Kupfert & Kim expanding into full service with Hello 123

Mark Kupfert and Daniel Suss are opening Hello 123 in Toronto.

By Kristen Smith

TORONTO — The team behind Kupfert & Kim are opening Hello 123, in part, for a self-serving purpose.  

The 45-seat, plant-based restaurant and bar will open this summer at 1122 Queen St. West in Toronto. 

“I have a tough time finding a place where I can have an enjoyable night out and also eat well. We feel like that’s an underserved part of the market right now,” said co-founder Mark Kupfert. “It’s basically a place for us to eat, because we all live in the area.” 

Kupfert and Daniel Suss opened the first Kupfert & Kim location in 2013. Now, there are six units and the pair is looking at franchising outside of Toronto’s downtown. 

Building on the success of the fast casual restaurant, Hello 123 will also offer a fully plant-based menu.

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“We feel this is very important on three levels: from a health standpoint for humans, from an ethical point of view as far as animals and from an environmental point of view, for the planet,” Kupfert said. 

However, unlike its sister brand, Hello 123 will not be completely gluten free in an effort to appeal to a broader clientele.  

“It’s not meatless, wheat-less, but it is still meatless,” he said. 

“Part of our ethos is not just to preach to the converted, but actually get the mainstream changing their ways.”

The idea is to offer plant-based dining at a reasonable price, in an approachable envelope. 

“We always try not to carry the ideology directly on our foreheads, because we want to be inviting to everyone,” said Kupfert. 

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the menu will change seasonally featuring breakfast bowls, make-your-own Korean lettuce wraps, vegetable plates for sharing as well as sandwiches, pasta and a veggie burger. What the menu won’t include is imitation meat. 

“Vegetables are delicious, let’s romanticize them and glorify them for what they are without trying to force them into something else,” Kupfert said. 

The beverage program will include about two dozen biodynamic, organic and sustainable wines through Oakville, Ont.-based The Living Vine. Complementing the wine list, the bar menu includes beer and cider on tap as well as cold-pressed juice and kombucha cocktails. 

“[It’s] basically a health bar, but with alcohol,” he said. “You can be healthy and have an alcoholic drink, is what we’re trying to say.”

At Kupfert & Kim, the main goal is to feed people in a sustainable way, Kupfert said. For Hello 123, named for the most commonly used computer password, he said the aim is to be more adventurous in the menu offerings, but still approachable.  

“We’ll see if we hit the balance, or if we fall on our face,” Kupfert said.