Fet Zun, the sister restaurant of Bib-Gourmand-acclaimed Fat Pasha, will close its doors for good by the end of the year.
Owner Anthony Rose announced on Instagram that Dec. 22 will be the last time patrons can sample the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine at Fet Zun.
The restaurant’s menu offers falafel and shawarma platters, pita sandwiches and dips like baba ganoush and labneh. Dishes like the brisket and chocolate babka also draw from Rose’s Jewish heritage.
The restaurant was born out of an earlier Rose project called Bar Begonia, a Parisian-style cocktail bar that closed in 2019. In its place came Fet Zun.
Rose is known for his restaurant reinventions, raising questions about whether a new joint could be on the horizon for Fet Zun’s location near Dupont and Bathurst streets.
TorontoToday reached out to Rose for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
The restauranteur waxed poetic about Fet Zun’s upcoming closure in his Instagram post and reflected on the difficulty of keeping up in Toronto’s fast-paced dining scene.
“I love Fet Zun. I’m in love with Fet Zun,” Rose wrote. “Everything I do is a part of me, the food and the vibes and the art and just the daily craziness is me and my soul. It’s crushing to close things down.”
“It takes a lot to remain relevant,” he added. “Food, people, social, money, time, energy, talent, consistency, money. It’s hard but it’s fun but it’s really hard but it’s addictive and it’s fun but then it’s not.”
Rose said Fet Zun was and remains busy, so it appears that dropping sales aren’t the reason for the restaurant’s closure. He added, rather cryptically, that being busy is “not the point” and “maybe it never was.”
Fat Pasha and Schmaltz Appetizing, Rose’s other restaurants, don’t appear to be going anywhere.
Fat Pasha earned the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand award, which recognizes restaurants that serve high-quality meals at reasonable prices, in 2022. At the time, Rose told Maclean’s the award helped bump up sales by about 25 per cent — a huge boon for his business considering he shuttered two restaurants that year.
Rose & Sons, Big Crow, Grand Elvis and Gordy Smiles are previous Rose endeavors that have closed down.
