'Economic conditions' and impending construction force Toronto bar to close after just over a year

A Toronto bar is closing permanently, a little over a year after opening, due to economic pressures and upcoming construction disruptions.

Duke’s Refresher , the arcade bar-lite chain by Service Inspired Restaurants (SIR), the hospitality team behind such hits as Scaddabush and Jack Astor’s, has existed in Toronto, in various capacities, for over a decade.

It once existed at the intersection of Yonge and Gerrard before moving to its popular St. Lawrence Market haunt and, in the spring of 2024, expanded eastward, taking over the Riverside location that, before Duke’s, housed the Brickworks Ciderhouse .

Before that, it was home to the original location of The Real Jerk . Some might call the space auspicious. Others could call it unlucky.

For the case of Duke’s, which opened for busi