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Short Turn used to be a cocktail bar.
The 30-seat room at 576 Queen Street West was originally the overflow spot for 416 Snack Bar, Adrian Ravinsky and Dave Stewart’s late-night place a few doors down on Bathurst. Freezer martinis, hand rolls, and snacks at the bar. A going-out spot.
That’s over now, rebranded with more of a diner vibe along with a streetcar theme, “perfect for snuggling close,” according to CP24’s Bill Coulter.
TTC-inspired, Short Turn opens late morning and runs through dinner. Chef Kevin Lo, who cooked at Aburi Hana and Mimi Chinese before this gig, is running a menu that jumps from Singaporean chicken rice to grilled cheese inside a room barely wider than a streetcar. CP24 already called their burger one of the best new ones in the city.
The whole place looks like a streetcar – A TTC thing
The name is a TTC thing. Short-turn announcements, the ones where a streetcar stops before the end of the line. Ravinsky heard them constantly during renovations. It stuck.
Designer Colin Sims built the room around the idea. Dark wood panelling, a stainless steel bar modelled on a ticket collector’s booth, actual TTC fixtures pulled from an old streetcar. The space is 11 feet wide. Sitting in there genuinely feels like riding a vintage Peter Witt.
Thirty seats. That’s it.
What to order
Ravinsky calls the menu “diner-ish,” but this isn’t a greasy spoon. Lo’s cooking has the precision you’d expect from someone who came up through Aburi Hana and Mimi Chinese. The food just happens to be more in line with modern diner prices.
The cheeseburger ($18) is hugely popular and for good reason. It holds up. The Singaporean chicken rice ($24) is the priciest thing on the menu and probably the best reason to come. Taiwanese popcorn shrimp ($14) is salty and crispy and disappears off the plate rather fast. Kaya toast ($8) is coconut jam (YUM) on toast, a Southeast Asian breakfast staple you don’t really see around here. There’s also comfort food such as grilled cheese ($10) and a large pancake ($10) that Ravinsky calls “breakfast dessert.”
Nothing tops $25. For this stretch of Queen West, that’s worth knowing!
When to go
The play is to show up late morning for kaya toast and coffee, then stick around for the burger. Or come after a Trinity Bellwoods afternoon social, and get the shrimp.
The chef matters
Kevin Lo, of Aburi Hana, one of the more exacting Japanese restaurants in Toronto, and Mimi Chinese. knows fussy, precise food. At Short Turn he’s choosing to put that training into a grilled cheese and popcorn shrimp instead. You can tell. The seasoning is sharper than it needs to be for a diner. The textures hold up in ways you don’t expect at these prices.
Two bars, one owner
Ravinsky told CP24: “We like to say that 416 is for our 20s, and Short Turn is for our 30s,” and one would assume cutomers beyond their thirties that might appreciate the novelty of it all a little more.
416 Snack Bar is loud, late, cocktail-heavy. Short Turn is the morning-after version. Same owners, same interest in pulling food from all over. Just slower. Quieter. You’re sitting surrounded by warm wood panelling instead of leaning over a bar.
Singaporean chicken rice next to grilled cheese, inside a room built to look like a retired streetcar. Somehow, this cool streetcar-themed dining establishment just works.
The details
Address: 576 Queen St W, Toronto (near Bathurst)
Neighbourhood: Queen West. Close to Trinity Bellwoods if you need a walk after.
Reservations: Walk-in only. No reservations. No cutlery either.
Seats: 30.
Price range: $8–$24.
Go before everyone else figures it out.
