Pukka’s about to open a French restaurant on St. Clair West

The owners of St. Clair West’s modern Indian spot Pukka will soon be feeding the neighbourhood French food, too. Concession Road (that’s St. Clair’s original name) will open just half a block east of Pukka, in the space recently vacated by Bywoods. Co-owner Derek Valleau tells us that the new restaurant, which is scheduled to open as soon as this weekend, will serve dishes with “French roots but global branches” cooked by chef Masayuki Tamaru, who Valleau first worked with at Crush Wine Bar, and sous chef, Mark Cutrara (Cowbell, Hawthorne, Parlor Foods). “We obviously weren’t going to do Indian and compete with ourselves,” says Valleau, “but the neighbourhood is developing and in great need of better restaurants. If it wasn’t us, it would have been someone else.” Sommelier Peter Boyd (Scaramouche, Skin & Bones, Pukka) is in charge of the wine list, and there will be cocktails and an absinthe program, as well—all of which, come summer, will go nicely with the spot’s street-side patio.