Antonio Park Has A Dessert Project Coming — And Other Forthcoming Restos

WESTMOUNT — Antonio Park is a busy human. The re-building of fire-stricken Lavanderia is still going on, but he has another project in the works. He’s pairing with pastry savant Bertrand Bazin, ex-pastry chef from élite Old Port private club 357c and a mentor/instructor to accomplished pastry-makers like Masami Waki of Le Club Chasse et Pêche, and Rhubarbe’s Stéphanie Labelle. It’s set to be a café-bakery-patisserie named Café Bazin, and will find a home amidst Park’s ballooning set of Victoria Avenue in Westmount, where his eponymous restaurant Park, as well as Lavanderia and gourmet market Sous Chef currently live. Details are scarce thus far, but Park tells Eater he expects it to open in about a month (around the same time he says Lavanderia should return).

GRIFFINTOWN — Is much-loved sushi chef Shinji Nagai coming back? An Eater tipster spies some paper in the window of the old Le Shinji which closed last September, bearing the photo of an elderly man who has become the de facto symbol of the Grinder group of restaurants. There’s also a bunch of fish on the paper, suggesting sushi. Eater has reached out to Grinder and company to see what’s going on.

OLD MONTREAL — Westmount salad royalty Mandy’s is expanding again, adding a St-Nicolas Street location later this month. It’s going to be a much larger operation than the salad bar’s existing locations, serving alcohol and staying open until 11 p.m. It’ll also have breakfast offerings.

MILE END — New café Les P’tits Enfants de Felice will open very soon in the old Navarino bakery space on Park Avenue. Expect Italian-style espresso: it’s coming from Vince Spinale, ex-barista at nearby neighbourhood hub Café Olimpico.

DOWNTOWN — That Crescent Street Hooters you’ve been pining for? Its opening has been pushed back yet again, to March.

• Antonio Park Restaurants Forced Shut By Fire [EMTL]
• Mile End Greek Bakery Navarino to Close After A Half-Century [EMTL]