Gabby’s has confirmed what signage inside the current NBA Courtside Restaurant space has been hinting at for weeks. A listing on Gabby’s own site names the location Gabby’s Harborfront and sets the opening for September 2026, taking over the address at 15 Queens Quay East near the base of Yonge Street.
The listing describes the space as a casual bar, grill and sports pub, built around multiple HD screens, including a 16-foot 4K screen, along with a large heated outdoor patio, more than 200 indoor seats and room for another 75 on the patio. Gabby’s plans to run half-price wings on Mondays and Wednesdays and to keep a happy hour running Monday to Friday, from 2 to 5 p.m. and again starting at 9 p.m.
The connection to what’s currently there is direct rather than incidental. Gabby’s own description of the new location calls it “Formerly Courtside Restaurant,” and both properties have been operated by the same company, a Toronto based, family run business that has served the GTA since 1989.
This is an existing operator repositioning one of its own addresses rather than a new tenant moving into the building.
NBA Courtside Restaurant opened at this address in spring 2023 as the first location of its kind anywhere, a concept the league pitched as a first for the world, not just for Canada. Stacie Cohen, the NBA’s Senior Director of Branded Attractions, pointed to the size of the Canadian fan base and the number of Canadian players in the league at the time, and described the market as one the NBA was excited to open its first Courtside Restaurant in.
Cohen also left the door open to more locations, saying the league’s focus for the moment was on getting the first one right before deciding where else the concept might go.
The build-out backed up that ambition. The roughly 10,000 square foot space paired a menu from Toronto chef Erica Karbelnik, a Top Chef Canada and Chopped Canada winner, with Myles Sam serving as Executive Chef. Custom artwork throughout the dining rooms traced an NBA player’s path from childhood dreamer to champion, done by artists including KWEST and Victor Solomon.
A mural on the building’s exterior, titled The Journey, came from Anishinaabe artist Jenny Kay Dupuis, whose illustrations also appeared on prints sold in the restaurant’s retail section alongside officially licensed NBA and Courtside-exclusive gear from 47 Brand, New Era, Mitchell & Ness and Wilson. Karbelnik, in a statement at the time, called the project an honour and pointed to Toronto’s relationship with the game as part of what made the concept feel right for the city.
Smaller details carried basketball references throughout the space too, including a 23-ounce pint glass, a nod to Michael Jordan’s jersey number.
The Behar Group Realty and Cityzen Development Group were the brokers who put the deal together for the site.
The location’s distance from Scotiabank Arena, home of the Raptors, was part of the pitch from the start.
Neither Gabby’s nor Urban Dining Group has said publicly why the concept is changing, but the pattern is visible in the geography itself. The walk between the two buildings runs closer to 10 minutes along Queens Quay East and Bay Street, not the kind of range that puts a restaurant directly in the path of arena foot traffic. That gap mattered more in the winter months, when NBA season is in full swing and a 10-minute walk along the waterfront becomes a harder sell in the cold. The challenge was less about staffing the restaurant day to day and more about turning a destination restaurant into a habit for people who had closer options on game nights.
That contrast lines up with how Gabby’s has typically grown. The chain’s other Toronto locations, in neighbourhoods like King West, the Beaches and Roncesvalles, tend to sit in high-traffic, walkable areas where a sports bar draws steady business regardless of what’s on the schedule.
A single-purpose NBA restaurant built around game nights and a 10-minute walk from Jurassic Park faces a different set of pressures than a neighbourhood bar people can drop into any night of the week.
Gabby’s Harborfront will still lean on the same arena connection NBA Courtside had. The new listing also plays up its position next door to the Westin Harbour Castle and beside the Toronto Island ferry terminal, positioning itself as a pregame stop for Raptors and Maple Leafs nights alongside its regular slate of Blue Jays, NFL and soccer coverage.
Beyond the sports angle, the listing frames the space as a family and events destination as much as a game day one. It highlights the 200-plus indoor seats and patio capacity as suited to company events, team nights and conferences, a shift toward year-round, day-to-day business rather than a calendar built around one sport’s schedule.
For 6ixRetail readers, the bigger story here isn’t that NBA Courtside is closing. It’s that one of the GTA’s longest running restaurant groups is converting a high-profile, if difficult to sustain, licensed concept, one built with real investment in art, retail and culinary talent, into the kind of neighbourhood sports bar format that has defined Gabby’s for decades.
Gabby’s Harborfront is set to open in September 2026, and its own listing already promises the same big-screen game day experience the space was built around from the start.
Dustin Fuhs is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail, Toronto’s premier source for retail and hospitality industry news. As the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication, Dustin brings over two decades of expertise spanning retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality sectors. His experience includes roles with industry giants such as The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, The Canadian Opera Company, Starbucks Canada and Blockbuster.
Recognized as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024, 2025 and 2026, Dustin delivers insider perspectives on Toronto’s evolving retail landscape, from emerging brands to established players reshaping the city’s commercial districts.