Can affordable cocktails breathe new life into iconic Toronto neighbourhood?

Queen Street West has seen many incarnations in Toronto.

Known as a decades-long hub for burgeoning businesses, bars, restaurants, and artist spaces, the neighbourhood is currently shifting toward the pomp the city is currently going all in on — icing out smaller players and inexpensive spaces. But now that going out in Toronto has become a luxury where $20 mixed drinks are increasingly the norm, one new cocktail bar is fighting to make it accessible and honest.

Seeking an antidote to a trend that is becoming symptomatic pretty much everywhere in town, Robin Goodfellow and Aldo Pescatore-Tardioli, two major players in the hospitality world, have launched The Dirty Laundry.

Cheekily named for Thomas Keller’s famously Michelin-anointed restaurant ‘The French Laundry,’ this new space in the west end is resetting Toronto’s odometer back to a time when a night out with friends didn’t haunt you until next payday.

A landscape that young Torontonians, according to The Dirty Laundry’s proprietors, likely don’t even know is an option amid the rising cost-of-living and inflation.

“Today’s 25-year-olds, they don’t even know that this can exist. They came out of the pandemic new to a drinking culture, and their only reference point was $25 sticky, sugary cocktails. They don’t have any modern north star — they only know that bars suck,” Robin Goodfellow, co-founder of The Dirty Laundry, told INsauga.com.

[2010’s pricing is back at The Dirty Laundry. Photo: The Dirty Laundry]

Goodfellow, who has a mile-high resumé in Toronto’s cocktail culture, felt the current cultural shift beneath his feet grow unstable for both patrons and those looking to keep their lights on.

As a result, he and business partner Aldo Pescatore-Tardioli looked at a slice of real estate in a neighbourhood being cannibalized and made it a sanctuary for those seeking an affordable community space.

Now, a couple of weeks into operation, The Dirty Laundry, which is a 10-minute walk from neighbourhoods like Parkdale, Liberty Village, and Trinity Bellwoods, has been amassing a huge following for its atmosphere.

Built on classic cocktails and an elevated Tex-Mex menu, not a single drink, appetizer, or entreé cracks $20.

[Crispy catfish sando that won’t break the bank. Photo: The Dirty Laundry]

Goodfellow further drives the point that this doesn’t come at the price of quality, as all ingredients are sourced locally and efficiently, creating a standard that allows guests to choose their own adventure (and price tag) for a night out.

“I’m not against fancy bars, I love them, but what’s missing in this city is a certain energy,” says Goodfellow. “It’s not enough to just brand something as affordable and call it a day.”

[Best new vibes on Queen West. Photo: The Dirty Laundry]

As a result, with a foundation of classic cocktails, dynamite nachos, and burgers and sandwiches, The Dirty Laundry is looking to excel at the sweet spot that Goodfellow believes has been ignored in the industry.

Citing a hospitality culture mired by two ends of a spectrum — either elegance or low-cost/low-quality — the restaurant has instead honed in on the forgotten centrepoint.

A platform that co-owner Aldo Pescatore-Tardioli believes needs to be applied wholesale across the city, if Toronto has any chance of shedding its skin of exclusivity and returning to accessible spaces, especially as the city is almost seeing more restaurants close than open.

“There are a lot of places closing, that’s the dominant narrative, and we need to change that, because amid all that noise, there are really great places opening up,” Pescatore-Tardioli told INsauga.com. “We want to build on that, we want to open up our windows, and give a space back to this neighbourhood.”

To keep pace with west Toronto foot traffic, The Dirty Laundry, in tandem with its accessibility, has been built for scale, as it features a massive floor-to-ceiling backbar and seats well over 100 patrons.

[Gin fizz and more at The Dirty Laundry. Photo: The Dirty Laundry]

“We have structured the whole thing on firstly, can people consistently afford coming here, and second, can we pack this place? Having that buzz, when a place is really busy, is foundational,” says Goodfellow.

The Dirty Laundry is also just getting started, as both Goodfellow and Pescatore-Tardioli stated that they are allowing their culinary team to continue experimenting and applying their own knowledge of the Toronto food scene on what is being fired up on the grill, to avoid the routine that some restaurants fall into.

Beyond that, built on the previously mentioned sprawling backbar, the current cocktail menu boasts bar classics like old-fashioneds, palomas, pina coladas, and more, while Goodfellow teases an upcoming comprehensive margarita program featuring numerous outside-the-box flavour profiles at a set, affordable price.

While in its infancy as a venue, both Goodfellow and Pescatore-Tardioli are confident that The Dirty Laundry will help jumpstart an era for a new generation, while harkening back to something familiar for the last one, with Goodfellow stating, “We want to teach 20-year-olds what a good bar is really like, while also reminding our own generation how to have fun — that’s not just needed in Toronto, but everywhere.”