Between Rosedale and Summerhill stations, the most visible change on Yonge Street has been hoarding and a covered walkway beside Scrivener Square for most of this year. Two doors opened within a short walk of each other in the last few weeks. Absolutely Fabrics held a gala at 1091 Yonge on Friday, September 18. Shay Ristorante began serving at 1055 Yonge on October 1.

Absolutely Fabrics sits directly across Yonge from The James at Scrivener Square, a 23-storey Tricon Residential rental tower, and Shay is a short walk south. The James was planned with a retail mews, a public square and its own list of announced tenants. The new energy on this strip came first from two operators who already knew who their customers were. The development designed to anchor the block is still catching up.

Two openings in thirteen days

Both openings are large for this stretch of Yonge. Absolutely Fabrics fills 7,000 square feet, and Retail Insider called the space a flagship. Shay has a full dining room plus La Sala, a private room that seats up to 16. Both businesses are run by people who had served this clientele somewhere else first. Each of them closed that distance by moving to Yonge.

Shay grew out of a table of Buca Yorkville regulars

Chef Justin Friedlich spent nearly ten years with Buca Yorkville before opening Shay, according to Streets of Toronto. Toronto Life reports that he met co-owner Rayana Dilawri there because her family were regulars. Luli Lavdari, who managed Buca Yorkville at the time, is now his business partner and director of operations. In other words, the people behind the restaurant met as manager, chef and guests at a restaurant a few minutes south on Yonge.

The kitchen makes its pasta by hand every day. Every meal begins with focaccia and olive oil from Baglio Rocca, a four-generation estate just outside Palermo. Friedlich told Streets of Toronto that the oil had never been sold commercially before and that Shay is the only restaurant pouring it. Wine curator Adam Halpern built the cellar around hard-to-find bottles and put some normally bottle-only wines on the by-the-glass list. In the same interview, Friedlich said he built the wine program for guests "seeking out unique experiences and unique wines."

These prices come from Toronto Life's October 6 review:

• Ora King salmon tartare with trout roe, lemon aïoli and house-made chips, $32
• West Coast scallops on the half shell with chive beurre blanc and dehydrated prosciutto, $39
• Ravioli di mare, half dyed with squid ink, filled with shrimp and scallop, in a shrimp-shell brodo, $42
• Tiramisù Nero with house-made chocolate ladyfingers, $18
• Chocolate sorbet, made with only chocolate and water, $9

The house negroni uses gin infused with local sumac. According to its OpenTable listing, Shay serves dinner Monday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. Reservations open 21 days ahead at 10 a.m. Reservations are also available through the restaurant's own site. On Sundays, a Shay dinner is not an option.

Absolutely Fabrics moved closer to its customers

Kaelen Haworth opened the first Absolutely Fabrics on Queen Street West in 2023. That store stays open. Retail Insider reports that the store already had customers coming downtown from Rosedale, Forest Hill and nearby areas. Some relationships had gone further than that. Haworth told the outlet:

"We were doing a lot of travelling with our clothing, doing events in people's homes or bringing pieces from the new collection to some of our best clients."

The space at Yonge and Price works almost like a showroom for those home visits. Clarisa Llaneza Studio designed the interior with Haworth, Trevor Wallace of Reflect Architecture oversaw the space, and Carbon Building Group built it out. The finishes include carpeting, dark wood, coffered ceilings and glass-block details. A Red Jasper coffee table and matching benches by South African designer Lea Colombo sit under sculptural lighting by Dana Arbib. "We want people to stay and linger," Haworth told Retail Insider.

Menswear is new, and only this location carries it. Labels include Aubero, Studio Nicholson, Willy Chavarria, Rier, Martine Rose, ssstein and Soshiotsuki. In Canada, Soshiotsuki is sold only at Absolutely Fabrics. Before this fall, anyone in the area shopping these labels would likely have gone downtown.

The James is still a list of names

Directly across Yonge from Absolutely Fabrics, The James is extending the old Five Thieves block. The project includes about 10,500 square feet of ground-floor boutique space, a pedestrian retail mews, a public square and a new connection to Summerhill station. In August 2025, the schedule had retail units handed over in early 2026 and a grand opening in fall 2026. As of mid-October, the published record has not confirmed either milestone:

• Mamakas, Gee Beauty, 6 By Gee Beauty, Nutbar, Dear Grain Bakery and Chocolat de Kat: Retail Insider still called them announced tenants on August 14, 2026, with no opening dates. When the Mamakas site was updated October 5, it listed five Toronto locations and none of them at Summerhill.
• Bluboho: A 2025 preview gave spring 2026 as the target, and no opening has been confirmed since.
• Clementine's: The boutique planned to move from 1054 Yonge to The James in early fall 2026. It will keep the current Yonge Street space for a new concept that hasn't been announced.
• The mews, square and station link: As of August, these were still described as features of the project, and none has been confirmed open to the public.

Meanwhile, the specialty food shops that gave this corner its reputation carry on as before. Harvest Wagon, Olliffe Butcher Shop and Pisces Gourmet remain the base The James is building around.

The fencing on Scrivener Square stays up until 2028

The hoarding on Scrivener Square is for the TTC's second exit and entrance at Summerhill Station, which is a separate project from the shops. On January 13, 2026, Toronto and East York Community Council approved closing the north and south sidewalks on Scrivener Square. The closure runs from a point 38 metres east of Yonge for another 60 metres, from February 1, 2026, through April 30, 2028. The same council decision requires a fully covered, accessible pedestrian walkway with enhanced lighting for the whole period. It also bans stopping at all times on both sides of the east-west leg of Scrivener Square.

Part of the station work is already finished. The TTC put Summerhill's elevators into service on December 31, 2025, with restoration and finishing work still continuing around them. Even if every announced tenant opens this season, they will open beside a construction walkway for at least another eighteen months.

For now, the fall's two finished openings sit outside the fencing. More residents are also on the way. In 2025, Retail Insider counted 17 residential projects under construction within 1.5 kilometres of Scrivener Square, totaling about 3,800 units, with another 39 in pre-construction.

The strip's fall calendar, in order

1. Now, Monday to Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. Dinner service at Shay, 1055 Yonge.
2. Now, dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Seahorse at 1226 Yonge, near Summerhill station, which Streets of Toronto previewed in August 2025, lists dinner service on its own site. Its hours make a second dinner option at the north end of the strip.
3. Around October. Clementine's was expected to complete its move into The James.
4. November 14, 2 to 6:30 p.m. The Rosedale Main Street BIA's current event page lists its Cavalcade of Lights for this date. The page includes an après-ski setup at 10 Scrivener Square, the Cavalcade Express Train, carolers, and Santa and Mrs. Claus. The tree lighting is at 5:30 p.m. at Scrivener Square. The page does not print a year, so check the BIA listing closer to the date.

If the date holds, the tree will be lit on the same square the TTC walkway runs past. Shay opens its doors at 5 that evening, half an hour before the lighting.

If the openings on this stretch of Yonge have you weighing what they mean for your own home nearby, Andy Taylor and Jodi Allen follow the Summerhill and Rosedale blocks closely. Request a private consultation.