When Hideki Saito started conceiving the Black Dice Café, he had a pretty specific clientele in mind — himself. “I wanted to do my own business; I’ve been in the restaurant and bar industry pretty much my entire life, and I put [Black Dice] together so it would be a place I would want to go to,” he says. “I couldn’t find a place like this in Toronto.”
That Saito would be hard-pressed to find something akin to Black Dice, a Japanese sake bar meets 50s rockabilly dive, is not surprising. The spot is something of an anomaly among the bars and restaurants that line the Dundas West strip. Walk through the unassuming glass doors and you’ll suddenly be transported to a 1950s rock ‘n’ roll clubhouse, bathed in a soft neon light.
