A Maritimes-style diner is coming to the Trinity Bellwoods area courtesy of Canadian celebrity chef Matty Matheson.
Bar Clams is expected to open its doors on Friday at 802 Dundas St. W., staff at the restaurant told TorontoToday. Reservations are expected to go live Wednesday.
The restaurant’s menu is already live, featuring homey dishes like hot turkey sandwiches and pork chops alongside coastal seafood fare like fried clam strips and steamed mussels.
Prices range from around $20 for a sandwich on the lunch menu to $36 for fish and chips. The most expensive dish is the lobster supper at $109, though most of the offerings are in the $20 to $40 range.
It’s been a busy few years for Matheson. Between producing and starring in FX’s The Bear and winning an Emmy, the celebrity chef managed to open Rizzo’s House of Parm in Crystal Beach, Ont., serving up classic Italian-American dishes.
Matheson also opened Prime Seafood Palace in downtown Toronto, offering a high-end steak and seafood dining experience.
With no sign of slowing down, Matheson has been promoting the new Bar Clams venture on his Instagram story, sharing photos of the space and sneak peeks of some of the dishes.
The interior space looks like an elevated diner, with metal counters and stool seating and is accented by a beautiful mirrored ceiling and a sleek bar set-up.
The diner will inhabit the space where Fonda Balam used to be located. The acclaimed Mexican restaurant was a joint venture of Matheson’s with chefs Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo. It shut down six months ago so the trio could focus on their own projects.
In three short years of operation, Fonda Balam earned a Bib Gourmand and became a Dundas Street favourite. One patron commented on Bar Clams’ Instagram account that they’d be dubbing the new restaurant “Fonda Barclam” due to its location.
Matheson posted a photo of the Blue Goose Restaurant, a roadside institution in Desable, P.E.I., to promote Bar Clams’ opening with the caption, “THIS ONES FOR YOU GRAMPY MATHESON.”
Matheson was born in New Brunswick and spent his childhood in Nova Scotia before moving to Ontario. For the former Maritimer, this new venture seems personal. Staff at Bar Clams told TorontoToday that some of the photos on the restaurant’s Instagram show Matheson’s own family members.
