The Heartbreak Chef is opening a second Toronto location, expanding a brand chef Jerome Robinson has built from scratch over nearly a decade through catering gigs, pop-ups, a pandemic, two relocations, and a loyal following that has grown with every move. The address and opening date for the new location have not yet been announced.
Robinson launched The Heartbreak Chef as a catering operation out of Parkdale in 2017, drawing on his Jamaican family’s home cooking to craft a comfort food menu rooted in Caribbean flavors and built for the kind of crowd that lines up twice. He became a fixture on Toronto’s food festival circuit, TasteToronto’s Brunch Fest, before opening his first brick-and-mortar in March 2020. Takeout and delivery kept things alive through the worst of it, and demand only grew stronger from there. The restaurant moved to a larger space on Dundas West before settling into its current home at 170 Baldwin Street in Kensington Market, a neighbourhood Robinson has deep ties to from his earliest catering days.
The menu that made him a household name in Toronto centers on the Big Ass Chicken Sandwich, spicy fried chicken stacked with ranch, pickles, and slaw. Also the Dutty Sandwich, which layers jerk-sauced fried chicken with grilled pineapple and slaw. The five-cheese mac and cheese topped with fried chicken in Carolina butter sauce has become a signature dish in its own right, and the late-night menu of shareable appetizers keeps things going well past dinner. Robinson has described his cooking as a deliberate introduction to Caribbean food, an icebreaker, in his words, that brings people together across different backgrounds.
