Following the aftermath of a fire last November that also closed the Grasshopper, the House On Parliament (454 Parliament, at Wellesley E, 416-925-4074, houseonparliament.com) has re-opened in brand-spanking-new digs right next door. The relocation took place two Tuesdays back. Why the horizontal move?
“The space that we were in was very up in the air,” says the HoP’s Tania Waldock. “The landlord kept putting the building up for sale, he wouldn’t give us a long lease. So when the old community centre next door became available, we grabbed it.”
Turning the three-story Victorian into a restaurant proved to be more work than she and partner Beau Opperman
expected.
“It was massive!” laughs Waldock. “We thought we were just going to do a cute little ground floor renovation.”
This isn’t the first time that the House has had to deal with a fire. The original building suffered serious damage after a blaze back in 1999.
“We were young and silly and under-insured,” says Waldock. “But the people of Cabbagetown went out of there way to support us. We didn’t have a kitchen anymore, just a barbecue out on the patio, so other restaurants let us use theirs. They even had a fund-raiser for us.”
Though the new HoP is a good 50 per cent larger and now spreads out over two floors and a small patio out front, the cozy brick-lined rooms are as packed as ever, especially for its famous $15 Sunday night prime rib ‘n’ Yorkshire pudding suppers.
“It’s good food at a good price, that’s our shtick, right?” says Waldock.
