La Carnita is bringing west-side tacos to the Beach

Among Toronto neighbourhoods, the Beach is a bit of an oddball. It’s charming, lake-adjacent and crammed with coveted residential real estate—all factors that would seem to make the area an ideal environment for fledgling restaurateurs. But it isn’t. While nearby Leslieville’s trendy-restaurant population has soared over the last half-decade, the Beach has remained something of a culinary badlands, populated by a handful of decent sushi and falafel spots, but without much in the way of date-night dining. Which is all just to say that the community is clearly poised for a restaurant renaissance.

Now it looks like one may already be in the works. Yesterday, west-side taco shop La Carnita announced that it’s opening a new Queen East shop—not Downtown-east like The Carbon Bar, or Riverdale-east, like The County General, but way, way east, between Woodbine and Kennilworth avenues. The Grid reports that the new taqueria will take over the former Works space at 1953 Queen Street, next door to Hogtown Smoke and across the street from the now-defunct Licks flagship. The 85-seat space will be similar to the College Street location, with one significant difference: it will also house a standalone dessert stand called Sweet Jesus, run by La Carnita pastry chef Sasha Bogin. The new outpost is expect to open in June.