Pantry King West, Toronto

Photography by Scott Norsworthy / Gil Tamin

This quick-service eatery chain opened its latest outpost in the King Street West entertainment district with a design notable for the faux-3D floor-tile pattern of colourful interlaced grids that evokes subway maps, tartans or circuit boards. The light grid seems to hover over the dark grid, generating the illusion of depth. The patterned floor aligns with the front door and, visible from the street, acts as a wayfinding device beckoning passersby to enter. So too does the sculptural ceiling, a basketweave of alternating convex and concave half-cylinders. Walls, too, play with depth, layering the white-painted brick base-building shell with a wood superstructure thick enough to carve out abstracted, slab-like seating banquettes topped by planters. The element of monumentality continues at the servery where the food displays repose on a bevel-edged, faux-stone base. In the evening, cove lighting integrated into the ceiling washes down the walls to transform the restaurant into a beacon.

As appeared in the July/August 2025 Best of Canada Awards issue of Canadian Interiors magazine.

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