. And the sangria-adjacent Kingston tops layers of almond syrup, lime and dark rum with a red wine float. Guests can “remix” any drink by upgrading to a premium spirit for an extra $3.

The Space

Original murals, including a piece by local graffiti artist Elixir, line the patio. They’re joined by a tribute wall salvaged from Harlem’s original east-end location, which is repainted with new artwork every time a Black icon passes away. A moody mural by artist Regan Morris spans the dining room, comprising 18 fading panels of the same curtain pattern, a visual riff on Oscar Wilde’s famous last words: “Either those curtains go or I do.” There are custom Skeletor chairs, a sculptural mix of wood and metal, and Ankara-cloth banquettes that reference the restaurant’s pan-African roots. In short, there’s history in every corner of the room.