Toronto restauranteur opens new location after cancer battle and fire
Published February 27, 2026 at 10:54 am
After battling cancer and rebuilding after a fire, a Toronto restaurateur has returned with a triumphant new space.
Neon Tiger recently opened its doors on Ossington Ave.
The byproduct of years of work from Naveen Chakravarti, the location is the result of a years-long saga that has likely solidified Chakravarti as one of the most resilient restaurant minds in the city.
Already maintaining a slice of Ossington Ave as the owner of Odd Seoul, a dive space featuring tasty-as-hell Asian street food, Chakravarti’s foray into the space where Neon Tiger calls home started back in 2024.
“We bought 108 Ossington on July 1 of that year, and then on August 5, we got hit with the fire,” Chakravarti told yourcitywithIN.com.
While laying the foundation for a new restaurant up the road, Odd Seoul was hit with a devastating kitchen fire, resulting in its closure for nearly half a year for repairs. While managing a worst-case scenario that a business could face, Chakravarti, only a few weeks later, faced the worst-case scenario a person could contend with.
“We were fresh into trying to manage what the fire had done, and then on Sept. 3 or 4, I was told I had stage two cancer. So I was stuck trying to rebuild one restaurant, build another, and then manage all of my cancer treatments and my chemo — you know, all that fun stuff,” says Chakravarti with a chuckle.
Despite uphill battles in either direction, Chakravarti managed to bootstrap it long enough to open Please & Thank You — the original concept for 108 Ossington — in early 2025, alongside the same window when Odd Seoul reopened after its post-fire renovations.
However, even with resurrecting a favoured location, opening a new one, and having his cancer on the back foot, Chakravarti wasn’t out of the woods yet and was bluntly reminded of the fact.
“We opened up Please & Thank You, and it was doing very well — initially,” says Chakravarti. “Then one day I was walking, and I felt faint and couldn’t walk; I started to lose my vision.”
Chakravarti rushed to the hospital and learned rapidly that, despite numerous rounds of chemo and a successful operation to combat his cancer diagnosis, his body was in freefall and was experiencing multiple organ failure.
Please & Thank You, which, at the time, was building a client base and getting its footing in the competitive Ossington market, was then forced to shut down.
“We still had to stay on top of everything while this was all happening simultaneously, the rent, the bills, everything — still, I didn’t want to get rid of it, I needed to keep going,” says Chakravarti.
View this post on Instagram
During this time, while Please & Thank You was shuttered, Chakravarti’s friends, family, and other contemporaries in the restaurant industry came to his aid, ensuring that nothing slipped through the cracks and that all parties involved could make 108 Ossington would match Chakravarti’s original vision.
Then, earlier this month, a post appeared on Instagram via a newly minted page, stating loud and clear that “cancer didn’t stop us/a fire didn’t stop us,” bluntly announcing to Toronto that Neon Tiger was open for business.
Specializing in Pan Asian cuisine, Neon Tiger has been built on a foundation of struggle, perseverance, and seemingly insurmountable odds, as Chakravarti battled his ailing health and reimagined the entire concept from the ground up.
Borrowing from the approachable bare brick design of Odd Seoul, Neon Tiger shifts its focus as a place to grab a proper dinner with pals as opposed to a cheeky plate of noodles after a few cocktails.
“I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just good food, and at a reasonable price, which these days is all it comes down to,” says Chakravarti. “It has a bit more of a dining focus, I think the world is changing, some people are drinking less and going out with the focus on a dining experience.”
Menu items range from tandoori chicken, short rib briyani, lamb vindaloo, and other various knockout dishes from across the spectrum of Asian cuisine.
As for what kept Chakravarti resolute in the face of insane odds, he relayed that, beyond his own personal drive to keep going, he wanted to build something in the city that would last, stating, “So many of these grea restraunts across the city are closing, and the way they are being forced to close, it shouldn’t be like that. At the end of the day, no matter what you are facing, do what you love — try to keep expenses low — be thankful, and keep going.”