Photograph by Erin Simkin
There’s been a little change of plans for the second location of chef Rod Bowers’ meatball sandwich shop Hey Meatball! at 91 Roncesvalles (at Pearson). It will now be simply called Hey.
Bowers says the location, which is in the enormous space formerly occupied by Tinto Coffee House, is too big to just serve meatballs (it will have about 85 seats). “We gutted Tinto and rebuilt it from the ground up,” he says. “It’ll be a totally different layout.”
As a result, the restaurant will be a sit-down place serving comfort food (for lack of a better descriptor, says Bowers). Takeout will be available. The menu is still being worked out, but it will include the famous Rodfather meatball sandwich as well as spaghetti and meatballs.
“It’ll be food that we know and love, but with a little more refinement,” Bowers says. “I just want to create a simple elegance. This is actually the first menu I’ve done where I sourced my ingredients first and created dishes around them.”
He hopes to open before the Labour Day weekend.—Karon Liu
