“Touski” Set To Open In Chinatown With a Day-to-Night Shift Built Into the Room

Lina Caschetto, chef-owner of Say Hey Cafe & Deli, is getting ready to open something new.

The new project, “Touski“, sits next door to Say Hey at 154 E Pender Street, sharing kitchen and resources – but the shift is bigger than that sounds. Where Say Hey works within the framework of counter-service sandwiches, Touski opens things up. In short, this move is less expansion, more release valve for Caschetto’s talent.

Neil Hillbrandt, who was at Bar Gobo in its early days, stepped away from the industry for a time, keeping one toe in the kitchen through collaborations with Caschetto. Now he’s back, joining her as co-chef. They’ve cooked together for years, and it shows in a shared instinct for what needs doing, when to do it, and how things should taste.

The name helps explain the rest: Touski is a French contraction of ‘tout ce qui reste’, which Caschetto explains loosely translates to “everything that’s left or everything that there is.” Here, it points to cooking from what’s on hand, which means a menu that shifts with what comes through the door, what’s in the fridge, and what feels right that day.

The food will draw from French and British classics (with nods to the neighbourhood), but it won’t hold still long enough to be pinned down too neatly, and that feels right. Caschetto and Hillbrandt cook with a focus on clarity and flavour, not quite comfort food, but somewhere in that territory – always open to whatever the moment calls for. That same approach carries through to the room, shaping how the place moves as much as what comes out of the kitchen.

During the day, the café side will run with espresso from Modus Coffee, alongside an in-house pastry program that deliberately avoids the usual croissant-and-scone format. That matters too, because it suggests this is not a daytime project and a nighttime project awkwardly sharing a lease. Instead, the whole thing feels like one place with two distinct tempos.

By late afternoon, service will break, and the room will reset. Then the lights go down, the tables are set, and the pace changes.

This is where Jordan Westre comes in. Previously of Burdock & Co and Bar Gobo, Westre has come on board to run the room. Accompanying the roughly 10–12 item food menu will be a short, focused wine list, somewhere in the range of 12 to 16 bottles, brought together by Juice Imports, alongside a martini program.

I dropped by earlier this week and was surprised to find an almost-finished room. Out front, soft yellow walls and wood tables with pale green tops, paired with schoolhouse stacking chairs and banquettes, set the base. Dark green tile and retro green glass bottles, pulled from the basement during the cleanout, bring a bit of density. Along one wall, shelving built from what’s believed to be reclaimed neighbourhood wood anchors the space without making a show of it. There’s some very cool artwork on the way, largely thanks to the design work of Calen Knauf, who shaped the room from custom lighting through to materials, giving it clarity without boxing it in. That balance runs through the whole project.

There is a turntable in the corner. It is not the point of the room, but it matters. Westre knows how to use it, and it speaks to the larger direction here, where details shape the feeling of the place without trying to dominate it. In short: there is no big-budget polish happening here, and thank god. The lines are clean, the materials are simple, and the overall effect is an easy, approachable, and comfortable space. From what I’ve seen, the branding is tight (courtesy Adrian Ho). Like the space, the brand is modern and cool, but not austere or precious.

There’s still a bit to button up, but the shape of it is already clear.

Touski got the thumbs up from the city yesterday and is aiming for an early April opening, with day and night service launching together. Final details are still being locked in, but the pieces are coming together quickly (see the gallery below and keep an eye on their Instagram handle here for updates).