When Adam Dolley and Bryan Burke took possession of a Scottish Pub on Gerrard Street in June 2017, they immediately went to work to transform the space into a Mexican taberna called Chula. The pair owns Loaded Pierogi, just a couple of doors down, and had recently opened a Mexican restaurant downtown. They both live in the east end and felt a Mexican concept was something the neighbourhood needed.
“We really liked the space,” says Adam, having been drawn the former pub's bar, two dining rooms, and two patios, one on the rooftop and the other in the backyard. They could envision the Mexican restaurant they were hoping to create.
They had to work fast though. They got the keys on June 6th and Chula opened just one month later. They even did the renovations themselves. “It was a lot of sleepless nights. 8 am to midnight was the standard day,” recalls Adam. “We had local artists come in to do the murals...We wanted to make it so you didn’t walk in and think it was still the Scottish Pub with new paint.”
